Not two weeks ago, Ashley Gjøvik filed a complaint with the U.S. labor board accusing her employer, Apple, of illegal retaliation. He became too vocal, he said, about his experiences with sexism and concerns about safety in the workplace. The company wanted him stopped.
She was fired on Thursday.
Gjøvik is one of two employees who filed charges against Apple last month with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, alleging harassment and intimidation of the company. (The agency investigates all charges and prosecutes those it can justify.) Complaints follow a rare outburst employee activism at Apple, which manifested itself last month under the hashtag #AppleToo: an open reference to the 2017 Me Too movement, which overthrew powerful men impervious to allegations of misconduct.
Employees, who said they were out to expose patterns of discrimination and abuse within Apple, said they had flown under the radar for too long.
In a letter explaining Gjøvik’s dismissal, Apple accused the (former) head of the senior engineering program of disclosing “confidential product-related information,” adding that he also “did not cooperate” during the process. ‘research’.
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Gjøvik, who has publicly accused Apple of ignoring harassment by a manager and subjecting it to hostile working conditions, said over the phone that it did not know details about the “confidential information” it was accused of disclosing. .
It was Apple, he said, that had ignored his attempts at cooperation.
The company’s emails shared with Gizmodo show that Apple had contacted Gjøvik by email Thursday afternoon asking him to “connect” with her “today as soon as possible.” “We were studying a sensitive intellectual property issue that we would like to talk to you about,” the first email he received said.
“Happy to help!” Gjøvik responded minutes later, with a warning: he wanted to keep the email, “so let’s leave it all in writing please.”
It took almost an hour. When Apple responded, it seemed to completely ignore Gjøvik’s request and his enthusiastic cooperation agreement. “Since you have decided not to participate in the discussion, we will proceed with the information we have and, given the seriousness of these allegations, we will suspend your access to Apple systems,” the response said.
Gjøvik reiterated: “As mentioned, I am definitely willing to participate in your research,” and added: “I offered help by email to make sure we have a documented [record] of our conversations considering everything that is currently going on with my investigation and my complaints to the government ”.
Gjøvik added: “I would very much like the opportunity to solve any real problem. Let me know what the problems are so I can try it in good faith. ”If the company continued to talk vaguely about the allegations against her, she wrote, she would consider it further proof of retaliation.
Apple’s email responses stopped. Hours later he had no job.
The completion letter, shared with Gizmodo, did not illuminate anything. He repeated the same ambiguous accusation and said he “did not cooperate and did not provide accurate and complete information during Apple’s investigation process.”
An inquiry was obtained from Apple no answer. In a statement a the Virgindespite this the company He said he wouldn’t Address cap “Employee Specific Issues”.
Speaking on the phone, Gjøvik’s voice cracked several times. “Apple has been my favorite company since I was little. It was like that [my] he dreams of working for them, “he said.” Even though I had a terrible experience, I feel like I did a very good job. It seems like a betrayal that they have treated me that way. “
Gjøvik said, still, that he was not surprised. Since he began raising concerns about job security in March, his office was built in superfund place this requires special permits due to prior contamination by hazardous waste; she had been preparing for recovery.
“I was not going to shut up or walk away. I was going to defend myself and my co-workers, “Gjøvik said.” I was going to expose the systemic problems I identified. I was going to organize with the employees. I would demand internal and public accountability from the largest company in the world ”.
He said that his only desire was to become a “girl in the universe” of Apple’s work and work practices.