14 DAY TRIAL // After reports broke out that Apple retail employees around the world were being laid off, the Cupertino giant has admitted that it “messed up,” and that the company is setting everything back into place, just like it was before.
The newly-hired senior vice president of retail, John Browett, reportedly told employees that Apple had been trying a new staffing formula for its retail stores.
The new formula proved to be a bad one, and the company has since decided to revert to its older system. Browett reportedly told store managers to tell employees, “we messed up.”
However, while shift schedules were affected, no one was laid off, the Dow Jones reports.
Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet offered an official statement to the media, saying, “Making these changes was a mistake and the changes are being reversed. Our employees are our most important asset and the ones who provide the world-class service our customers deserve.”
People watching Apple up close will undoubtedly regard this episode as yet another hard piece of evidence that Steve Jobs’ influence is diminishing at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California.
After Jobs’ death in October 2011, Apple has been trying to tackle a number of problems that wouldn’t have arisen, should the visionary genius still be at the helm, pundits believe.
That’s not to say the hiring of John Browett (who comes from Dixons) was a mistake. However, Apple has lost some key executives in the past couple of years, one of which was Ron Johnson, who led and shaped up the company’s retail division for over a decade.
Johnson now runs JC Penney, a struggling American retailer that Johnson hopes to turn around. He has already left his mark on the retailer’s bottom line, and in a good way too.
It may be that Browett could use a chat with Johnson really soon.