A report Thursday discusses the betrayal of Apple’s female employees by the company’s human resources reporting system and describes a number of instances where the company’s response was contrary to its stated goals. Thursday morning’s report discusses a number of incidents at retail stores and company locations in which reports of sexual abuse and discrimination were set aside or even ignored entirely by the company. Moreover, the incidents cited span the full range of the company’s credentials and responsibilities.
Jane Whitt, Apple’s legal director, complained about her problems at the company and the repercussions of a relationship she was in. In her post, she discussed domestic abuse perpetrated by another Apple lawyer when the relationship deteriorated, and the response she received from Apple’s human resources department was that since she had no evidence from other Apple employees, they would not take any action.
Ultimately, Apple’s HR department reprimanded her for “allowing personal relationships to interfere with work, not adequately securing devices and accounts, and being unprofessional during the investigation.”
Another attorney, Margaret Anderson, also complained about the work environment. She said Apple’s human resources department didn’t bother to review documents she sent about mistreatment of women and didn’t take any action.
Other employees have discussed sexual assault to several degrees. These women’s accounts discussed HR treating them who submitted complaints as the problem itself. In one cited case, an alleged assailant was sent on a “professional experience” and told by HR that she would get better before he returned.
Thursday’s report also addressed the issue of Cheryl Scarlett’s presence at the company.
Scarlett was an early founder of the #AppleToo movement, which sought to bring awareness to Apple’s alleged racism, sexism, inequality and other issues. After reaching a settlement with Apple, Scarlett agreed to leave the company and drop her complaint against the National Labor Relations Board.
As part of the severance agreement offered in October, Apple’s lawyers tried to get Scarlett to sign a strict nondisclosure and non-disclosure clause. Some of the language in the agreement laid out exactly what Apple wanted Scarlett to say about her departure.” After 18 months at Apple, I decided it was time to move on and pursue other opportunities.”
Scarlett shared these terms with the media, which Apple believes violates the severance agreement.
What was not mentioned in the report was Ashley Gjovik’s dealings with Apple. in late 2021, Gjovik was placed on administrative leave and ultimately fired after tweets about gender discrimination in the workplace.
In a statement on the matter, Apple said its policies are clear on the issue of discrimination. As it has said before, it expects any employee to feel comfortable reporting incidents without fear of retaliation, and trusts Apple to get to the heart of the matter.
Some statements do not reflect our intentions or our policies, and we should have handled them differently, including some of the exchanges reported in this story,” Apple said. As a result, we will be making changes to our training and processes.”
