14 DAY TRIAL // It’s hectic at Apple. We’ve known this since forever. Headlines that go “the truth about working at Apple” have filled the Internet over the years. But two former Apple managers are giving a whole new meaning to 24/7.
Don Melton, former director of Internet Technologies, and Nitin Ganatra, former director of iOS Apps, sat down with Debug 47 to do a podcast about how it was to work at Apple.
Actual 24/7
According to Ganatra, a mid-to-high-level employee couldn’t get any rest. Emails would fly back and forth and Sundays were actually busier than Saturdays, because they had to prepare for the Monday meeting.
“You get an email forwarded to you that’s not to you. It’s from Scott, but it’s a forward from Steve and it’s just coming at this crazy hour, right? You just know that there’s this firehose of emails that are just going out at 2:45 in the morning and there are VPs or executive VPs who are scrambling to get answers. And that was just week after week, month after month, over the years,” reads a transcript.
Melton chimed in to say, “Sunday is a work night for everybody at Apple ... Because it’s the exec meeting the next day. So you had your phone out there, you were sitting in front of your computer, it didn’t matter if your favorite show was on.”
Tim Cook is a workaholic like no other
There are stories about Apple’s CEO regarding his schedule and how he only gets a few hours of sleep every night, hits the gym at around 4:00 AM, and comes in the office before sunrise.
Some would say those reports are a bit exaggerated. Melton says they’re true:
“When you hear the so-called apocryphal stories about Tim Cook coming to work in the wee hours and staying late, it’s not just some PR person telling you stories to make you think that Apple executives work really hard like that. They really do that. I mean, these people are nuts. They’re just, they are there all the time.”
Started with Jobs, continued under Cook
When Steve Jobs passed away, not everyone was equally sad. For example, some people thought the era of long shifts and no weekends would end, as Tim Cook would take the reins and instate a more positive vibe and a less stressful work environment. They were wrong.
But Cook seems to better understand the need for rest than Steve Jobs did. According to reports, he’s more relaxed on employee vacations and bonuses, and he always makes sure to give everyone a pat on the back – those company-wide emails that always get leaked in the press – for their hard work.