Apple employees reveal the worst things about working at the company

WHAT is it really like to work for the world’s most innovative technology company? Life at Apple isn’t as fun as the rest of us think.

WHAT is it really like to work for the world’s most innovative technology company?

According to a bunch of former employees, life at Apple isn’t as fun as the rest of us tend to imagine. Business Insider has compiled a series of quotes from those workers, and we’ve picked out the most interesting examples.

Of course, you’ll find dissatisfied employees in every company, so these accounts should be read with some scepticism.

But what are the former Apple workers complaining about?

THE SECRECY

“I couldn’t tell my wife anything,” Robert Bowdidge tells Quora. “She knew I was working in a different building across the street and pulling very late nights, but she didn’t know what I was doing.

“When I had to travel to Manchester in the UK to work with more of the Transitive folks, she asked to come along. I had to say ‘no way’ — she worked for IBM at the time, and I knew that the project lead would freak at the thought of our chip vendor learning about the move.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook.

EVEN MORE SECRECY

Kim Scheinberg was married to an Apple employee, “JK”, who invented an Intel version of Mac OSX which ran on PCs. His boss was called Bertrand Serlet.

“Bertrand sits JK down and has a talk with him about how no one can know about this. No one. Suddenly, the home office has to be reconfigured to meet Apple security standards,” Ms Scheinberg says.

“JK points out to Bertrand that I know about the project. In fact, not only do I know about it, I am the person who named it.

“Bertrand tells JK that I am to forget everything I know, and he will not be allowed to speak to me about it again until it is publicly announced.”

THE LONELINESS

Owen Yamuachi was an Apple intern.

“I was physically separate from most of the other interns, and also there was no cafe in that building. The building itself was not very pleasant — it consisted mainly of dark, narrow hallways with absurdly high ceilings for some reason, and private offices for everyone,” Mr Yamuachi says.

“I could literally go an entire day without talking to anyone else. This has upsides (I had the longest periods of intense concentration I’ve ever had in my life) and downsides (it got quite lonely).”

People walk past an Apple store in New York City.

THE LONG HOURS

Designer Jordan Price felt overworked.

“I hardly (hardly meaning never) saw my daughter during the week because the hours were so inflexible. I had also taken a substantial pay cut, but I figured I was making a long-term career investment by working for such a prestigious company.

“There were meetings all the time which were disruptive to everyone’s productivity, but they seemed to be a necessary evil in a company that’s so large with such high-quality products.

“I started to become one of those people that desperately wanted Friday evening to arrive, and I dreaded Sunday nights.”

THE PARANOID MANAGEMENT

“Generally speaking, it is a pressure cooker and all communication is one directional (guess which way that is),” says an anonymous former employee.

“Paranoid management, disrespect, constant tension, and long hours sum up most of the real culture in operations.

“Culture here is strictly top down. Any attempt to streamline, impact change, or even discuss a better way to do anything is strictly frowned upon when it comes from the bottom. Work longer/harder, don’t complain or try to fix any of the myriad broken systems or processes, and don’t forget that there are 10 people lined up outside to take your spot (your manager won’t forget).”

The late Steve Jobs.

THE MARKETING

“Internally, the culture is of extreme secrecy, even more extreme politics and marketing-driven decision making,” an anonymous staffer tells Quora.

“Everything, and I mean everything, is decided by the marketing team at Apple, and two reviewers in east coast newspapers. I was shocked and flabbergasted at the role these reviewers had at Apple.”

THE LOW PAY

“Low salaries were a particularly common complaint from Apple employees on Glassdoor, primarily from those who identified as working in Apple’s retail stores, but also from business specialists, IT professionals and others at the company,” says one former employee.