Apple Store Confidential
August 24, 2012 7:10 PM   Subscribe

This post was deleted for the following reason: This is a single link "look at these assholes" Gawker post when we're already drowning in Apple/PC posts today. -- jessamyn



 
Jebus, that article is a disaster. Dude. Not having a copy-editor means you should at least attempt a spell-check.
posted by clvrmnky at 7:25 PM on August 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


While it runs directly against the public image this particular company wants to put forward, I'm not sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen in particular pockets of retail all across the economy. The number of articles I've read about Best Buy Geek Squad abuses in various places rose above my ability to count a couple of years ago. (My favorite was the guy who turned in his computer with a screen recorder program active from bootup running in the background, and it recorded the Geek person going through his personal files, looking up internet porn, and other things all in the name of "repairing" the computer.)

It's horrible that this kind of thing happens regardless of the setting. I cannot help but think that it springs from an economic structure which funnels money from the bottom to the top via wage slavery and seeing customers as aphids to be milked rather than people with lives to live which have problems which need solving.

In short, honor is in short supply across humanity. It's been lamented since the days of the ancient Greeks if not earlier. Hard to have a surprised face about this particular iteration of evidence.
posted by hippybear at 7:29 PM on August 24, 2012 [3 favorites]


I like the part where they explain it was stressful, so of course they were drunk all the time. Really, being a Mac genius has go to be pretty low stress compared to say smoke jumper.

I met a Mac genius in a bar and he offered to replace my old ass Mac mini with a brand new one. He was drunk and trying to pick up my friend I figured he was putting on a show but maybe I cold have gotten a new Mac mini.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:31 PM on August 24, 2012


this feels like an inevitable future for Apple, in part anyway. Like any all powerful, all conquering empire, decline is inevitable and if the barbarians without can't bring it about, the barbarians within will step up.

never trust a blue-shirt.
posted by philip-random at 7:31 PM on August 24, 2012


In short, honor is in short supply across humanity. It's been lamented since the days of the ancient Greeks if not earlier.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?
posted by Artw at 7:31 PM on August 24, 2012 [9 favorites]


What, humanity? I suspect Mother Nature is attempting a reboot even as we speak.
posted by hippybear at 7:34 PM on August 24, 2012 [3 favorites]


Eh, I mean. I don't know if I find "Ronald" entirely credible. Doesn't this sort of dumb shit occasionally happen at any business with a lot of outlets? People peeing on hamburgers and stealing cash out of the register?
posted by chasing at 7:34 PM on August 24, 2012


I'm not sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen in particular pockets of retail all across the economy.

Those antics are familiar to anyone who has worked in a bar or restaurant or any industry with crappy boss or division.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:34 PM on August 24, 2012


christ, what an Assle.
posted by various at 7:38 PM on August 24, 2012


Surely this ...
posted by mph at 7:39 PM on August 24, 2012


Those antics are familiar to anyone who has worked in a bar or restaurant or any industry with crappy boss or division.

In my experience, this rot starts at the head.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:40 PM on August 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Ronald, I served with William Tell. I knew William Tell; William Tell was a friend of mine. Ronald, you're no William Tell.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 7:43 PM on August 24, 2012


This does not sound dissimilar to any other retail or food service job I've worked, with perhaps the value of the skeemingly obtained items being a bit higher.
posted by k8t at 7:57 PM on August 24, 2012


In my experience, this rot starts at the head.

Oh, I agree with you completely, but the head of what, exactly? The very top of the organization? So often the people at the very top of a large company are so far removed from day-to-day runnings of the various multitudes of outlets that there's no context for rot beneath them to be noticed. It's true that if the very top is bad, the whole thing is bad, but very often, this kind of thing isn't endemic throughout the entire organization.

If there's a "head" which the rot starts at, it's regional or subregional managers who are far too invested with reporting up the chain with positive results and aren't actually invested in making sure things are truly well-run.

Even beneath that head, there are the local managers who set the tone for their individual shops. A bad seed in one of these positions can create a septic local culture which can often only be cured if you wipe the entire employee slate clean and begin anew with a strong, positive manager who can train new staff in positive workplace habits and who him/herself has a strong supervisor who is watching closely for signs of relapse.

(I'm watching this go on in the company I work for right now. The shop I work in is incredibly strong [seriously one of those situations where it's a joy to be part of such a well-functioning workplace]; the manager here was recently given oversight of a location a couple of hours away which had a thoroughly corrupt lead for a long time whose bad procedures finally came to light and was let go.

We get regular reports of all the things that are being discovered about exactly how bad things were there, and even more reports about the struggles of the new lead there trying to overcome the past with the old employees who have basically no give-a-fuck. The difference between the two shops is astounding (I've been sent down there to work filling in gaps a couple of times now, so I've seen it first-hand).

It's obvious that it has to do with a combination of a really crappy local lead who was in place for far too long and who was too skilled at covering his tracks, and people he reported to who were far too willing to accept lies of positive results from his location even when there was strong evidence that they weren't true, simply because corporate mentality would rather believe things are always increasing and never face hard facts. Putting our manager in charge of that place was probably a wise move, but he faces a really difficult path getting it whipped into shape.)

posted by hippybear at 8:01 PM on August 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


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