apple How Apple Brainwashes Its Store Employees

[The Laughing Man]

Tread De-railed.

[threetonesun]

i see a pattern.. if aged 15-30, you expect (and need /s) a rock star income...

Makes sense, considering I could've bought a tour bus, a dozen Marshall amps and some sweet Les Pauls with what college cost.

[.Neo]

I NEED Xbox.

Like billions of other people you'll survive without Xbox.

[ILikeTobacco]

Makes sense, considering I could've bought a tour bus, a dozen Marshall amps and some sweet Les Pauls with what college cost.

Hmm, so with my 30k college education I would have ended up with a VW van and tons of drugs? :rofl:

[nominak]

k, you provide for a family of 4 on 30k a year, its fine for people like me who are in or graduating from college, but anyone with real aspirations and dependents will know this is not enough. So no - you are attempting to be self righteous when in reality it is sheer ignorance.

I dunno about you, but if only one person was making money in a family of 4, it's time to whip some ass.

[threetonesun]

Hmm, so with my 30k college education I would have ended up with a VW van and tons of drugs? :rofl:

And a beat up old acoustic and a harmonica.

Well, actually that sounds quite a bit like how most of the people I went to college with DID spend their time in college. :laugh:

[+Warwagon MVC]

[Southern Patriot]

roadwarrior, its all neat and all that you and your little family are happy in the south with $30,000/yr. But you need to stop thinking that everyone else is wrong if they think differently.

Please show me where I said people were wrong. I simply said they were wrong for outright stating (as you did above) that a family would be starving on $30K a year. And I said the same thing that you did, that it is relative, depending on where you live. Your other statements are VERY insulting though.

[Southern Patriot]

I dunno about you, but if only one person was making money in a family of 4, it's time to whip some ass.

My wife has a full time job. Our sons are 3 and 6. I work a part time overnight job at a hotel two nights a week when my wife is off work, and I take care of our boys while she is at work. Daycare around here would cost more than what I'd be bringing home at most of the jobs I've found, so it was actually more financially beneficial for me to only work the part time job. Having the free time to spend with my wife and children is far more valuable to me than a couple extra thousand a month.

[TEX4S]

Who me ? :huh:

[TEX4S]

Oh god please tell me that Wal-mart thing is a skit - please tell that there isnt someone high up the corporate ladder who is so out of touch with reality that they actually think this will get people motivated & energetic for working at a company known to mistreat their slaves employees.

That is so sad, did you see the eagerness and optimism just spewing from the people ? [sarcasm] Exciting the wal-mart staff is the same as banging a club against a monkey cage -- but most primates are a hell of a lot smarter than avg Wal-mart employee - so thats not really fair to the chimps.

[Southern Patriot]

Oh god please tell me that Wal-mart thing is a skit

Nope, that's real. Fortunately, some managers don't bother doing it. However, they got their inspiration from some of the rituals used at the start of the workday by many large Japanese companies.

[nominak]

My wife has a full time job. Our sons are 3 and 6. I work a part time overnight job at a hotel two nights a week when my wife is off work, and I take care of our boys while she is at work. Daycare around here would cost more than what I'd be bringing home at most of the jobs I've found, so it was actually more financially beneficial for me to only work the part time job. Having the free time to spend with my wife and children is far more valuable to me than a couple extra thousand a month.

Part time is still a lot better than nothin

[Guest nicconics]

I worked for Apple for 5 years as a genius bar technician. I was making around 50k a year with my ACMT, and my ACTC. I don't ever remember the clapping and stuff that video is showing in either of the stores that I worked in in Indiana. Apple has killer benefits, and insurance, but to be honest, the customers are what made that job hard, and the amount of the idiots that buy macs. Specifically, I can remember a person bringing a Mac pro in that had just bought a week ago. He told me it wouldnt power on, so I took it in the back and pulled the cover off of it. Somehow someone had decided that this would be a good place to store various beverages, like a mini fridge (I know rite). There was all kinds of sticky residue on the memory/cpu board, and running down the insides of the case. I put the cover back on and took it back out front after letting the manager know what was going on. This guy proceeded to inform me that I did NOT know wtf I was doing, and that NO ONE had placed or spilled anything inside this machine. It still had remnants of food laying in it also. I took the side panel off, and asked him how it got sticky as it did, and he proceeded to scream that I was the reason this wasn't working, and that I had placed all of that there just to defraud him out of the 9k he had spent on this machine. At this point I was pretty ****ed off myself, but I was good friends with the manager on duty. I called for him to come over, and he started talking to this guy. After what seems like hours they finally reached a decision after calling SPS (service provider support) APPLE REPLACED THIS DUDES MACHINE FOR FREE. I couldn't really believe it, but I wasn't going to argue about it. They even gave me the old one, and after some replacement parts, and a nice cleaning later, its still humming in the corner of this room. (i'm using it as a glorified server). I finally got tired of the dumb asses, and the general way that customers try to treat anyone in the service industry, I cut my losses, and found a nice job in industrial maintenance. I still keep my certs though, just to stay sharp on Apple's hardware, and I also know that anytime I need a job I can pretty much head to any Apple store and go to work as a 'genius'.

[Defcon]

I have to wonder just how much revenue do Apple store 'specialists' really generate. 99% of the sale is already done by the Apple brand image, the ads, the futuristic stores. Most customers have already decided they want to buy Apple, or do so when they walk in. All that's left to do is for the sales experience not to be a negative one (unfriendly staff, bad service etc) and I guess that's the only reason they train them so much. Maybe they upsell products, try to sell accessories or AppleCare, but I kind of doubt it as that's not a very friendly atmosphere.

[dead.cell]

I worked for Apple for 5 years as a genius bar technician. I was making around 50k a year with my ACMT, and my ACTC. I don't ever remember the clapping and stuff that video is showing in either of the stores that I worked in in Indiana. Apple has killer benefits, and insurance, but to be honest, the customers are what made that job hard, and the amount of the idiots that buy macs. Specifically, I can remember a person bringing a Mac pro in that had just bought a week ago. He told me it wouldnt power on, so I took it in the back and pulled the cover off of it. Somehow someone had decided that this would be a good place to store various beverages, like a mini fridge (I know rite). There was all kinds of sticky residue on the memory/cpu board, and running down the insides of the case. I put the cover back on and took it back out front after letting the manager know what was going on. This guy proceeded to inform me that I did NOT know wtf I was doing, and that NO ONE had placed or spilled anything inside this machine. It still had remnants of food laying in it also. I took the side panel off, and asked him how it got sticky as it did, and he proceeded to scream that I was the reason this wasn't working, and that I had placed all of that there just to defraud him out of the 9k he had spent on this machine. At this point I was pretty ****ed off myself, but I was good friends with the manager on duty. I called for him to come over, and he started talking to this guy. After what seems like hours they finally reached a decision after calling SPS (service provider support) APPLE REPLACED THIS DUDES MACHINE FOR FREE. I couldn't really believe it, but I wasn't going to argue about it. They even gave me the old one, and after some replacement parts, and a nice cleaning later, its still humming in the corner of this room. (i'm using it as a glorified server). I finally got tired of the dumb asses, and the general way that customers try to treat anyone in the service industry, I cut my losses, and found a nice job in industrial maintenance. I still keep my certs though, just to stay sharp on Apple's hardware, and I also know that anytime I need a job I can pretty much head to any Apple store and go to work as a 'genius'.

My god... :pinch:

Sucks that you had to go through that. I've dealt with terribad customers before but not anything like that...

[Guest nicconics]

Oh dude you have no clue. That was just the one that came to mind quickly. There have been others, but I honestly have to say that working for Apple was not as bad as people make it out to be. The benefits were amazing.

[ILikeTobacco]

Oh dude you have no clue. That was just the one that came to mind quickly. There have been others, but I honestly have to say that working for Apple was not as bad as people make it out to be. The benefits were amazing.

That sounds like just about every retail job honestly as far as the experience with the customer goes. Of course, most places won't give you a free product after you(the customer) obviously did something to screw it up/break it. I do know places like WalMart likes to screw its employees out of benefits. Many of my friends that worked at the local WalMarts said they would always be scheduled for less than 40 hours so they couldn't claim full time benefits. Office Depot has the same policy. At face value, both stores have amazing benefits, but once you are in the work, you realize you'll never get them because they won't let you work long enough hours to get to those benefits. Technically, there is nothing illegal about this practice either.

[DeadEndAccount]

What a naive comment. Just because it sounds like brainwashing and cult like behaviour to clap at new employees for several minutes until they join in we are naive and never worked a day in our lives?

Fact is I've never worked in an environment where the other employees clapped as I joined on. Maybe because I don't live in the United States of America but whatever it still sounds like a weird cult like thing to do. I wouldn't want to work in an environment where psychological games are being played to make people conform to weird clapping and other **** like that.

I just wan't to do my job and get paid. Not be a Freudian experiment.

The individual who wrote the article in question is trying to make out that some how the stupid cheerleading crap is new to Apple - it isn't. It is a strictly an America idea that unfortunately has been exported around the world where the idea is to try and get employees excited and passionate about working for said company by treating them like children ("if you're happy and you know it clap your hands!"). This 'culture' you can see first hand in almost any American owned organisation - like I said, work for Yum Brands and you'll learn the 'CHAMPS cheer' and other 'cool' acronyms so you too can excited about selling fried chicken! yay!

In no other country would an employee be happy to do that crap except for in America because most other countries citizens work on the principle below:

[guitmz]

Cost of living is a bit less there though isn't it?

less??? everything is *****ng expensive here!

[Nathanael]

I make 40k a year and apparently I must be living in filth. I drive a 2011 MazdaSpeed3 fully loaded($27k). I have a computer with four 21.5 inch monitors, 16gigs of ram, 2 video cards, and 2 tb of harddrive space. I have a laptop with 6 month old 6gigs of ram, 1.5 terabyte harddrive and HDMI out. Brand new iPad, iPhone 4s, 47 inch 3d 240hrz TV, 4 xbox 360s(I like to take them apart and mod them). I live in a 3 bedroom house that I pay a mortgage. I eat 4 healthy meals(if you count a big bowl of lucky charms as healthy) a day and go out to eat 3 times a week. Two of those times are $30+ meals. I fly model airplanes which costs about 2k a year with all the crashed and repairs. I have full medical, dental, and life insurance that is 20% paid for by my job. I paid for my own college without any help from parents. Yep, I am living in filth clearly.

If I were to get married and have two kids, god forbid the wife works a min wage job to help keep up this standard of living. Most people I date at least have one degree and work with a similar income job. Lets be generous to your side of the argument and say she makes a mere 18k a year with minimum wage. That's 18k to pay for another car and a 50% increase at most in overall bills such as food, electricity, and gas.

It's the cost of childcare and of good schools that gets you... Commodities are cheap nowadays, but services aren't.

[ylcard]

less??? everything is *****ng expensive here!

What city are you from?

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

LOL. They're sick. :/

[psionicinversion]

Makes me want to go work in apple store in america and when someone wants to check someat on internet ill say hang on ill do it for ya.... whip out the lumia 900 and do a search using voice on bing get the results and let him look. Person will be like ooo why you work for apple and have wp. ill say cus iphone is crap and tacky and MS is the future, go buy a Windows Phone this stuff sucks :p then get sacked and laugh my ass out of the shop

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

wow that is just horrible :( Working for peanuts