Apple Job Title Changes Overview
- Where: Complaints have been filed against Apple at the federal level.
- Who: A former employee exposed Apple’s practice of changing employees’ job titles to “associate,” regardless of their actual titles within the company.
- Why: The former employee alleges Apple regularly engages in discrimination and illegal conduct.
It has recently come to light that Apple routinely changes employees’ job titles to the lower-level “associate” in job verification databases once an employee leaves the company, regardless of their actual position while employed with the tech giant. Former employees say Apple’s actions prevent workers from finding competitive jobs elsewhere.
Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock confirmed the company’s actions, but did not say why the company does this or when it began. The company also said it “thoroughly investigate[s] whenever a concern is raised.”
Federal Complaints Filed Against Apple
Apple’s actions have only really been noticed when employees or former employees run into issues when their résumés conflict with official job verification databases, such as those owned by Equifax and LexisNexis.
Cher Scarlett, a former Apple security software engineer, recently brought attention to Apple’s perplexing practice when she filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Labor Relations Board. Scarlett alleges that the change in her job title to “associate” resulted in a rescinded job offer made to her by prospective employer Seattle Cancer Care Alliance after a confusing weeklong delay in her hiring process.
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance had hired Sterling, an employment verification firm, to check the discrepancy in Scarlett’s job titles between her records and InVerify’s, an employment verification service owned by credit agency Equifax. A recruiter also emailed Scarlett asking her to provide references from Apple to help demystify the “job title discrepancy with Apple.”
Apple’s Anomalous Practice ‘Devastating’ for Employees
Apple directs other employers to use InVerify when they want to verify a former Apple employee’s title. According to The Washington Post, an InVerify customer service representative said “Apple is the only company he knew of that changes job titles of employees when they leave,” or take a leave of absence. The representative said he gets a few calls a month regarding former Apple employees’ job titles, The Post reports.
Janneke Parrish, a former Apple employee who didn’t know about the title changes until now, said that the title changes can have “devastating consequences” for employees for whom their titles heavily signify their skill level. The practice “severely limits the ability for ex-Apple employees to verify past employment,” and “essentially forces us to stay in Apple’s good graces,” Parrish said.
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