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Comment by module0000 | Hacker News Reader

> I also eventually received an apology from the company and got time off to deal with my stress.

I'm not sure how I feel(as an AAPL shareholder) about this. I invest in the company, and they are spending(albeit a tiny portion in the grand scheme of things) my money to pay you...so you can deal with your stress? Really? I understand bereavement leave, sick leave, and FMLA....but stress? What happened to businesses existing to do business, not give out warm and fuzzy vibes?

Maybe I'm jaded, but my last jobs were the military, more military, contracting for the military, and ending with military(all in IT). Stress happens, but I didn't let my team down by bowing out from stress, and "disgust" sums up how I feel reading about others doing it.

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> I'm not sure how I feel(as an AAPL shareholder) about [giving her time off]

If I were an AAPL shareholder, I'd be very pleased about it. The behavior indicated in the post very much leaves the company at risk of spending possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal counsel and settlement fees/court-ordered payouts.

Getting away with only an apology and some time off is a bargain.

As for your last paragraph, perhaps there's a distinction between necessary stress and unnecessary stress. You seem to be describing necessary stress -- the stress that's intrinsic to working at a company, facing deadlines, negotiating with clients/other departments, etc.

By contrast, this woman describes a pattern of being on the receiving end of personal attacks based on items unrelated to quality/delivery of work. That would be a very different sort of stress from what you're describing.

This is where the EU view of a company having its customers, its shareholders, and its employees as stakeholders all having rights makes a difference. If your view is shareholder primacy, that only the shareholder matters, then you end up with a very different system.

Do we really all need to live as if we were in the military? Don't people go to war so others can live in peace?

According to the story as presented in the article, failures of Apple's official representatives (managers & HR) were among the causes of her intense stress and depression. Attempting to fix the problems they caused seems like the least they could do.

If you went to work every day and were verbally and physically intimidated by your team, full of larger people making racist and sexist comments against you. Then when you tried to get help, your company essentially blamed you, trapping you in that situation with that "team". I'd imagine you'd feel a different kind of "stress" than what you're talking about.

As an AAPL shareholder I want them to fix the problem so that their employees don't harass other employees.

And how often did your team make fun of you, deride you on the job or act in an uncivil manner toward you in general? Stress is a real thing - when it builds up and you're not a tough military guy, you can't just suck it up. And even tough military guys do end up with severe stress, it's not called PTSD for "chin up and walk it off".

Think about it again - AAPL are also paying two shitheads to insult female employees and lower productivity. These are your money being thrown away to kick out a productive employee who was hired using your money.

> Think about it again - AAPL are also paying two shitheads to insult female employees and lower productivity.

I read the article, and I missed the part where productivity was lowered.

> And how often did your team make fun of you, deride you on the job or act in an uncivil manner toward you in general?

An IT-related MOS in the military comes with a LOT of making fun, derision, and things civies generally don't understand. In that light, maybe that's my problem with this: "I don't understand" the world those civies work in, and am incapable of relating to them or feeling empathy towards them.

Companies have a duty. Of care to protect their employees from harm in the workforce.

As a shareholder you should be pleased that Apple is taking action, because the legal costs plus compensation is more expensive.

Plus, you don't want to be the kind of cunt who says stupid shit like "stress isn't real" - only a fucking idiot would say something like that.

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