Maybe Microsoft is poaching Apple employees, or maybe they're jumping ship

By Phil Nickinson
last updated

Oh, Apple ... Sure you make the trains run on time, but are the peasants truly happy? It seems that there's a bit more unrest being spawned from Cupertino.

First comes word that Microsoft is poaching wooing retail store managers away from Apple in preparation for its own line of retail stores. [Ars via TiPB] Nothing too strange there. These things happen. But for Apple, it's hardly a new trend.

But top that with new of a possible employee walkout on Oct. 3 at the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Wash., and this could turn out to be a full-on to-do. Losing the managers is bad enough. But if you can't keep the worker bees happy, they'll go elsewhere. And not even Fake Steve Jobs can stop that.

And with a couple of exciting new products already in the wild (Exhibits A and B), and presumably more on the way, Microsoft couldn't come calling at a better time.

Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson

Phil is the father of two beautiful girls and is the Dad behind Modern Dad. Before that he spent seven years at the helm of Android Central. Before that he spent a decade in a newsroom of a two-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist newspaper. Before that — well, we don't talk much about those days. Subscribe to the Modern Dad newsletter!

1 Comment
  • I'd rather be waterboarded at a Microsoft Store than beaten with a GREEN rubber hose at an Apple store!
    Seriously, Apple has been FIRING employees and contractors for the past 2 years now. In the case of Telesales in california they called it "redeployment" or some Fake Applespeak like that. What they did to save money was move the jobs that paid a tiny commission (reportedly less than 1%) from Elk Grove, CA to Austin, TX and made the positions hourly only, effectively putting just under 200 people out of work. Apple was forced to report this, as the State of California's Labor Law requires companies thay "lay off" a certain number of people to disclose it. They also had to report the mass DE-DEPLOYMENT? of many Apple Store staff across the state and the nation. So what does Apple have to whine about?