What you need to know
- Apple has placed senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjøvik on administrative leave.
- Gjøvik had been tweeting about sexism issues in the workplace.
Apple has placed a senior engineering program manager on leave after tweeting about sexism at the company.
As reported by The Verge, the company has placed senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjøvik on administrative leave after tweeting about sexism in the workplace. Gjøvik will reportedly remain on leave indefinitely as the company investigates her claims.
In an interview with The Verge, Gjøvik said that, in addition to being placed on leave, Apple's employee relations team implied that she should remain off the company's internal Slack and not meet one-on-one with other employees to discuss the company's policies.
"For months, I have been raising concerns with Apple employee relations about years of experiences with sexism, a hostile work environment, sexual harassment, unsafe working conditions, and retaliation ... I asked them to mitigate the hostile work environment while they investigate, and they initially offered me EAP therapy and medical leave. I told them that made no sense, and said they should talk to my leadership and set up oversight and boundaries. I added that if there was no other option they could give me paid administrative leave. They apparently made no effort to set boundaries and instead said they were placing me on administrative leave and implied they did not want me on Slack where I had been vocal about my concerns with certain policies at the company. They also implied they didn't want me to meet one-on-one with other women at the company about their concerns with Apple policies, which I had been doing."
Apple has already closed an investigation in the past that was prompted by Gjøvik's claims of discrimination at the company. When the investigation concluded that nothing innapropriate was found, Gjøvik tweeted out messages she had received from male coworkers:
Wanted to share: #Apple employee relations confirmed this #tonepolicing is totally ok feedback for me to get from my #bigtech #male leaders & not #sexist.
As this investigation rolls on, I've decided to start Tweeting the stuff they say is "ok." I mean, they did say it was ok? pic.twitter.com/EImLTjRTBlWanted to share: #Apple employee relations confirmed this #tonepolicing is totally ok feedback for me to get from my #bigtech #male leaders & not #sexist.
As this investigation rolls on, I've decided to start Tweeting the stuff they say is "ok." I mean, they did say it was ok? pic.twitter.com/EImLTjRTBl— Ashley M. Gjøvik (@ashleygjovik) August 3, 2021August 3, 2021
In today's #Apple employee relations said its fine update, here's the heartfelt email I sent my #bigtech male leadership in 2018 during the Kavanaugh hearings. I asked for support of women & to condemn #sexism & #sexualassault. The reply: a text saying "FWIW, RBG thinks he's ok." pic.twitter.com/0GTthZNEgHIn today's #Apple employee relations said its fine update, here's the heartfelt email I sent my #bigtech male leadership in 2018 during the Kavanaugh hearings. I asked for support of women & to condemn #sexism & #sexualassault. The reply: a text saying "FWIW, RBG thinks he's ok." pic.twitter.com/0GTthZNEgH— Ashley M. Gjøvik (@ashleygjovik) August 4, 2021August 4, 2021
Apple has been experiencing an uptick in employee activism going public lately. The company had hired and then quickly fired a former ad executive from Facebook after employees at the company pushed back about the hire due to the executive's history of sexism.
