Steve Jobs Threatened Palm To Stop Poaching Employees

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Steve Jobs Threatened Palm To Stop Poaching Employees

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday January 23, 2013 @01:49AM from the asymmetry-of-financial-resources dept.

An anonymous reader writes with more news about the no-poach agreements that seemed to plague tech companies. From the article: "Steve Jobs threatened patent litigation if Palm wouldn't agree to stop hiring Apple employees, says former Palm CEO Edward Colligan in a statement dated August 7th, 2012. The allegation is backed up by a trove of recently-released evidence that shows just how deeply Silicon Valley's no-hire agreements pervaded in the mid-2000s. Apple, Google, Intel, and others are the focus of a civil lawsuit into the 'gentleman's agreements,' in which affected employees are fighting for class action status and damages from resulting lost wages, potentially reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars."

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I never liked him but... by jareth-0205 · 2013-01-23 01:51 · Score: 5, Interesting

It's still surprising when we get a bit more data on exactly *how much* of a dick he was. I wish some of this stuff had come out while he was alive.
1. Re:I never liked him but... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-23 01:59 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Jobs is the reason I have never owned nor ever will own an Apple product. Evil man.
  Nor Oracle products, or use Facebook.
  Yeah, kind of lame, but if everyone would say, enough is enough, things might change. Not holding out much hope for that...
2. Re:I never liked him but... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-23 02:01 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Are you going to extend that to all the other companies that participated in this? For example Google? Because if you read that link, Eric Schmidt not only complies, but even is on record as wanting to do things verbally so there are no paper trails.
  This is a BUNCH of people being fucking colluding dick bags. Singling one out lets the others off the hook.
3. Re:I never liked him but... by crazyjj · 2013-01-23 02:01 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I wish some of this stuff had come out while he was alive.
  A lot of it did. His asshole rep was pretty well-known long before he died. It just couldn't penetrate through the mass of fanboy and media adoration.
  
  --
  What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
4. Re:I never liked him but... by Virtucon · 2013-01-23 02:05 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You didn't need to wait until after his death. There are plenty of people out there who knew this, ex-employees and partners all have spoken up.. Frankly, he fit the mold of every modern industrialist when it came to competition. It amazes me now how much people want to white wash him as some visionary and cult hero, he was just a ruthless entrepreneur who would walk over anybody to get what he wanted. Now it would be really great if the planet could get off his dried up nutsack.
  Here's some of his less famous exploits.
  
  --
  Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
5. Re:I never liked him but... by MickyTheIdiot · 2013-01-23 02:06 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's a general corporate douchebaggery problem.. not a problem with an individual corporate douchebag.
  Though what is being said about Jobs isn't probably off the mark, either...
6. Re:I never liked him but... by fredprado · 2013-01-23 02:08 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  They are certainly all to blame. That does not prevent us from saying someone specific is an asshole because of that, and does not make it less true either. I am tired of seeing people here thinking that being one among others makes you less guilty than if you were doing it alone.
7. Re:I never liked him but... by h4rr4r · 2013-01-23 02:49 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Define poaching.
  Palm employees have every right to speak to Apple employees when those Apple employees are not on the clock. Why should calling an Apple employee be any different than calling any any person?
  Apple does not own these folks, and has no right to say who they can speak when not on the clock. Steve Jobs was such an asshole he stole from Woz. You know the guy that without Apple would never have even existed.
8. Re:I never liked him but... by Grishnakh · 2013-01-23 03:15 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  So you're willing to go without technology altogether? Then what are you doing here? You're a hypocrite.
  I'm willing to boycott products where it's easy for me to not use them. But (since my career is in the tech field) I'm not going to go live under a bridge just because all the big Silicon Valley companies were complicit in this.
9. Re:I never liked him but... by erroneus · 2013-01-23 03:16 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I recall a year ago our HR department announcing how "we have been reaching out to other companies to assure that your wages are extremely competitive." I also noted that there were no significant raises issued after this announcement. So if somethings was adjusted or changed to assure competitiveness, what was it? Agreements such as these? A reminder that other companies should lower their salary rates?
  There is a bunch of this stuff going on which I always thought was illegal. But if it's not, it needs to be.
10. Re:I never liked him but... by Johann+Lau · 2013-01-23 04:22 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Nice guys do finish last.
  That depends on where you are going. If you're not going anywhere anyway, the above is true. In the race to fall into the abyss, being an asshole gives you quite the edge. Good riddance!
Weapons... by Deus.1.01 · 2013-01-23 01:51 · Score: 4, Insightful

Isn't this basically what patents have amounted to now?
Ammo to gain leverage....and still loose and flexible to be used on practically everything.

--
My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
iProtection by GeekWithAKnife · 2013-01-23 01:52 · Score: 4, Funny

Help us protect you from being consensually hired, or else.

--
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
Eye-bleedingly high fine by N1AK · 2013-01-23 01:57 · Score: 5, Interesting

It doesn't affect me directly but I really do hope that this ends in an eye-bleedingly high cost to the companies found to have colluded. They manipulated the labour market to artificially keep wages down and that needs to be punished by costs so big that anyone considering it in the future would have to be certifiably insane.

Factor in that the cost to employees could potentially be equivalent to years of lost wages and the ability to utilise this money and it really wouldn't be unreasonable to see a figure of a few $100,000 per employee theoretically covered by the no hire agreement. Give them that figure then take double as much as a fine to penalise the behaviour and you could be talking considerably more than a billion dollars and that imo is exactly what they deserve.
1. Re:Eye-bleedingly high fine by shentino · 2013-01-23 02:08 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I wouldn't call it collusion if Apple used the threat of a patent lawsuit to coerce Palm.
  I call that duress.
Just exposes the joke of "right to work" by crazyjj · 2013-01-23 01:59 · Score: 4, Insightful

Companies demand "right to work" laws to protect them from unions, under the pretense that this also gives the worker the right to leave anytime and go work wherever they choose. Exposing crap like this just shows how much a farce that really is. "Right to work" only benefits companies, NEVER employees.

--
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
1. Re:Just exposes the joke of "right to work" by jellomizer · 2013-01-23 02:09 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I don't think California is a "right to work" state.
  But the issue of Poaching or Employees going to a competitor is a problem. Because the company invests in these employees and then they go out to their competitor, to give them value. It is like paying your competitors bills.
  I think the real issue is the complete inadequacies in most companies Human Resource Departments. They need to be active in making sure each worker is getting their market value rate, as well insuring they have opportunity to grow and advance in the organization. Otherwise we have what we have now. Get a job work there for a few years to boost your resume and skills, realize you job is leading you nowhere, then you go to an other company for higher pay and a better position and repeat. Leaving the company that you left having to hire a replacement for you, and probably having to pay the rate your new job got combined with having to train them with the skills needed to work in the organization.
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
2. Re:Just exposes the joke of "right to work" by Maximum+Prophet · 2013-01-23 02:20 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I think the real issue is the complete inadequacies in most companies Human Resource Departments. They need to be active in making sure each worker is getting their market value rate,
  When Microsoft wanted to destroy Borland, they offered key engineers way above market rate to leave. They didn't want them to do anything special at Microsoft, they just wanted to bleed Borland. It worked.
  
  --
  All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
3. Re:Just exposes the joke of "right to work" by dkleinsc · 2013-01-23 02:27 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  But the issue of Poaching or Employees going to a competitor is a problem.
  It is only a problem if you haven't made it so that your employees really *want* to work for you. You can do that a lot of ways: high salary, really really nice offices, free lunches for everyone, a 40- or even 36-hour work week, really cool code, etc.
  
  --
  I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
4. Re:Just exposes the joke of "right to work" by h4rr4r · 2013-01-23 02:46 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  So now employees are slaves?
  A company does not invest in employees, it pays them for their time. They are not things to own. If the company wants to avoid any "investment", they can only hire employees trained in exactly what they want. If none can be found the company can feel free to close up shop.
  I sell my time, if you want to make my time more valuable to you by training me during this time I am selling you that is your choice. Once the time you have bought has come to an end I owe you nothing. If this was not the case then I would have a pension, and raises that kept me at market salary. Instead we now have to switch jobs to get the market rate as raises never increase at that rate.
Interviews with Former Employees by eldavojohn · 2013-01-23 02:00 · Score: 5, Funny

Former Apple Employee 1: Look, we went to Palm of our own free accord.
Former Apple Employee 2: That's right, it came down to who treated us better is all.
Former Apple Employee 3: I mean, you get to hear the cute stories about how Steve Jobs dropped the first prototype of the iPod -- after being told it was as compact as possible -- into a fish tank and when he saw bubbles he said it could be made smaller. But what you didn't hear was later that day when he brought the engineer onto a stage and asked him if he was as smart as possible. When the engineer said "yes" Steve pushed him into a tank with sharks in front of everyone and said, "If he's so smart, how come he just let me push him into a tank of sharks?" Oh those screams will haunt me forever.
Former Apple Employee 2: Yeah! And when I went to work at Palm I got blankets and clothing and food.
Former Apple Employee 1: Steve would make us sleep in completely bare rooms on Swedish ergonomic beds and we would have to rub turmeric all over our bodies each day and then we could only wear Apple printed paper clothing and forage for berries in the yard.
Former Apple Employee 2: After I went to work at Palm they let me get my citizenship!
Former Apple Employee 3: That's right, Steve had captured Dmitri here in Russia and wouldn't let him be exposed to daylight ... he would scream "NO YOU FOOL IT RUINS THE MEAT!" if he saw someone showing Dmitri a picture of the sun.
Former Apple Employee 1: We were just happier at Palm is all. There were so many problems at Apple like the Apple tattoos that later became just cast iron branding. I remember Jobs doing mine personally himself with his hand in his pants while screaming "HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?" as he pushed the hot brand from the fire again and again into my lower back.
Former Apple Employee 2: And the Apple brand shock collars so we couldn't leave campus ...
Former Apple Employee 3: And the time Jeb got beyond the walled garden only to find there was perimeter after perimeter of different obstacles like spheres that just floated up out of the ground and engulfed you.
Former Apple Employee 1: Yeah, when he came back, he just didn't have any legs. "A permanent fixture now with fewer buttons" is how Jobs reintroduced him to the work force.
Former Apple Employee 2: You see, Palm was just nicer. We're happier now and feel once again like human beings.

--
My work here is dung.
Re:Unions by mbkennel · 2013-01-23 05:39 · Score: 4, Insightful

| There is no shareholder value in companies fighting over employees. This only artificially raises labor costs and is a threat to profit.
Why is this "artificial", as opposed to completely expected market phenomenon? Sounds like a very natural free market response.
| It is much better to agree between companies that the lowest possible compensation will be offered to a agreed upon pool of labor.
That number is zero.
| Now, obviously whiny labor who wants a great deal of money for no work is not going to like this
Whiny plantation owners who wanted a great deal of cotton for no wages didn't like the 13th amendment either.
Oh, this must be a troll. Sorry I didn't get it before, fundamentalist libertarians are indistinguishable from any parody thereof.