Apple lost a lot of ground over the past year when it comes to employee happiness.
The California-based tech giant plummeted to No. 42 on CareerBliss’ annual happiest companies list after holding the No. 15 spot on last year’s list. Apple had an overall Bliss Score of 4.17 out of 5 last year. Over the past 12 months, however, the company’s overall Bliss Score has fallen to 3.97.
The CareerBliss 50 Happiest Companies in America for 2013 is based on company reviews submitted by employees at the CareerBliss site. The anonymous reviews evaluate employee happiness on several factors, such as culture, compensation and coworkers.
While other companies have also moved down on the 2013 list, Apple’s 27-position fall is the most dramatic. We took a closer look at employee reviews submitted this year to figure out what’s going on over at Apple.
There are two recurring complaints : Employees lamented what they characterize as a secretive culture, and complained about lack of opportunities to grow and advance within the company.
“The creative, innovative people who work in the tech field want the big picture about where their company is, where it is headed and how their contributions further a company’s mission,” said Matt Miller, co-founder and CTO of CareerBliss. “Feeling like you are being kept in the dark or that you are not trusted can definitely alienate you and take its toll on happiness.”
Here’s some of what what Apple employees had to say:
“I would be more transparent with my employees about what is being done and where we are going.” – Apple employee
“The process [is] too much secretive, we have jump a lot of hoops to start the actual work.” -- Apple test engineer
“I don't trust them. I think they would dump a person who is having a bad day in an instant.” – Apple employee
“There was not set path to move forward in the company.” -- Apple specialist
“Cut throat, unrealistic schedules, pompous industrial designers blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.” – Apple design engineer consultant
“Secretive culture; information sometimes hard to get; lack of a strong process. Adopt a standard and stick to it. More standardization is needed across teams to achieve better efficiencies.” – Apple IT project manager
“[Apple needs to] recognize the people regularly and appreciate the hard work put in.” – Apple senior product manager
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