Apple’s senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjovik fired for “allegedly” leaking information

Ashley Gjovik had been tweeting allegations about being harassed and intimidated by Apple for months.

Ashley Gjovik was placed on administrative leave earlier in August this year while Apple was investigating some of the concerns she raised. (REUTERS)

Apple's senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjovik has been fired for allegedly violating the company's rules against leaking confidential information. Gjovik has been tweeting for months alleging harassment, surveillance, and workplace safety. “When I began raising workplace safety concerns in March, and nearly immediately faced retaliation and intimidation, I started preparing myself for something exactly like this to happen. I'm disappointed that a company I have loved since I was a little girl would treat their employees this way,” Gjovik said.

Gjovik had been raising concerns about the fact that her office which is in an Apple building located on a superfund site. A superfund site requires special oversight due to historical waste contamination, as The Verge notes. She also said that she has been facing harassment and bullying from her manager and other members of her team. Gjovik also raised privacy concerns regarding Apple's policies and “how it can search and surveil employees' work phones”.

Gjovik was placed on administrative leave earlier in August this year while Apple was investigating some of the concerns she raised. This is a placement Gjovik said she requested as a “last resort”.

A member of Apple's employee relations team got in touch with Gjovik on September 9 and said the company was “looking into a sensitive intellectual property matter and wanted to speak to her within the hour”. Gjovik said she wanted to keep all communications in writing and noted she was forwarding the correspondence to the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) where she had recently filed a charge. The employee relations representative responded to this to say that since Gjovik had chosen not to participate in the discussion, the company was going to move forward with the information they had, “given the seriousness of these allegations”, and were suspending her access to Apple systems.

This was followed by an email hours later that stated that Gjovik's employment at Apple was being terminated, effective September 10.

Any bets if I get a literal knock on my physical door from #Apple today? pic.twitter.com/oFqw4VFaGi

— Ashley M. Gjøvik (@ashleygjovik) September 9, 2021

“We are and have always been deeply committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace. We take all concerns seriously and we thoroughly investigate whenever a concern is raised and, out of respect for the privacy of any individuals involved, we do not discuss specific employee matters,” Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock told The Verge when they reached out for a comment.