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What It's Like To Work Inside Apple's 'Black Site' (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a Bloomberg report: Apple's new campus in Cupertino, California, is a symbol of how the company views itself as an employer: simultaneously inspiring its workers with its magnificent scale while coddling them with its four-story cafe and 100,000-square-foot fitness center. But one group of Apple contractors finds another building, six miles away on Hammerwood Avenue in Sunnyvale, to be a more apt symbol. This building is as bland as the main Apple campus is striking. From the outside, there appears to be a reception area, but it's unstaffed, which makes sense given that people working in this satellite office -- mostly employees of Apple contractors working on Apple Maps -- use the back door. Workers say managers instructed them to walk several blocks away before calling for a ride home. Several people who worked here say it's widely referred to within Apple as a "black site," as in a covert ops facility.
Inside the building, say former workers, they came to expect the vending machines to be understocked, and to have to wait in line to use the men's bathrooms. Architectural surprise and delight wasn't a priority here; after all, the contract workers at Hammerwood almost all leave after their assignments of 12 to 15 months are up. It's not uncommon for workers not to make it that long. According to 14 current and former contractors employed by Apex Systems, a firm that staffs the building as well as other Apple mapping offices, they operated under the constant threat of termination. "It was made pretty plain to us that we were at-will employees and they would fire us at any time," says one former Hammerwood contractor, who, like most of the workers interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity because he signed a nondisclosure agreement with Apex. "There was a culture of fear among the contractors which I got infected by and probably spread." Apex manages the workers it hires -- not Apple. "Following an inquiry from Bloomberg News, the company says, it conducted a surprise audit of the Hammerwood facility and found a work environment consistent with other Apple locations," reports Bloomberg.
"Like we do with other suppliers, we will work with Apex to review their management systems, including recruiting and termination protocols, to ensure the terms and conditions of employment are transparent and clearly communicated to workers in advance," an Apple spokesperson says in a statement.
Inside the building, say former workers, they came to expect the vending machines to be understocked, and to have to wait in line to use the men's bathrooms. Architectural surprise and delight wasn't a priority here; after all, the contract workers at Hammerwood almost all leave after their assignments of 12 to 15 months are up. It's not uncommon for workers not to make it that long. According to 14 current and former contractors employed by Apex Systems, a firm that staffs the building as well as other Apple mapping offices, they operated under the constant threat of termination. "It was made pretty plain to us that we were at-will employees and they would fire us at any time," says one former Hammerwood contractor, who, like most of the workers interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity because he signed a nondisclosure agreement with Apex. "There was a culture of fear among the contractors which I got infected by and probably spread." Apex manages the workers it hires -- not Apple. "Following an inquiry from Bloomberg News, the company says, it conducted a surprise audit of the Hammerwood facility and found a work environment consistent with other Apple locations," reports Bloomberg.
"Like we do with other suppliers, we will work with Apex to review their management systems, including recruiting and termination protocols, to ensure the terms and conditions of employment are transparent and clearly communicated to workers in advance," an Apple spokesperson says in a statement.
Along with other horrific Apple experiments.
Ever since the big Microsoft lawsuit, the entire industry has made it a point to treat contractors like plantation-workers lest the IRS determine them to be employees and make the companies pay taxes and offer normal employee benefits like a modicum of health care or time off. The more abuse they heap upon contractors, the more the guys in management positions feel like they're doing their jobs and keeping the riff raff out.
- An Apple contractor has a building that isn't as spiffy as the main Apple HQ?
- Do Managers tell staff to walk a few blocks because it's in an area where it's difficult for taxis to get to?
- Contractors for Apple don't get treated the same as actual Apple staff?
The article makes it sounds like there's something nefarious or dodgy going on but doesn't provide any real detail.
Having worked as a consultant and contractor myself (not for Apple). It always bugs me how I was treated like a second hand employee. Yes, I got paid more then the normal employees, but that is to cover the risk of being dropped at any time, and for me to find new business.
Contractors are often hired to work on "Career ending" projects, where a failure would cost your job and reputation (However working via a consulting firm, the individual gets isolated, as the firm takes the blame, and then just gets their licensed renew after the problem settles down). These jobs are often very complex, where a lot of things can go wrong.
That all said, there is often animosity towards the contractors. Which makes working cross departments difficult in general difficult, and often being blocked from accessing the companies soft employee benefits, such as the cafeteria, or the gym, in essence all these features designed to help improve productivity and moral. Means the contractors now are further hindered because they can access features to help improve their productivity and moral. Because being charged $250 an hour, you don't want to be caught at the Ping-Pong table, getting some exercise while you are thinking about how to solve the next problem.
Hearing that Apple Maps is primarily done by the contractors, I can see why it is a mess, not because of the lack of skill from these contractors, but because of the conditions they are working in. Granted what we hear isn't bad, but it is isolated from the Apple culture, so the Apple (lack of a better term) soul isn't there.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Treating contractors like dogshit isn't new. In the 1990s, there was a tech support company that hired a contract place to do the same. Contract workers were fired and frog-marched out the door by security because their piece of shit phone's ACD status briefly flashed something the PHBs didn't understand, so they thought the worker was "hacking". Other people got fired for being a second over break (yes, a second.) The contract place had a philosophy of "no mercy" because they thought that firing people left and right ensured everyone else complied.
Contracting can make OK pay, but usually it isn't worth it. The main reason why people do it, is desperation. It takes 5-8 months to get hired on properly by a normal firm, and if someone is out of a job, they don't have that long, while Apex can get them on the job in 2-3 weeks.
Disclaimer: I've never worked for Apex, but the places are all the same pretty much.
Given California's new equity uprising I fully expected this article to be about Apples' new all black people HQ, no whitey bois allowed .... because you know, it's only fair
... According to 14 current and former contractors employed by Apex Systems, a firm that staffs the building as well as other Apple mapping offices ...
Correction: a firm that formerly staffed various offices for Apple; considering how Apex has so severely mishandled things as to make their employees angry enough to "let the cat out of the bag," I'm sure Apple will be exercising one of their small-print termination clauses in the contract with Apex, forthwith.
I mean, come on; pretty much everybody knows that the only way to keep a "black ops" under wraps is to make sure that all of the participants are loyal to a fault and have a strong vested interest in the success of that op. The only (legal) way that corporations can ensure that is by offering lucrative financial incentives and a positive overall work experience to the employees... whereas it sounds a lot like Apex managed to offer every disincentive in the book. YUUUUGE fail.
Unless the firm you are working for is a partnership and in business to find you business, Your employer is disposable. You are disposable.
You are never a specialist, if you are you'd know it and people would be seeking you out.
The manager who brings in contractors either wants very narrowly defined, simplistic work to be done inwhich place you are screwing your career over by staying there, or they think the labor market has a glut of skills and wants to screw everyone over they possibly can by hiring you at under market rates, at which point you are the rube, the mark, and the sucker.
They want disposable human capital; they want guaraunteed turnover; they don't want to pay benefits, retirement, or anything else. By doing more for less, you are screwing yourself and everyone else over because the management, genuinely, doesn't understand what it takes to do the work right.
Therefor, your employers job is to screw you over, and therefor your job is to screw over your employer as hard as is possible.
You do the work you are assigned, with the barest minimum thought to not waste your time, and any surplus time you find yourself having, you don't report it to the management but instead spend it wisely learning or studying. I had a sub-sub-sub contracted (Literally 3 people saw my paycheck before I did) helpdesk job once where I scripted 4/5ths of the position; made studying for certs and college much easier. I would get in at 5AM, do my tickets by 8AM, Study until 2PM, Go to class at 3PM, Be home by 7PM, and in bed early to repeat the next day. I did not tell management how I did my job, they only knew I could solve things nobody else could. That gig lasted 2 years, and ended with staff fleeing a sinking insourcing ship. I got out just as I got my degree.
A contracting job is something you use as leverage to get a better gig or contract which you eventually leverage into Full time work. Do not stay at a contracting gig because you are afraid of losing said contracting gig, it will end sooner than you think, and often more spectacularily than you can imagine depending on the grifting architecture at work. Never, ever stay the full length of the contract.
If you feel trapped, remind your manager that if their management is telling them to lie to you, they are probably lieing to them, so why would you not lie to them and tell them whatever they think they want to hear?
If they insist or get obstinant, remind them, this is America. We did away with slavery 20 years ago. Anyone who thinks that's a good idea needs to be reminded of the ratio of guns to people in this country.
This follows the rule of equilibrium in thermodynamics. Always have something in contrast to even out the rest. It comes naturally, and is why I would rather go out kicking and screaming than work for big tech.
managers instructed them to walk several blocks away so any thing that happens is coved under works comp and hourly people need to clock out after that walk as well.
... assembling iPhones somewhere in WangTang where killing yourself seems to be an attractive option.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Every black site I ever worked at I made sure to park close to the door and never carry much cash
That is the least believable bit here. Private industry in the US is almost exclusively at-will. Why would you ever expect anything else?
I have been in two of their “black sites” for other projects, and it is funny that Lyft’s maps have the building code addresses. I was really surprised when standing next door that it knew its code already. Just funny how hard people sometimes work to keep obvious secrets hidden.
(Hint— look for the security guards with logo jackets.)
"Isla Sorna" is what they should call it.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
... they could just put the treatment of contract employees into the contracts that are signed with their contractors, and enforce those contracts. Apple's lawyers wrote the Terms of Service and Privacy contracts that customers automatically agree to. Have you ever read those contracts? I'm sure those same Apple lawyers could write up contractor contracts that specify, to similar detail as the Terms of Service, just how the employees of those contractors should be treated. imo, the fact that we see less than Apple-like working conditions at these "black sites" means that Apple is aware of the conditions and allows the conditions. Think about it, would a contractor want to go up against Apple's legal department?
I love my job as a contractor - company jobs bored me, and I earn much more now. It's simple, either both parties agree a number of months in the contract, or both can terminate at any moment. What's the problem? That's the job, and I get paid accordingly. If you whine like an employee, you are not getting it, that's exactly what the client isn't buying. As a contractor, lawyer, notary, etc. you expect to work a number of hours in a year, which is less than your available hours. You set the price so you get essentially paid for your available hours, you not only sell the working ours but your availability as a whole. Some years will be better, some worse, so you make sure to build a monetary buffer in those good years.
FTS: Apex manages the workers it hires -- not Apple. "Following an inquiry from Bloomberg News, the company says, it conducted a surprise audit of the Hammerwood facility and found a work environment consistent with other Apple locations," reports Bloomberg.
"Like we do with other suppliers, we will work with Apex to review their management systems, including recruiting and termination protocols, to ensure the terms and conditions of employment are transparent and clearly communicated to workers in advance," an Apple spokesperson says in a statement.
Translation: This work site is just as shitty as all our others, and the fact that employees are booted without provocation or notice has been clearly communicated.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
"Let's remove the screen"
Heads bob in agreement.
"Visual output is so 2018. What users should want is an olfactory output from their iFablets."
"Fabulous, sir! Genius! Remove a medium of logical discourse for a purely visceral and emotional one. Brilliant!"
"Siri: President Trump"
*fffttpppbbbbht*
"Siri: Green New Deal"
*blanket human attraction pheremones*
"Working as intended"
At my company, contractors are treated more or less identically to full employees.
And that's how contractors win lawsuits to get full benefits.
Given the legal climate Apple is smart to take a hands-off approach to contractors and let conditions be totally managed by this other company,
I know most of them have been offered full time positions, but for whatever reason they prefer contract positions.
(A) This may be in violation of contracts they have signed with the contracting firm they are working through.
(B) Being a contractor in a large company is nice because you are more sheltered from political intrigue.
(C) You can often figure out how to give yourself equivalent benefits company workers get for less than they are paying, combine that with a higher contractor salary and converting to an employee can mean quite an earnings hit.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Work for apple