Ducks in a Row: About Rules
by Miki Saxon
Ironic, isn’t it. Right on top of yesterday’s post about ethics, comes this.
Most people even slightly in touch with the tech scene have heard about the Apple engineer who was fired for allowing his daughter to show off features of the new iPhone X in a YouTube video.
The engineer who was fired, Peterson’s father Ken Bauer, is seen in the video using Apple Pay on the iPhone X. He hands the phone to his daughter, and she walks through various features.
The daughter posted a follow-up video saying,
“Apple let him go. At the end of the day, when you work for Apple, it doesn’t matter how good of a person you are. If you break a rule, they just have no tolerance.”
How ‘bout that.
Dad knew he shouldn’t do it, but did it anyway.
Daughter takes no responsibility and says Apple is the bad guy.
What is wrong with this scenario?
Companies don’t make rules for the fun of it.
Rules are there to ensure certain actions are or are not taken.
Rules are not there to break.
Most companies (all?) would consider giving public exposure to a yet-to-be released product a firing offense.
Hopefully Bauer learned his lesson and won’t do the same thing at his next company; however, his actions will give pause and make many hiring managers skittish.
Cynic that I am, I wonder what, if anything, his daughter will learn from this experience. She doesn’t look all that young, so you have to wonder what her actions will be when she starts working.
Image credit: Joshua Smith
