Ashley Gjøvik, a former Apple employee, documents her whistleblowing claims and legal dispute with Apple on her own site.
HN commenters link her account of events; some think she has real concerns but doubt it's major news, and question parts of her timeline.
https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html
July 2, 2021
In a heavy redacted email she was exposed to a substance and want to know "what chemicals & at what levels, for future cancer monitoring, etc." It made me curios what she was exposed too.
July 20, 2021.
Here I think she is accusing someone from apple of smuggling and "violating of the US embargo & sanctions against <redacted>" I assume is Iran by the length of the redacted text.
July 28, 2021.
She wants to transfer to ER and is refused 42 times. If she would have been transferred to ER she would have publish every complaint she investigated and used everything for here own lawsuit and her own cause.
July 29, 2021
Long email were she is unhappy with the investigation and what the conclusion of each investigation to be sorted by area of the law to route them to different lawyers. In the list we get toxic tort but no details.
I think any health issue that she will have in the future would result in a lawsuit against apple.
Aug 6th, 2021
Long list of articles were she was mentioned and tweets. She talks about Apple not doing exposure testing but nothing else regarding the chemicals.
August 14th 2021
Post a picture of a colleagues office with 5 bottles of alcohol and 3 bullet cases with the tip (the bullet) removed and 1 old musket ammunition. Not one of the items is live ammunition but she say it is live ammunition.
She took a picture of a colleague looking at a rifle specs. At this point it would…
There is definitely sexism in tech. No doubt. I've seen it, and I push back when I do.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I would have serious concerns about a male employee with 'valley girl' rising terminals in meetings. According to Wikipedia [1] while there are differences between the way men and women 'valleyspeak' it does in fact apply to both. I would address both the same way, seeking to understand - in open dialogue - whether there was a basis in (lack of) confidence and trying to find ways to support them further in their career development. Maybe suggest public speaking classes, especially if available through work.
[edit] further to [2] I found the way the feedback was communicated around the rising intonation friendly, positive and when addressed, the progress was kindly affirmed and remarked on. I saw no negativity in this. I did see someone who was indignant about receiving criticism, however, and took it to a level rarely seen in a professional setting. To call this the 'nuclear option' would be a bit of an understatement.
Reading the back and forth documented in [2] is an absolute train wreck. Once I got a few pages in, I started to empathize deeply with Apple ER. That's not an easy job some days.
One tweet the author posted said:
> "... when #Apple just tried I said 'No thx, Mr Suicide Nets.' If you're going to create a nervous breakdown you get to watch it unfold in real time & now I'm on Twitter again."
Referring to Tim Cook as 'Mr Suicide Nets'…
One of the employees has posted her version of events online in great detail here: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html
Strangely, her timeline about Apple begins in March with an article she published about her health problems. I remember the story was #1 on Hacker News that day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26688965 She was having health problems and believed they were the result of toxic waste somewhere on the site of her apartment complex property.
I remember that the details of the story didn’t really support her claims as significantly as she suggested. I detailed my concerns in the HN thread about her other toxic waste battle: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26689837 The summary is that she was living in an upper floor apartment but she assumed something in the ground was causing her medical symptoms. She found evidence that an old toxic waste container might be buried somewhere on the 100 acre property surrounding her apartments. She used some questionable measurements (heart rate change of 10bpm and spurious readings from a generic indoor VOC monitor) to try to bolster her story, but it didn’t make sense that the thousands of other people on this site weren’t experiencing severe medical issues even though her apartment wasn’t close to the supposedly toxic ground.
She is apparently also waging a significant battle against her apartment complex and the city for the issues she believes were caused by a toxic waste container that was…
> I have never been accused of “sexism” despite the “risk” of working with women and men including giving advice to all genders.
Glad to hear it :). It's nice to know that things aren't that bad after all.
> Maybe you should think about the “advice” you give and why you are so worried about getting “cancelled”.
Fair enough. The advice given to the OP was "when closing sentences in presentations, you finish the sentence in a way that sounds like you're asking a question. Something to pay attention to going forward". [1]
The boss than later provided feedback when she improved that in her presentations by saying "you did great. I didn't hear you going up an octave at the end of your statements, came across as much more authoritative, it's super refreshing to provide feedback and then see you attempt to act upon it."
In general, I don't really see that as sexist at all. However, the person getting that advice said "This #tonepolicing is totally okay feedback to get from my #bigtech #male leaders and not #sexist".
At this point, considering that anything seems to be able to be taken as "sexist". Maybe it's better to keep your mouth shut when giving feedback to females. Again, Why risk your entire career for one person? That's my logic at least. I hope that doesn't mean I am sexist.
1. https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html
> In early 2015, Apple started stealth semiconductor fabrication activities in a facility located at 3250 Scott Boulevard in Santa Clara California, less than two hundred feet from thousands of homes. The factory intentionally vented its exhaust of solvent vapors and toxic gases straight from the roof and into the ambient outdoor air, with little or no abatement. The factory was only one story while the apartments were four stories tall, nearly ensuring the factory exhaust entered the apartment windows and 'fresh air intake' vents.
> Gjovik lived at these apartments in 2020 and found herself in the emergency room within one week, disabled by symptoms of solvent and gas exposure. Later in 2020, Gjovik conducted air testing and bio-monitoring which found the presence of Apple's factory exhaust inside her home, and inside her body.
Source: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/3250scott.html
Furthermore, we're talking about a company that willingly sources materials from effective slave labor in the Congo and other areas, while gaslighting their customer base about their commitment to inclusivity. There is no defending Apple here. These decisions are made by multiple people who should all be in prison.
Fyi, she’s the same woman whose apartment complex was apparently built on toxic waste that made her sick (only her), yet noone could measure any harmful substance in her apartment, the authorities couldn’t help and tried to cover it up. [1]
It seems strange that she happens to be also the victim of organized workplace harrasment at Apple. And again, the authorities (internal Employee Relations) refused to help, and tried to cover it up…?
Either she’s the most unlucky person… or maybe it’s all in her head? Take a look at her website documenting her “ordeals” at Apple [2] To me, it looks like the scrapbook of a paranoid schizophrenic who meticulously collects “evidence” on their “gangstalking”… Just look at this tweet [3] where she talks about fighting Apple, Northrop Grumman (!) and the Irvine Company, and tell me with a straight face that she’s not a wacko.
[1] https://sfbayview.com/2021/03/i-thought-i-was-dying-my-apartment-was-built-on-toxic-waste/
[2] https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html
[3] https://www.ashleygjovik.com/uploads/1/3/7/0/137008339/published/screen-shot-2021-08-15-at-11-19-21-am.png?1629051806