Apple is under fire for allegedly mishandling sexual misconduct complaints over the span of many years. Financial Times reports on the experiences of 15 current and former female Apple employees in a lengthy article published Thursday.
Patrick McGee for Financial Times:
Megan Mohr was five years into her Apple career when, in 2013, a male colleague took advantage of her after a platonic night out drinking together.
After the colleague drove her home and helped her inside, she briefly fell asleep before waking to the sound of clicking. The colleague had removed her shirt and bra. He was snapping photos, and grinning…
Inspired by the #MeToo movement, Mohr decided in late 2018 to tell Apple of the illicit photos incident. She had no evidence and wasn’t calling for an investigation. She just thought HR should be aware of the person’s character and requested they never be put in the same department.
Mohr thought this was a modest ask, but the email exchange seen by the Financial Times soon turned rigid and defensive. The HR representative displayed little empathy or experience dealing with sexual misconduct. He analogised her experience to “a minor traffic accident” to explain how Apple couldn’t really get involved.
“Although what he did was reprehensible as a person and potentially criminal, as an Apple employee he hasn’t violated any policy in the context of his Apple work,” HR wrote. “And because he hasn’t violated any policy we will not prevent him seeking employment opportunities that are aligned with his goals and interests.”
Mohr wasn’t asking for the colleague to be punished, knowing she couldn’t prove her claims. But to her surprise, HR suggested proof wouldn’t really matter anyway.
“Unfortunately the incident wasn’t in the context of Apple work [so] it’s very likely that an Apple investigation would have returned ‘no findings’ and no discipline would be issued,” HR told her. “Even if the offender would have admitted to taking the images.”
An HR professional with 25 years of experience, who declined to be named, calls this response “shocking”, adding that in their experience: “Behaviours like that often come out of a culture, they don’t come out of nowhere.”
In interviews with 15 female Apple employees, both current and former, the Financial Times has found that Mohr’s frustrating experience with the People group has echoes across at least seven Apple departments spanning six US states.
The women shared allegations of Apple’s apathy in the face of misconduct claims. Eight of them say they were retaliated against, while seven found HR to be disappointing or counterproductive.
MacDailyNews Note: In response to the FT article, Apple said in a statement it works hard to thoroughly investigate all misconduct allegations, and that it strives to create “an environment where employees feel comfortable reporting any issues.”
The company added, “There are some accounts raised that do not reflect our intentions or our policies and we should have handled them differently, including certain exchanges reported in this story. As a result, we will make changes to our training and processes.”
Apple declined to comment on specific cases “out of respect for the privacy of individuals involved.”
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Let me tell you the long story of straight white males who have been let go at Apple because of an accusation from one or a group of folks. Assumed guilty, these men are released from employment by an HR department hostile towards them. Long list.
Ok, something doesn’t add up here. In 2013 likely every Apple employee owned an iPhone and this alleged perpetrator would have been using the pocketable tool at hand, NOT a mechanical camera requiring a clicking shutter, which would have been obvious to the victim. And if his first photo produced a click then the perp would have silenced the sounds to avoid waking the victim.
To wait 5 years with an allegation about an off-duty mutual adult beverage outing not only exceeds statute of limitation limits but gives the impression that it wasn’t as life altering experience as is being claimed. I smell a rat, perhaps two rats; possibly the perp plus the possible victim. HR can’t very well call someone on the carpet after a passage of 5 years, especially if no other instances of similar behavior had been reported.
Strange that he was able to “removed her shirt and bra”without waking her but the “sound of clicking” woke her up. This strongly suggests there is more – or … less? – to the tale them reported.
Your headline reads “accused of allegedly” . . . which seems decidedly redundant.
It is one thing to side with one or another part of a ‘conflict’, quite another to be sneaky and sloppy about it.
Do you need me to bring in references to a recently-ousted politician as an example? Or would that offend you, as well – ‘cuz you love him SO much !
Apple HR is more about defending the Apple system them taking care of its employees. That’s why I would never want to work for Apple.