Apple terminates employee for allegedly helping a customer with a data transfer outside work.

[Lord Vile]

17 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Why is that surprising to you exactly? 

 

 

Just doesn't do the article any favours. Makes it seem bitter at best and like a troll at worst especially with no proof of anything and with a suspicious narrative to begin with. For example the Apple store near where my fiancée used to live actually didn't do data transfers and just told you how to do it.

[Mark Kaine]

3 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

Just doesn't do the article any favours. Makes it seem bitter at best and like a troll at worst especially with no proof of anything and with a suspicious narrative to begin with. For example the Apple store near where my fiancée used to live actually didn't do data transfers and just told you how to do it.

I didn't read the article, but it's obvious the person writing it has some beef with apple, so why wouldn't they recommend competitors and "throw a shade" .  It's not surprising at all and makes perfect sense. 

 

If it makes them seem bitter,  it's maybe because they are? 

 

 

Note I'm not saying whether this story is true or not - not in a position to judge - I just didn't quite understand what's surprising here (again it makes perfect sense imo) 

 

 

[Lord Vile]

10 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

I didn't read the article, but it's obvious the person writing it has some beef with apple, so why wouldn't they recommend competitors and "throw a shade" .  It's not surprising at all and makes perfect sense. 

 

If it makes them seem bitter,  it's maybe because they are? 

 

 

Note I'm not saying whether this story is true or not - not in a position to judge - I just didn't quite understand what's surprising here (again it makes perfect sense imo) 

 

 

Just if you want to be believed it's surprising someone goes out of their way to make it less believable if you get me? 

[LordVetinari]

I worked for a construction company that fired an employee - he took to social media to vent and claimed it was to do with being caught 'over lifting' (lifting more than Manual Handling regulations allow)

 

This was absolutely true.

 

Two vital bits of information missing: 

 

1) This was not a one time deal, he had repeatedly been spoken to about the issue over the course of years,  both on and off the book. (An extremely abrasive individual who didn't work well with others and would never ask for help/assistance) 

 

2) Far more pertinent to the firing was his habit of 'over lifting' company property into his personal van for sale at local drinking establishments.  

 

It was the truth 'from a certain point of view'. 

 

The account given here reads very similarly.... 

 

[Mark Kaine]

32 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

Just if you want to be believed it's surprising someone goes out of their way to make it less believable if you get me? 

Yes, I get your point, it's still not really surprising... And you aren't supposed to believe everything you read anyways - if he wants to prove this story is true,  it should be very easy to, there must be some documentations about his employment and also about the letting him go (I would hope) 

 

The fact that the dude has an Apple fansite since 1997(?) would point to the story being vaguely true at least I think. 

 

And if it's not true,  who really cares,  this an Apple fansite (since 1997?) that nobody knows (probably)  

 

 

PS: yes, I said I won't judge, and I won't ultimately, but if you just look at the time line of this front-page... It's not surprising (or suspicious) at all because he's obviously *very* mad at apple and increasingly disappointed with them.  

https://lowendmac.com

 

[dalekphalm]

So here's the deal - almost ANY job contract with a major company, particularly dealing with service related positions (computer technician, etc), will have a conflict of interest/non-compete clause.

 

And that DOES include doing work from home for potential clients, even if that work is free. Even if the company provides said service for free.

 

Why? Well the simple answer is lost opportunity - the elderly friend doing a data transfer might have ended up purchasing additional services or perhaps bought some item while getting the work done at the Apple Store.

 

It sucks, and if the situation was exactly like he said, I think Apple overreacted (they should have given him a stern warning to never do it again as it's against his job contract). But if he worked for Best Buy or Staples or Canada Computers or NewEgg and did the same thing, they could still fire him for it. Whether they would or not ultimately comes down to your specific manager and how much they personally care (or whether HR/higher ups get involved).

[staticpage]

On 8/18/2020 at 7:34 PM, kQuote03 said:

First off, I sympathize a lot with the writer, however I must point out that there are many things that would let you go "Hmmmm...."

 

 

 

It is Apple they have always done stuff like this you don't need to look hard to find examples of this same stuff going back 25 years

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

If this was indeed conflict of interest, then I should be criminally charged during my time in the Public Service. I'm not going to mention helping friends and family, just posting advice on this forum alone would be considered "conflict of interest" by those standards. 

 

I smell fake news on this one. That being said, as others have noted, it's possible the employee's surperiors already had plans to get rid of the person and just needed to find a "convincing enough" reason to do so.

[Mark Kaine]

56 minutes ago, Benji said:

After checking the latest entry on his webpage blog, I would, in his case, rather be mad at the wife of the person that he helped out. If I read it right, before he came over, she called Apple and asked if it was okay for him, as an Apple employee, to "help out". That's how his superior found out in the first place, and I can see how Apple might think that it cost them a customer. But still it is dubious. If I ask for someone to help me in the first place, why would I go and talk to the devices manufacturer before I've received the help that I've been promised from somebody else and ask for their permission when, until then, they had literally nothing to do with it? This makes it sound like something is seriously wrong with the machine instead of something as not-worth-mentioning as transfering files.

I only skimmed it and didn't see that - good find - but I agree *that* does seem a bit suspicious / dubious, but then again it kinda checks out that's just how people are.

 

I think the story is probably true though, and while it really sucks for *him* it's not a big deal really otherwise, he knew he shouldn't have done this (likely) and while apple's policy is also pretty bad here, it doesn't seem to be too uncommon for bigger companies either. 

[Mark Kaine]

54 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

If this was indeed conflict of interest, then I should be criminally charged during my time in the Public Service. I'm not going to mention helping friends and family, just posting advice on this forum alone would be considered "conflict of interest" by those standards. 

 

I smell fake news on this one. That being said, as others have noted, it's possible the employee's surperiors already had plans to get rid of the person and just needed to find a "convincing enough" reason to do so.

And likewise if I interpret this web page right, he was an apple fan, but more of the apple of yesteryear and not necessarily of today... so yeah.  It may or may not be "fake news" to me it's more like "none news"  because honestly where's the big story here? (while I acknowledge it's obviously not nice to get fired / let go like this) 

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

If this was indeed conflict of interest, then I should be criminally charged during my time in the Public Service. I'm not going to mention helping friends and family, just posting advice on this forum alone would be considered "conflict of interest" by those standards. 

 

I smell fake news on this one. That being said, as others have noted, it's possible the employee's surperiors already had plans to get rid of the person and just needed to find a "convincing enough" reason to do so.

Fake news would be “ there was never a person that got fired in the first place” heavily slanted news would be “the whole story isn’t being told to make one side look better than it is”.  Heavily Slanted news isn’t news.  It’s propaganda.

 

I doubt fake news but if you mean heavily slanted news, oh yeah.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a legal plea posted here that wasn’t Heavily slanted.  As a rule the court of public opinion sucks. 
 

The complication is degree of slant. It’s really hard to do news with no slant at all.  Groups have tried.  When slant is thought of as binary BS occurs. I one can always find a tiny slant. It’s very very different from a heavy one though.  I find generally that binary thinking almost always produces BS.