Apple executives reached out to employees on Wednesday “in a company wide email urging them to review Apple’s Business Conduct Policy, a document describing how employees should conduct themselves in and outside the company while representing Apple,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac.
“An email from Apple’s SVP and General Counsel Bruce Sewell [see full article] was accompanied by a new version of the policy available to employees in iBooks format and a video from CEO Tim Cook discussing the policy,” Kahn reports. “It’s unclear if there was a situation at Apple that could have prompted the email and video from Apple executives to employees. Apple notes that the policy ‘explains in very clear terms how you are expected to conduct yourself with our customers, business partners, government agencies, and fellow employees.'”
Kahn reports, “In the video, Tim Cook quotes Martin Luther King Jr.: ‘As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, the time is always right to do what’s right. At Apple, we do the right thing. Even when it’s not easy. If you see something that doesn’t meet our standards, speak up. Whether it’s a quality issue or a business practice, if it affects Apple’s integrity, we need to know about it.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
No the question is: With record sales of devices and being at the helm of the world’s most valuable company; Why is Tim Cook #46 in Fortune’s top 50 business people in the world?
I means they put some real losers ahead of this guy. I am afraid Tim Cook will never get any respect from “the street”.
And you respect “the street” so much that it’s opinion is worth anything? 😎
One’s self-worth comes from within, not from what other people think of you.
Well, this has been standard policy at Boeing for many years.
Each year every employee is briefed on the company code of ethics, and each employee signs a pledge sheet promising to abide by that code.
Because sheer repetition on an annual basis will surely generate strong ethics and a commitment to uphold them.
If a single pledge is not effective, then the cause is lost from the start.
That’s not the point. The point is that an employee can’t plead ignorance if they have signed a statement annually saying they have read and understand the policy. And the company can try to dodge any responsibility for screw-ups by exhibiting the document that proves they provided ethics training.
At my large utility company they not only have the annual certification, they have an on-line multiple choice test using basic scenarios from the training videos and written policy, which every employee must complete with a passing score.
This is routine stuff, mere legal housekeeping. It’s also “unclear” whether the author has any understanding or experience pertaining to working for fortune 500 companies. It would appear not, if he thinks this event somehow signifies anything important.
We get these messages two or three times a year. Non-story.
Ditto here
We must abide by HIPPA (legal) and our company code of conduct (legally binding). Failure to comply will get you dismissed faster than you can say b-bye!
Patients or their families can be rude and we must still remain calm, professional and detached. Do not take the bait.
This is standard policy for large corporations to remind employees of their polices. End of the year is a great time to do this.
At Apple this is the start of a new year (Oct. 1 or thereabouts), so this occurs every year after the new employees have had a chance to settle in.
The Federal monitor appointed by judge what’s her name, following the Federal Amazon case, said so.
Bullshit.
Standard operating procedure here.
1. Upon hire.
2 Any time there is a change to the Employee Handbook
3 Yearly review
4 Change to the laws which govern such employee behaviors.
It’s been this way in every place I have ever worked that had more than 10 employees.
My employer requires all employees and contractors to attend annual refresher training on our code of conduct. A grade of 80% or better on an exit test is mandatory.
Benefits of being self employed. Dusty, you keep kissing their ass and scoring your 80% or better. Ass kissers need not apply in my business. I guess Jobs broke the rules when he stole from Woz, embarrassed employees all the time, etc. I guess we won’t count Jobs as being a slime bag POS child abandoner and liar to the police as well. And nothing in their code about be a skin flint selfish asshole with his billions buried somewhere in that stinking graveyard where he is.
As many have noted here, this is standard practice at many firms.
What is going on is simply SSDD. Yet another Rumour Web Site blowing up even the tiniest scrap of data into a provocative headline, sure to seep across the Internet like a nasty stain, solely to attract attention and increase pageviews. It’s a living, but not much of one.
Maybe he is reminding employees that they have to stay professional even when dealing with the knuckleheads that come out for Black Friday.
Because all large companies do this at least once a year. Talk about a non story. Except that whoever leaked it should probably be fired.
As I recall when I was an Apple employee, we got these messages whenever the relevant documents were revised.
-jcr
I wonder if leaking the business conduct policy and video is a violation of the business conduct policy. In any event, whoever did that is pretty much a douche.
Hah! I was thinking exactly the same thing.
As a past employee of 9 years I can tell you this was an yearly event followed by an online quiz.
Never bad mouth other companies, never say anything you would not like to see attributed to you in the news, never take a penny that was not paid to you by Apple. Even in countries that pay bribes Apple or its employee would not do so.
This is a non story.
While wallowing naked on wads of cash on the rec room floor is actually very cathartic, after a long day of political infighting and marketing hacks screwing up the engineering side of things, it is generally frowned upon by management due to the possibility of visitors who either stand there looking shocked or want to join in.
First!
shortly before this announcement, almost a dozen people were fired at one high profile Apple Store. At least half, were for absurdly petty reasons.