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Apple<\/a>’s new campus<\/a> 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 café and 100,000-square-foot fitness center. But one group of Apple<\/a> 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<\/a> 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<\/a>,” 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, not Apple, manages the workers it hires. Apple says it requires contracting firms to treat workers with “dignity and respect.” 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. “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.
Buddy Omohundro, Apex’s chief services officer and general counsel, says in an email that his company strives to ensure it’s creating the best possible work experience. “Apex provides multiple avenues for employees to raise concerns, both directly and anonymously, and to have those concerns addressed,” he wrote.
Apex is one tiny part of a sprawling global network of staffing firms working with Apple; it is not even the only firm staffing the facility at Hammerwood Avenue. For Apple Maps alone, workers are spread across several locations in Silicon Valley, as well as in Austin, Texas; London; the Czech Republic; and India, according to people who worked on the project. The operation involves thousands of contractors. At Hammerwood, the population has exceeded 250 at times, although the number fluctuates and Apple declined to give a current count.
Places like Hammerwood undermine the mythology of Silicon Valley as a kind of industrial utopia where talented people work themselves to the bone in exchange for outsize salaries and stock options. A common perception in the Bay Area is that its only serious tech-labor issue is the high cost of living driven by the industry’s obscene salaries. But many of those poorer residents work in tech, too. For decades, contractors and other contingent workers have served meals, driven buses, and cleaned toilets at tech campuses. They’ve also built circuit boards and written and tested software, all in exchange for hourly wages and little or no job security.
In different forms, temporary labor as an alternative to full-time employment has grown across the U.S. economy. Companies in many industries now use staffing firms to handle work once done by full-time workers. The technology industry offers one of the starkest examples of how the groups’ fortunes have diverged. While companies aren’t required to disclose the sizes of their contingent workforces, there’s ample evidence that tech companies use large numbers of contractors and temps. Last year, Bloomberg News reported that direct employees at Alphabet Inc.<\/a>’s Google accounted for less than half its workforce.
The treatment of these workers is emerging alongside sexual harassment and military contracting as a principal target of the wave of tech worker activism that’s been building over the past two years. When Google employees staged a walkout last November, many contingent workers didn’t learn about it in advance because they don’t have access to internal mailing lists. A month later, Googlers sent an open letter to the company’s management demanding better working conditions for temporary workers, vendors, and contractors.
The Apple Maps operations staffed by Apex provide a dim view of contract work, according to current and former Apex workers. Some took jobs there with the hope of landing full-time work at Apple—a possibility they said Apex played up—only to find the chances were small. As Apple has faced headwinds in recent months, it has further reduced the practice of converting any contract workers to full-time positions, according to a person familiar with Apple’s operations.
Other Apex workers took the job just to put Apple on their resume. Even that benefit was tenuous. Apex managers initially distributed specific wording they could include on their LinkedIn profiles referring to their employer as Apple, via Apex Systems. Last summer, Apex said they had to remove the word “Apple,” describing their employer only as “A Major Tech Company Via Apex Systems,” according to two former employees.
The restrictions were just one of many reminders of the contractors’ inferior status, right down to the apple design on their ID badges. For direct employees, the apples were multi-colored; contractors got what one described as “sad grey.” It’s common for companies to distribute different badges to contractors, a practice that discontented workers across the industry have seized on as evidence of a caste system. Amber Lutsko, who worked for Apple through Apex in 2017 and 2018, described an opening-day pep talk that aimed to make her feel both honored and excluded. “‘You work at Apple now! You have made it!’” she recalls being told. “‘You’re not allowed to use the gym.’”
The companies of Silicon Valley have created vast fortunes with far fewer employees than the corporate behemoths that came before them. In part, this is because you can replicate software infinitely in a way you can’t with, say, a Model T. But the tech industry was also an early adopter of offloading core functions to contract workers. Tech was quick to embrace contractors because of rapid advancements requiring constant adjustments in the composition of the workforce, according to Louis Hyman, author of the 2018 book “Temp.” All those changes helped nurture Silicon Valley’s ideology of flexibility and speed, first in hardware, then in software and business<\/a> operations. Hyman quotes a 1993 issue of Apple’s internal magazine that describes the transition away from direct employees to contractors and outsourcing firms as both a “predictable evolution” and “the future.”
Conflict is inevitable in a two-tiered workforce. As far back as the 1990s, Microsoft Corp. contractors challenged their employment status in court and attempted to unionize. In 2014 a group of Microsoft bug-testers won the right to bargain with their employer, a staffing agency called Lionbridge Technologies Inc. Within a few years, Lionsbridge had eliminated all their jobs.
Apple, which has about 130,000 full-time employees, also accepts workers from about three dozen staffing firms, according to OnContracting, a website providing market information to staffing companies. Contracting firms work on iTunes and server infrastructure, handle customer support, and select articles for Apple News. Apex, the largest division of ASGN, a staffing company based in suburban Los Angeles, has provided Apple with a steady stream of mapping technicians, whose jobs consist of checking to make sure that Apple’s software is drawing roads in the right places, or responding to reports of inaccuracies in existing maps.
They’re largely in their early- to mid-20s, and have often just graduated from college. Wages are generally about $25 an hour, which some workers consider generous and others see as stingy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2017 median hourly wage for mapping technicians nationwide was $20.84, while the median per-hour rate for the same jobs in California was $30.61.
Apex employees have access to health insurance, although the premiums are high enough that some people opt not to take it. Because the workforce is young, Apex workers often stay on their parents’ health insurance rather than figure things out on their own.
Apex has also changed aspects of employment suddenly. In November, it cut the maximum amount of paid sick time employees could take annually from 48 hours to 24 hours, saying the policy would go into effect in two days, according to two current employees and an internal email viewed by Bloomberg. The email, which Apex workers received on a Thursday afternoon, inspired a rare moment of collective action. A group of over a dozen workers said they had suddenly fallen ill, and left, according to one current Apex employee who participated in the protest.
“At all times, Apex has provided as much paid sick leave as required by applicable law,” says Omohundro, adding that the company worked to find exceptions in individual cases.
Many Apex employees first heard about the company through LinkedIn. The company trawls the website for people with proficiency in skills for mapmaking like geographic information systems or geography, then messages them repeatedly. Lutsko had worked as an archaeologist and was in between jobs in 2017 when, as she describes it, she basically gave in. “They’re pretty aggressive, so it was easy to take the job,” she says.
At the beginning of the interview process, Apex doesn’t mention the company where people will work. But the revelation can tip wavering candidates over the edge. “They said it was with Apple—they were super hush-hush originally—and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’” says a former Apex worker who started in 2017. “‘That will be on my resume? Bang!’”
The secrecy just made the job seem sexier. Many Apex workers assumed discretion was required because Hammerwood had some connection to self-driving cars. Their own work turned out to be drudgery. Still, they gossiped about the mysterious group of direct Apple employees who also worked on the site. They never knew for sure what those people were up to, since they say managers at Apex kept them from communicating with Apple employees unless it was necessary to do their immediate jobs. One former Apex worker says the contractors weren’t allowed to use the bathrooms on the direct employees’ side of the building.
Complaints about the bathrooms were common. Lines formed outside the men’s rooms, especially around lunchtime, according to former employees. (Because the workforce was predominantly male, the women’s rooms had ample capacity.) Anonymous complaints about inadequate facilities were scrawled on white boards around the office. Twice in 2017, Hammerwood workers filed complaints against Apple with the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Cal\/OSHA. Apple told Cal\/OSHA it had examined the situation and determined it was in compliance with the law. There was no mention of Apex workers being discouraged from using certain bathrooms, according to records obtained by Bloomberg News through a public records request. The agency did not pursue the issue.
The working environment was uncomfortable in other ways, according to current and former contractors. Apex managers sometimes broke up unauthorized water-cooler socializing. Several workers say their managers would get notifications if their workstations were idle for too long. “Being monitored like that is super dehumanizing and terrifying,” says one former Apex mapping technician.
If Apex seemed not to trust its workers, the feeling was mutual. They described a hiring process that was misleading in several ways. For one, Apex failed to explain the one-year assignments started with several weeks of training followed by a test, many say. Anyone who didn’t pass was terminated immediately. The company recruited nationwide, so some workers showed up in California, signed leases in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country, and lost their only source of income within a matter of weeks.
There are no reliable numbers on how common such firings were; Omohundro says the “vast majority” of employees complete their assignments. But they loomed large even for those who passed the test. Lutsko says watching colleagues suddenly lose their jobs soured her on her new employer. “I couldn’t handle the arbitrariness of everything,” she says. “The starry-eyed kids straight off the bus from Iowa thinking they’d made it in Silicon Valley straight out of college. The bait-and-switch. The, ‘Oh you didn’t make it through training, please give us your badge now.’”
Lutsko quit before her contract was up. The LinkedIn messages from Apex recruiters persisted. This was common. Two people who Apex had fired said the company periodically pitches them on jobs. “You got rid of me because of my quote-unquote performance, and every three months I get these emails,” says one of them. “It’s insulting, honestly.”
Like any group of people in shared circumstance, workers at Hammerwood bonded. Several former contractors say it was fun to be around with people their own age, and say the odd atmosphere only made them closer. Because many of them were young, new to the area, and not making enough money to live on their own, they ended up pooling resources to rent apartments or houses nearby.
Many people simply moved to similar contracting jobs with other tech firms once their positions at Apple end, so their homes ended up having a mixture of Facebook, Google, and Uber contractors. Several people described the geographic information systems contracting workforce almost as if it were a resource the big tech companies shared. People who left Apple would join the GIS staff at another company and find it was staffed primarily by Apex veterans.
Those who left Apple often say their lives improved. Facebook’s management put signs up around campus reading “Contractors Are People Too,” and contingent workers participated in on-campus arts and crafts activities. Google paid more than competitors and let everyone use the gym, says Nick Wilson, who worked at Apple through Apex, then worked at Facebook, and is now a contractor doing mapping work at Google.
Moving between companies didn’t feel like advancement, says Wilson. “None of the skills I learned at Apple could be carried over,” he says, adding that his managers were indifferent to any attempts by employees to distinguish themselves. “There were many people who took initiative and made things, increased the efficiency. They weren’t rewarded in any way,” he says. “There were people who had abandoned any hope. They’d come in late, leave early, and just do nothing all day. They were treated the same as everyone else.” (Both Lutsko and Wilson declined to discuss the exact nature of their jobs or the building at which they worked, citing their nondisclosure agreements.)
The mood at Hammerwood dimmed late last year, after the changes in benefits and after Apex suddenly fired about two dozen people, according to two current Apex employees. One described the workplace as depressing and quiet, with everyone on edge. “I’m afraid of being too social because they might see that as not working hard enough,” he says. “Apex handles all terminations in a sensitive and confidential manner,” says Omohundro. “The company does not share the details of employee terminations, regardless of whether they are for cause or not for cause.”
Activists associated with the burgeoning labor movement in the tech industry say the contracting workforce is ripe for organization, but acknowledge it’s been challenging to organize white-collar workers. “It’s a new concept,” says Yana Calou, an organizer at Coworker.org. Information workers have been more reticent than security guards and cafeteria workers to confront tech companies because they’re angling for full-time work, says Calou. “I think there’s the tiny idea of, ‘I’ll be the exception that squeezes through.’ ”
That feeling eventually wears off. One former Apex worker, a 32-year-old who lives in the maid’s quarters of a house with eight roommates, says years of uncertainty have left him worn out. “How are you supposed to plan for your future if your job has an expiration date?” he says. He’s a California native who moved to San Francisco over a decade ago, got a master’s degree, and internalized Silicon Valley’s brand of optimism. But that evaporated at Apple’s so-called black site<\/a>. “It sounds good when you say you work at Apple, but when you’re not being paid the same amount, and you’re not treated the same way, it gets old quickly,” he says. “I don’t see why they don’t just hire someone and give them a stake in the company.”
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苹果的新校园在加州库比蒂诺市,象征着公司的观点本身作为雇主:同时激励员工以其宏伟的规模虽然溺爱他们的四层楼的咖啡厅和100000平方英尺的健身中心。但是一群苹果承包商发现另一栋楼,六英里之外Hammerwood大道在森尼维耳市,是一个更合适的象征。
这个建筑一样平淡的主要苹果校园是惊人的。从外面,似乎有一个接待区,但无人值班,这是有道理的,因为人在这家卫星office-mostly苹果承包商的雇员工作在苹果地图使用后门。工人说经理指示他们之前走几个街区之外要求回家。几个人在这里工作在苹果说人们普遍称为“黑色的网站”,在一个秘密行动。
前员工说,在这座建筑,他们来到货品不足希望自动售货机,并不得不排队等候使用男人的浴室。建筑所感受到的惊奇和兴奋——不是一个优先级;毕竟,合同工人Hammerwood几乎所有作业后离开的12到15个月。
它并不少见,工人不让它那么久。根据14现任和前任承包商受雇于顶点系统,公司员工建设以及其他苹果映射办公室,他们的威胁下终止操作。“这是非常普通的,我们是自由的员工和他们会火我们在任何时候,”,一位前Hammerwood承包商,他最喜欢的工人采访的这个故事,要求匿名的,因为他与顶点签署了一份保密协议。“有文化的恐惧中承包商,我可能有感染和传播。”
顶点,不是苹果,管理它雇佣的工人。苹果说它需要承包公司对待员工“尊严和尊重。“从彭博新闻调查后,该公司表示,它进行了一次意外发现的审计Hammerwoo乐动扑克d设施和其他工作环境符合苹果的位置。“就像我们与其他供应商,我们将与顶点审查他们的管理系统,包括招聘和终止协议,以确保就业的条款和条件是透明和清晰地传达给工人提前,”一位苹果的发言人在一份声明中说。
巴迪Omohundro,先端首席服务官和首席法律顾问,在一封电子邮件中说,他的公司努力确保创造最好的工作经验。“顶点为员工提供了多种渠道,提高问题,直接和匿名,和有这些问题解决,”他写道。
顶点是一个微小的庞大的全球网络的一部分,人力资源公司与苹果公司合作;它甚至不是唯一公司人员配备设施Hammerwood大道。仅为苹果地图,工人们分布在几个地方在硅谷,以及在奥斯汀,得克萨斯州;伦敦;捷克共和国;和印度人参与这个项目。操作涉及成千上万的承包商。在Hammerwood,人口已经超过250,虽然数量波动和苹果拒绝透露当前计数。
如Hammerwood破坏硅谷的神话作为一种工业乌托邦人才工作的地方自己骨头换取巨额的工资和股票期权。在海湾地区的普遍看法是,它只高昂的生活成本严重tech-labor问题由该行业的淫秽的薪水。但许多贫困居民在科技工作,。几十年来,承包商和其他应急人员用餐服务,赶公交车,在理工校园打扫厕所。他们还建立了电路板和软件编写和测试的所有来换取每小时工资和很少或根本没有工作保障。
在不同的形式,临时劳动代替全职就业在美国经济增长。公司现在在许多行业使用猎头公司来处理过去全职员工所做的工作。科技行业提供最鲜明的例子之一组的命运如何分化。而公司不需要披露或有劳动力的大小,有充足的证据表明科技公司使用大量的承包商和临时工。去年,彭博新闻社报道,直接员工乐动扑克字母(aapl . o:行情)。的谷歌占不到一半的劳动力。
这些工人是新兴的治疗与性骚扰和军事收缩波技术工人运动的主要目标是建立在过去的两年里。当谷歌员工去年11月举行了罢工,许多或有员工没有提前了解它,因为他们没有获得内部邮件列表。一个月后,谷歌员工写了一封公开信给公司的管理层对临时工的要求更好的工作条件,供应商和承包商。
苹果地图操作由顶点提供的合同工作,根据现任和前任顶点工人。一些工作希望着陆全职工作在苹果——可能他们说顶玩只有找到的几率是很小的。苹果公司最近几个月面临阻力,进一步减少了转换的实践任何合同工人全职职位,据知情人士透露,苹果公司的业务。
其他顶点工人接受了这份工作就把苹果放在他们的简历。甚至,好处是脆弱的。顶点经理最初分布的具体措辞他们可能包括LinkedIn档案指雇主像苹果,通过顶点系统。去年夏天,顶点表示,他们已将“苹果”这个词描述雇主只是作为“主要通过顶点科技公司系统”,据两位前雇员。
的限制只是其中一个提醒承包商的劣势地位,对苹果设计他们的ID徽章。直接员工,苹果是彩色;承包商得到了一个描述为“悲伤的灰色。“这是常见的承包商公司分发不同的徽章,这种做法不满的工人整个行业已经抓住种姓制度的证据。琥珀Lutsko,曾为苹果通过顶点在2017年和2018年,描述开幕式打气,旨在使她感到荣幸和排除在外。“你现在在苹果工作!你已经成功了!”她回忆被告知。“你不可以使用健身房。”
硅谷的公司创造了巨额财富与更少的员工比之前的企业巨头。在某种程度上,这是因为你可以无限复制软件的方式你不能用,说,福特t型车,但科技行业也把核心功能的早期采用者合同工人。科技迅速接受承包商因为快速进步需要不断调整劳动力的组成,根据路易斯·海曼,2018年出版的《临时》一书的作者。“所有这些变化有助于培养硅谷的意识形态的灵活性和速度,首先在硬件、软件和业务操作。海曼引用了1993年苹果公司的内部杂志描述过渡远离直接员工,承包商和外包公司作为“可预测的进化”和“未来”。
冲突是不可避免的在一个双层劳动力。早在1990年代,微软(Microsoft corp .)承包商在法庭上挑战他们的就业状况和试图成立工会。2014年一群微软bug-testers获得的权利和雇主讨价还价,称为Lionbridge技术公司的人事机构。在几年之内,Lionsbridge都消除了他们的工作。
苹果公司约有130000名全职员工,还接受工人从三十几个猎头公司,网站根据OnContracting猎头公司提供市场信息。承包公司在iTunes和服务器基础设施工作,处理客户的支持,并选择文章为苹果新闻。乐动扑克顶点,ASGN最大的部门,人力资源公司,总部在洛杉矶郊区,为苹果提供了源源不断的映射技术,其工作包括检查以确保苹果的软件绘制道路在正确的地方,或者对现有地图不准确的报告。
他们主要分布在25岁左右,和经常刚刚大学毕业。工资一般是每小时25美元,一些工人认为慷慨和其他人认为是吝啬的。根据美国劳工统计局(Bureau of Labor Statistics) 2017年全国测绘技术人员每小时平均工资为20.84美元,而平均每小时率相同的工作在加州是30.61美元。
顶点的员工获得医疗保险,虽然保费足够高,有些人选择不去接触它。因为劳动力年轻,先端工人经常呆在父母的健康保险,而不是自己解决事情。
先端突然也改变了就业方面。去年11月,减少支付的最高金额生病的时候员工每年可以从48小时到24小时,称这项政策将在两天内生效,据两位当前员工和内部电子邮件被彭博。顶点工人收到的邮件,一个周四的下午,激发了一种罕见的集体行动的时刻。一群十几个工人表示,他们已突然病倒了,,根据当前顶点员工参加了抗议。
“在任何时候,先端提供了尽可能多的带薪病假适用法律要求的,“Omohundro说,补充说,公司致力于找到在个别情况下例外。
许多顶尖员工第一次听说该公司通过LinkedIn。公司网站拖网的人精通技能绘图法,如地理信息系统或地理,然后他们反复的消息。Lutsko曾作为一个考古学家在2017年之间的工作岗位,如她所言,她让步了。“他们很积极,所以很容易接受这份工作,”她说。
在面试过程中,先端没有提到该公司,人们将工作。但启示可以提示在边缘摇摆不定的候选人。“他们说这是苹果并驾齐驱的超级秘密进行原创的,我当时想,‘噢,我的上帝!前顶’工人开始于2017年。“将我的简历吗?砰!’”
保密的工作看起来更性感。许多顶点工人认为谨慎是必需的,因为Hammerwood有一些连接自动驾驶汽车。自己的工作变成了苦差事。不过,他们谈论直接苹果的神秘集团的员工也在网站上工作。他们从不知道肯定这些人做什么,因为他们说苹果员工和经理顶端让他们的沟通和交流,除非它是必要的去做他们当前的工作。一位前顶工人说,承包商不允许使用浴室直接员工的一面。
抱怨浴室很常见。男人的房间外,特别是在午饭时间,根据前雇员。(因为劳动力的主要群体是男性,女性的房间有充足的能力。)匿名投诉设施不足在办公室白板上涂写。两次在2017年,Hammerwood工人对苹果提起投诉与国家职业安全与健康管理局,加州职业安全健康管理局。苹果告诉加州职业安全健康管理局检查情况并确定它是符合法律。没有提到顶点工人劝阻使用特定的浴室,据彭博社进行记录通过公共记录的要求。乐动扑克该机构没有追求的问题。
工作环境很不舒服在其他方面,根据现任和前任承包商。顶点经理有时未经授权的饮水机社交分手了。一些工人说他们的经理会通知如果他们的工作站闲置时间太长。“被监视像超级不人道和可怕,”,一位前顶点映射技术。
如果顶点似乎不相信员工,这种感觉是相互的。他们描述了招聘过程,在很多方面被误导。一,先端未能解释一年期作业开始几周的训练,后跟一个测试中,许多人说。没有通过的人立即被终止。公司在全国范围内招募,所以一些工人出现在加州签署租赁一个最昂贵的房地产市场,并失去了唯一的收入来源在几周内。
没有可靠的数据如何共同解雇等;Omohundro说,“绝大多数”的员工完成他们的任务。但他们甚至出现大对于那些通过了测试。Lutsko说看同事突然失业了她新的雇主。“我不能处理所有的任意性,”她说。“幻想的孩子直接下车从爱荷华州想他们会使它在硅谷的大学。偷梁换柱的伎俩。,“哦,你不让它通过培训,请给我们你的徽章。”
她的合同是之前Lutsko辞职。LinkedIn消息从顶点招聘者持久化。这是常见的。两人顶发射了说,公司定期宣传工作。“你摆脱了我,因为我的所谓的性能,每三个月,我得到这些邮件,”其中一个说。“这是侮辱,老实说。”
像任何一群人共享的情况下,工人Hammerwood保税。几位前承包商说这是给身边的人带来欢乐与人自己的年龄,只说奇怪的氛围让他们接近。因为他们中的很多人年轻的时候,新的区域,而不是自己赚到足够的钱生活,他们最终集中资源附近租公寓或者房子。
许多人简单地搬到类似承包的工作与其他科技公司一旦结束他们的位置在苹果,所以家里了Facebook、谷歌,超级承包商。一些人描述了地理信息系统萎缩的劳动力几乎就好像它是一个大型科技公司共享资源。离开苹果的人将加入GIS的工作人员在另一个公司,发现它的工作人员主要由顶点退伍军人。
那些离开苹果经常说他们的生活得到改善。Facebook的管理把迹象在校园里读“承包商也是人”,或有工人参与校园工艺美术活动。谷歌支付超过竞争对手,让每个人都使用健身房,尼克•威尔逊说曾在苹果通过顶点,然后在Facebook工作,现在是一个承包商做映射在谷歌工作。
移动公司之间不想进步,威尔逊说。“我学到的技能在苹果可以延续,”他说,补充说,他的经理对任何员工试图区分。“有很多人倡议,让事情,提高效率。他们不会以任何方式得到回报,”他说。“有的人放弃任何希望。他们来晚了,早走,整天什么也不做。他们对待其他人一样。”(Lutsko和威尔逊拒绝讨论的确切性质工作或工作的建设,以他们的保密协议)。
Hammerwood感到心情暗淡去年晚些时候,先端突然解雇后的好处和变化后大约24人,据两位员工当前的顶点。形容工作场所是一个令人沮丧的和安静的,每个人都不安。“我也害怕被社会,因为他们可能会看到,不够努力,”他说。“顶点处理所有敏感和机密的方式终止妊娠,“Omohundro说。“公司不分享员工终止妊娠的细节,不管他们是不是导致原因。”
积极分子与新兴科技产业的劳工运动说组织的萎缩的劳动力已经成熟,但承认这是具有挑战性的组织白领。说:“这是一个新的概念,雅娜Calou,组织者在Coworker.org。信息工作者一直沉默比保安和食堂工人面对科技公司因为他们全职工作,Calou说。“我认为的小想法,我会是一个例外,它挤压。’”
这种感觉最终会消退。一位前顶工人,一名32岁住在房子的女仆宿舍八个室友,说多年的不确定性使他疲惫不堪。“你是怎么计划你的未来如果你的工作有一个过期日期吗?”他说。他是加利福尼亚本地人在十年前搬到旧金山,有硕士学位,内化硅谷的品牌的乐观。但在苹果所谓的蒸发黑色的网站。“听起来不错,当你说你在苹果工作,但是当你没有支付相同的金额,和你不一样,它会老很快,”他说。“我不明白为什么他们不只是雇个人,给他们一个股份公司。”
