Apple has slowed hiring at select retail locations for its “Genius” positions, an effort that some employees see as a cost-cutting move, Bloomberg News reports citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
In recent weeks, Apple informed some stores that it won’t be filling Genius positions that became available after employee departures, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. The company also retracted verbal job offers for such roles in some cases. Still, Apple hasn’t laid off workers or enacted a widespread hiring freeze, according to the people.
Apple declined to comment, and the Cupertino, California-based company continues to advertise for Genius roles on its website.
The slowdown has resulted in five or more technical-support positions going unfilled at individual stores, according to employees. The employees described the changes as part of an effort to lower headcount at locations that aren’t seeing as many customers as they did before the pandemic.
MacDailyNews Take: When traffic finally picks up after extended COVID disruptions, we bet Apple will advertise and fill those “Genius” positions when they’re needed. It doesn’t take a “Genius” to realize that it’s bad business to have people sitting around getting paid to do nothing.
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When US/World-wide record growth numbers for Macs & iPhone have been noted for awhile and then news of decreasing of Genius hires becomes news, this has the potential to not be and look good. If it’s truly about cutting costs, it’s NOT good.
The Genius service was one of the main reasons the Apple Stores became a go-to yrs ago. Diminish this service and excellence will decrease and Apple loses another differentiator (moat).
Hopefully this truly coincides with a decline in foot traffic.
I had the “pleasure” of dealing with Apple “Geniuses” on two different occasions. Calling them genius is a vast misnomer.
I agree…and with all the talk of the woke staff wanting to unionize and lower foot traffic, of course Apple should cut their losses, the quicker the better.
In the early days, Apple Geniuses really did know their stuff. Nowadays, I think they’re just regular staff that can type into an iPad a bit quicker than normal.