Apple has been facing a lot of criticism from its employees recently for multiple reasons, and now, Ashley Gjøvik, a senior engineering program manager, has revealed that the company has placed her on administrative leave after she complained on Twitter about sexism at work.
According to Gjøvik in an interview with The Verge, she has been raising concerns about sexism at Apple for years, ranging from sexual harassment to retaliation from other employees. Apple offered EAP therapy and medical leave to the engineering manager, but she wasn’t satisfied with the proposal.
Gjøvik began to complain about her situation in Apple’s internal Slack, but she was asked to no longer use the group for these issues and not to meet with other women at the company to talk about Apple’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.
The employee had already asked for a sex discrimination investigation at Apple in 2018, but the employee relations team closed the case on the grounds that nothing was wrong. Now, following her new concerns, Gjøvik has been informed that the employee relations team has placed her on indefinite paid leave.
2021 has been a tough year for Apple when it comes to the company’s relationship with its employees. Earlier this year, the company fired Antonio Garcia Martinez after multiple employees complained about sexist and misogynistic comments written by the former engineer. In the meantime, a group of employees has been criticizing Apple for denying requests from people who want to work from home.
So, following raising concerns to #Apple about #sexism, #hostileworkenvironment, & #unsafeworkconditions, I’m now on indefinite paid administrative leave per #Apple employee relations, while they investigate my concerns. This seems to include me not using Apple’s internal Slack.
— Ashley M. Gjøvik (@ashleygjovik) August 4, 2021
