Jay Blahnik, an American fitness instructor, trainer, consultant, author, program developer, and Apple Inc.’s Vice President of Fitness Technologies, is credited with creating the Apple Watch’s iconic fitness feature: three circular bands tracking daily exercise, standing, and calorie burning, marketed as “Close Your Rings.” However, nine current and former employees who worked with or under Blahnik told The New York Times that he fostered a toxic work environment.
Tripp Mickle for The Nnew York Times:
Mr. Blahnik created a toxic work environment, said nine current and former employees who worked with or for Mr. Blahnik and spoke about personnel issues on the condition of anonymity. They said Mr. Blahnik, 57, who leads a roughly 100-person division as vice president for fitness technologies, could be verbally abusive, manipulative and inappropriate. His behavior contributed to decisions by more than 10 workers to seek extended mental health or medical leaves of absence since 2022, about 10 percent of the team, these people said.
When confronted with Mr. Blahnik’s behavior, Apple moved to protect him after an internal investigation. The company settled one complaint alleging sexual harassment by Mr. Blahnik and is fighting a lawsuit by an employee, Mandana Mofidi, who said he had bullied her. Mr. Blahnik stayed in his job after company officials said their investigation had found no evidence of wrongdoing, according to interviews and Ms. Mofidi’s lawsuit, which she filed against Mr. Blahnik and Apple last year in Los Angeles County Superior Court…
Lance Lin, an Apple spokesman, said the company took “all concerns seriously” and was “deeply committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace.”
During a meeting in 2021 to discuss a fitness feature on the Olympic skier Ted Ligety, Mr. Blahnik joked with colleagues about sleeping with the skier, two people who attended the meeting said…
On another occasion, Mr. Blahnik said in front of several employees that the wife of a Fitness+ manager must have had an affair with another man because the manager’s son had a different hair color, Ms. Mofidi and three other former employees said. Mr. Blahnik used a vulgar word in making the remark, they said.
Mr. Blahnik would leer at the group’s creative director, Wil Tidman, and compliment the way Mr. Tidman dressed, two former employees said. During a work video call with staff, he joked that Mr. Tidman was having an affair with a male producer, they said.
MacDailyNews Take: Regardless of the veracity of these accusations, in Apple’s presentations over the years, Blahnik’s skeeve factor has always been high. Maybe it’s the bad blonde dye-jobs or the weird alien multi-harmonic voice or both.
You can read more in the full article here.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
I swear, MDN’s Takes so often say exactly what I’ve been thinking that it’s uncanny:
“Blahnik’s skeeve factor has always been high.”
100%.
MacDailyNews, telling it like it is, as always!
I have told you libs and leftist and malcontents to GET RID OF THIS WOKE POS, LOAD UP THAT POS ALTAR IN YOUR COURTYARD TO PERVERT LEFTIST IDEOLOGY, AND START MAKING GREAT PRODUCTS AGAIN.
WE ARE DONE WITH THIS GROSS DEI AND ROTTING MAGGOT SMELLING IDEAOLGY OF QUEERNESS. IT IS OVER!
Left and right, build a bridge already and get over it ya’ thin skinned wankers. Learned to take a punch and give a punch and just maybe we can get back to serious issues instead of all this nonsense. Nothing but fodder for lawyers here, move on already.
One or two employees, I could chalk up to malcontents, but NINE current and former employees is approaching Deshaun Watson territory.
Cook is eventually going to have to cut loose Blahnik, one of his prized DEI hires. Don’t worry, he’s still got Deirdre O’Brien there to flag wave with him.
100 people working on fitness technology at Apple? Fire 90 of them and get the same results.
Oh, and employees, if you don’t like your job — quit. If you object to a vulgar word at a meeting — quit. If you feel like you’re getting bullied — quit. There are no extra rights for employees. If the work environment is not illegal then take it like a XY dude or GTFO.
Good managers build good working relationships with staff. Crap manages bully and intimidate.
I’ve been on the receiving end of crap managers a few times in my career.
When one person complains you can take it with a grain of salt. When multiple stories from multiple employees al say the same or similar story, take them seriously and investigate properly and take action.
I happy work place is a productive work place.
he looks like a problem.
by todays standard Steve Jobs would “look like a problem” he was not known for a happy workplace and he often called out employees with the intimidation of being unqualified with bad ideas. People today are so sensitive.