I'll admit in the corporate world it's a slow process to weed out any bad apples (pun not intended), but it does happen. There's accountability on every level.
I knew of a manager who wasn't very good, and once his directs escalated the issue, it was only a month or so until he was out the door.
There's also a sort of probation bad employees can be placed under, but I hear once you're in that boat, it's nearly impossible to get out from it.
I've worked with multiple teams in multiple divisions, and I've never experienced a manager like the one described. In fact, Apple has had the most professional managers I have ever had the experience of working with.
Speaking under anonymity, as I'm currently employed by Apple. I want to state that my opinions are mine and mine alone, and form from my experiences with the company.
This guy is an unprofessional whiner, and I would never consider hiring him.
Short list of what annoys me from his article:
- He was hired as a contractor under the retail division, but his overbragging would lead you to believe otherwise.
- As soon as he was picked up as a contractor, he goes and updates everything to allude that he's employed by Apple. As someone who spent my first years also as a contractor (I've since been hired), this is incredibly unprofessional and against the code of ethics. At Apple you learn that you're part of a team, that you are just one piece of the greater picture, so to brag so much when you are such a small and new piece, is incredibly conceited. I would have never let him work on anything secret or prolific - he seems like the guy who would hog all the credit.
- As someone who contracted for over a year, if I had misgivings about my manager, I would have spoken up. If I couldn't have gained the courage to talk with the manager directly, I would have gone to his superiors, or to at least the contact person at the contracting agency. From my experience, Apple's management hierarchy is built to facilitate things like this. I'm sure his boss's boss was around, and all he had to do is speak up if he really had such strong grievances about his treatment.
- I find it hard to believe that he was really worked that hard. Additionally, if he had such strong reservations about wanting to have normal work hours and being home at an early hour, he should not have picked a job that required a 45+ minute commute.
So not only does this guy quit in a wholly unprofessional manner, but now he has the audacity to go all over the Internet to whine about it.
Good luck finding a new job, buddy, at least you have good design chops. But I can't see any corporate company wanting to hire him after this, and I can't imagine he'd have better work hours at a startup.
I knew of a manager who wasn't very good, and once his directs escalated the issue, it was only a month or so until he was out the door.
There's also a sort of probation bad employees can be placed under, but I hear once you're in that boat, it's nearly impossible to get out from it.