How Slack changed Apple’s employee culture, with Zoë Schiffer

Apple has had a lot going on lately: we did a whole episode about the controversial child protection photo scanning features, which have now been delayed. A law in South Korea might force the company to change how App Store payments work; the company settled a Japanese case about the App Store recently, as well as a class-action lawsuit in this country. The verdict in the Epic trial will arrive and there are renewed questions about Apple’s relationship with the Chinese government. And, of course, it’s September — the month when new iPhones usually come out. But in the background, Verge senior reporter Zoë Schiffer has spent the past few months publishing story after story about unhappy Apple employees, who are starting to talk to the press more and more about what working at Apple is like, and how they’d like it to change. Nilay Patel talks to Zoë about the work she's been doing and what the future holds. Links: Here’s why Apple’s new child safety features are so controversial }https://bit.ly/3n9E07W Apple delays controversial child protection features after privacy outcry }https://bit.ly/38QdWX2 Apple and Google must allow developers to use other payment systems, new Korean law declares }https://bit.ly/3BQeXeb Apple concedes to let apps like Netflix, Spotify, and Kindle link to the web to sign up }https://bit.ly/3kT88Sg Epic Games v. Apple: the fight for the future of the App Store }https://bit.ly/3ySf873 Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield on competing with Microsoft, the future of work, and managing all those notifications }https://bit.ly/2VqBZck Apple employees circulate petition demanding investigation into “misogynistic” new hire }https://bit.ly/3h4Sqm4 “Misogynistic” Apple hire is out hours after employees call for investigation }https://bit.ly/3naaL5c Apple asks staff to return to office three days a week starting in early September }https://bit.ly/3yNcUWn Apple employees push back against returning to the office in internal letter }https://bit.ly/3BJYSXy Apple delays mandatory return to office until January 2022, citing COVID-19 surge }https://bit.ly/3l433H5 Apple places female engineering program manager on administrative leave after tweeting about sexism in the office }https://bit.ly/3jNwuO0 Google fires prominent AI ethicist Timnit Gebru }https://bit.ly/3toFXhZ Apple Shareholders Show Their Support for Tim Cook }https://nyti.ms/3tkAn01 Apple says all US employees now receive equal pay for equal work }https://bit.ly/3zSbpYj Apple keeps shutting down employee-run surveys on pay equity -- and labor lawyers say it’s illegal }https://bit.ly/3BNa85E Apple says it has pay equity, but an informal employee survey suggests otherwise }https://bit.ly/3zSJYh0 Apple just banned a pay equity Slack channel but lets fun dogs channel lie }https://bit.ly/3hbiyvB Apple employees are organizing, now under the banner #AppleToo }https://bit.ly/3hazJNP Here’s what we know about the Google union so far }https://bit.ly/2WWNfNK Google employees push back after mishandled sexual harassment revelations }https://bit.ly/3DUVv23 Apple cares about privacy, unless you work at Apple }https://www.theverge.com/22648265/apple-employee-privacy-icloud-id Black women say Pinterest created a den of discromination -- despite its image as the nicest company in tech }https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/03/pinterest-race-bias-black-employees/ Apple ordered to pay California store workers for time spent waiting for bag searches }https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/3/21419729/apple-california-pay-workers-class-action-bag-searches Read the transcript here: }https://www.theverge.com/e/22423538 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices