Company: Apple
Date: 2016-05-20
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Genius at Birmingham Apple Retail Store
Pros: Absolutely NONE at this store.
Cons: The worst management I have ever seen.
I have over 10 years of employment history in the IT industry and I never had any grieviences with management until joining this particular Apple Retail Store.
Very negative and very condesending attitude from some managers in particular here at this store.
Management offer ZERO support and are very quick to threaten employees with formal warnings of "disiplinary action" for those of us that dont meet the targets of serving at the minimum of 6 customers per hour for technical support at the Genius Bar.  Good technical ability and customer service is not valued or appreciated by management. They only care about how many customers we can see per day. We are lucky to have enough time to even ask a customer their name here. There are NO breaks here. Just a lunch break midway through a 9 hour shift. There is ONE toilet that serves the entire store of approx 140 employees!!!!  If any of the Genuis bar staff are more than 30 seconds away from the Genius Bar, management immediately start hounding then over the instore radios asking "Anybody have eyes on...(employee name)"  Anyone who dares to stand up to or to question management here is bullied and hounded until they finally leave the store (and MANY end up leaving this particular store)  Working conditions:  The is virtually NO air conditioning at this store. The heat is unbearable working here, even in winter.  Wearing apple shirts is mandatory but each employee is given just 2 t-shirts (1 long sleeve and 1 short sleeve) This is not sufficient as we need to change/wash these daily due to all the perspiration in the unbearable heat in this store. Several coworkers here also use bully tactics. They are 2 faced and like to send nasty emails to management with "feedback" on new employees in particular.  The only company i have worked in where it is "mandatory" to attend "out of store social events" These occur several times per year and any employees who dont attend receive an "attendance occurance" (its classed as being the same as calling in sick due to illness). We are expected to attend these even if they are scheduled on our day off....  Overall, this store is by FAR the worst employment I have ever had in more than 15 years of work experience, including over a decade in the IT industry.
It was so unbearable that I couldnt endure it any longer and resigned.