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.

Comments

Re: They're all like that

[Anonymous Coward]

I worked for apex on a Microsoft contract about a decade ago. They never tell you that the position is temporary. After 6 months, I remember other engineers mention that any tickets to the help desk may take longer, because they've all been replaced, "because apex does that sometimes to save costs". The help desk was also apex, so I thought was it suspicious, but didn't think much of it at the time, or that I might have the same fate. Anyways, at my 12 month mark, my badge didn't work to get into the building. I called my lead, and he escorted me in, thinking it was another mistake made to the physical security system. A few weeks prior, our site manager had been locked in a very small solid back room (which contained all the most expensive parts) for a few hours, as he was allowed access in, but not out (that would also be a fire safety issue). Anyways, so I worked half that day, until physical security said my access was removed and had to escort me out. My lead had no idea, told me to sit, and that security can wait, and was red in face pissed off. After he made a few calls, apparently there was a budget decision to hire replacements at half my pay($20\h to $10\h). Our project was almost complete with phase 1 (deployment), and phase 2 didn't need as much expertise(just maintenance). I got a better job, but wish I knew ahead of time