So now Apple is concerned about their confidential information leaking to the public? Oh, how the tables have turned…
In recent news, Apple fired their senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjovik for allegedly leaking confidential information about the company and violating the company rules. But looks like Gjovik isn’t backing down from sharing her side of the story and has tweeted on numerous occasions about allegations of harassment, surveillance, and safety (or lack thereof) at the Apple workplace.
According to Gjovik, she faced immediate retaliation and intimidation when she questioned the safety protocols in the company in March and was expecting something like this to happen eventually. “I’m disappointed that a company I have loved since I was a little girl would treat their employees this way,” she said.
Some of the concerns raised by Gjovik included the location of the Apple building which is built on a superfund site and requires extra inspection due to past waste contamination at the site. Recently she also started voicing her disapproval of Apple’s new privacy policies and revealed how it can surveil on their employees’ work phones. She was also bullied by her manager and team members. Talk about a toxic work environment.
A member of Apple’s Employee Relations team reached out to Gjovik about a sensitive intellectual property matter to which Gjovik replied that she would prefer all communication to be in written form and also forwarded the correspondence to the NLRB. Apple isn’t backing down and said if she doesn’t respond to the discussion, then “given the seriousness of these allegations”, they would have no choice but to suspend her access to Apple systems. Not long after that, Gjovik received an email regarding the termination of her employment contract at Apple.
According to an Apple spokesperson, “We are and have always been deeply committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace. We take all concerns seriously and we thoroughly investigate whenever a concern is raised and, out of respect for the privacy of any individuals involved, we do not discuss specific employee matters.”