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Female Apple Engineering Manager Shares More Proof of Hostile Environment

Danielle from Leaf and Core
Reading Time: 2 minutes.

Ticket in Apple's Radar system titled, "Make Ashley's Life a Living Hell." It's a big joke to the participants. I, like most other women in the software industry, have witnessed some terrible things. But there’s always the fear of retaliation, especially when you’re new to the field, so we often stay silent. A wrong move early on and you may find that moving on to a new job is harder than ever. Often, especially in cities with many tech employees, everyone knows everyone. The guy who helped onboard me to a new team also taught a coworker how to code at another company I worked at. The guy who oversaw a layoff for me ended up welcoming me to another company a few years later. My former manager was a fantastic reference, considering the people reviewing the references all worked with him before. Tech is surprisingly interconnected. That’s why retaliation is exceptionally heinous. Not only does it specifically target victims, it seeks to damage their entire career. When you witness things, like a negative and toxic environment made to keep you quiet, you can be forgiven for remaining quiet.

And now we come to the Apple task of “Make Ashley’s Life a Living Hell,” from 2015. She claims that, over the next six years, they really would.

Targeting, Sexism, and Retaliation

Ashley M. Gjøvik spoke out about sexism within Apple. The company’s diversity numbers haven’t been great, which is perhaps why they fight any investigation, internal or otherwise, into their practices. Within Apple’s Radar system, where Apple employees can track bugs and tickets, Gjøvik found a ticket called “Make Ashley’s Life a Living Hell.” Two other Apple engineers confirmed its authenticity. In another instance, Gjøvik found a board for keeping score on who would make her want to quit. Since being more publicly vocal, Gjøvik says Apple has been more willing to communicate with her. Whistleblowing works. This is clear that, even early on at Apple, Gjøvik faced discrimination and targeting, potentially even in retaliation for other things, like speaking up about sexism.

Gjøvik certainly faced sexism at Apple, including suggestions for improvement for talking like a woman, where she was given notes on how to make her speech sound more “professional” (masculine). Among other violations she witnessed and raised concerns to Apple, who, instead of trying to fix these problems, put her on indefinite administrative leave.

When Google employees walked out over Google rewarding credibly accused sexual harasser Andy Rubin a $90 million severance package, Google didn’t take the opportunity to improve. They made small concessions, after all, it was the largest company walkout in history, involving over 20,000 employees worldwide. However, they then seemingly went after the women who organized it, most, if not all of whom, have left Google as a result of that retaliation. Some had projects pulled, others were transferred or demoted, and others still were simply let go for other supposed infractions. When Gjøvik came forward, Apple ignored her until she went public, then they placed her on administrative leave.

Apple has always been secretive. They’ve tried their hardest to hide new product releases and other announcements. However, one thing they’ve been covering up seems to be a toxic working environment. Could Apple be the next Google, Riot Games, or Activision Blizzard? The way Apple’s acting, it seems they think they already are.

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