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A former worker on the black site near Apple Park, on Hammerwood Avenue in Sunnyvale, said that "it was made clear to us that we were employees at will and that they would fire us at any time." Most of the office staff signed a work contract for 12 to 15 months, but many did not spend as much time.
To hire workers, the sources referred to "aggressive" messages received via LinkedIn. Apex Systems scours the social network to find people with skills in mapping, and "sends messages to them repeatedly." Former employees then report that Apex uses the revelation that the job will be for Apple as a way to tip potential employees and hire them easily.
Former workers described a poor work environment with under-equipped vending machines, long queues for men's restrooms due to predominantly male staff and restrictions on use bathrooms dedicated to Apple employees full time. In order to protect Apple's secrets, the management asked employees to enter the building through the back door every day and walk a few blocks before calling home to return home at the end of the day.
The work environment was uncomfortable in other respects, according to current and former contractors. Apex managers sometimes interrupted the unauthorized socialization of water chillers. Several workers said that their managers would receive notifications if their workstations were unused for too long. "Being monitored in this way is extremely dehumanizing and terrifying," says a former Apex Mapping Technician.
Many workers who took the contracts with a contractor did so because Apex had considered the possibility of working full-time with Apple, but the chances of that happening were minimal. At the same time, many other workers agreed to hire Apple on their resume, but that was not an option.
At first they could use "Apple, via Apex Systems" as an employer on sites like LinkedIn, but in the summer of 2018, Apex had asked all workers to remove the word "Apple" and describe their employer as "a major company in the technology sector Via Apex Systems."
These differences between contract workers and full-time employees have led some sources to call a caste system within Apple.
The restrictions were just one of many reminders of the inferior status of contractors, up to the apple shape on their ID badges. For direct employees, the apples were multicolored; The subcontractors have what is called "a sad gray". It is common for companies to distribute different badges to contractors, a practice that unsatisfied industry workers have seized as evidence of a caste system.
Amber Lutsko, who worked for Apple via Apex in 2017 and 2018, described a keynote speech at the opening day aimed at making her feel both honored and excluded. "You work at Apple now! You succeeded! She recalls. "You are not allowed to use the gym."
The Hammerwood office is run by Apex and not Apple. In a surprise audit of the recruiting company, Apple said it found a work environment compatible with other Apple sites. According to an Apple spokesperson, "As we do with other vendors, we will work with Apex to review their management systems, including recruitment and termination protocols, to ensure that conditions are met. jobs are transparent and clearly communicated to the workers in advance ".
In November 2018, Apex changed the maximum number of sick hours paid per year, from 48 to 24 hours, which caused a protest while a dozen subcontractors said that They had suddenly fallen ill and had left their job. Around the same time, Apex suddenly shot about two dozen people. Finally, many remaining employees left Apex permanently and contracted for other companies offering better benefits for these workers, including Facebook and Google.
Amber Lutsko, a former Apple contractor who worked for Apex, is one of the workers who resigned before the end of her contract because of dubious company practices. Even now, a few months after stopping work for Apex, the company's recruiters still find her via LinkedIn and send her messages about a potential job with a company that could not be named, Silicon Valley.
Other former entrepreneurs said the same thing, even those who were fired by Apex: "You got rid of me because of my flawless performance, and every three months I get these emails," says any one of them. "It's insulting, honestly."
Head toward Bloomberg to read the full report: What is it to work inside the "black site" of Apple?
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