Interview: The opening of the Apple Store in Sol, surrounded by some controversy

There are only a few hours left until Apple opens its main establishment in Puerta del Sol (Madrid) and there is a group of people who are not satisfied with the company's behavior, which usually creates good work environments for its employees. A few months ago we were contacted anonymously by a group of users calling themselves "Apple Scrapped". This people they were selected to work at the new Apple store in Sol and have gone through several job interviews in recent years. Finally, Apple has put them out of work, despite having confirmed in the past that they had been hired.

This situation has not only caused great frustration among the Apple Scrapped group, but some of them had already moved to Madrid with the desire to start working for the company. After consulting sources close to Apple, we have been able to find out that everything was due to a overcontracting: poor planning led to the hiring of more people than those in need in Spain.

After contrasting information, interviewing people and checking the facts, I have decided to interview the Apple Scrapped group and publish their story.

Pablo Ortega (Actualidad iPhone)- Tell us what exactly happened. When did you start the selection process, how long did it last, when did they tell you that you had been hired and when did they tell you that you were no longer part of the team.

Apple Scrapped- A little over two years ago, on 30/12/2011 to be exact, and after registering on Apple's employment website, we received an email in which we were summoned to what they call Apple's hiring days. , which would take place from January 9 to 13, 2012 in Madrid. After successfully passing the three interviews that took place in just under a month, spread over different days, and in which hundreds of people participated in the luxurious Silken Puerta América hotel in the capital, we are waiting for new news from of AMM, Apple's international recruitment person, who was always, and throughout the entire process, our only form of contact, so we always, we repeat ALWAYS, has been up to date and has been aware of everything that happened, since as head of selection, she was the one who made the decisions. In fact, we have abundant documentation, from the email in which she congratulates us, and in which she tells us that it is a real pleasure to communicate, that we have been selected to be part of the Madrid team, and that we would receive news from her soon.

We still did not know what Store we would be destined for, since new openings were rumored, including Plaza Norte 2, and the long-awaited Puerta del Sol. Never, until today, did they tell us which store we would be destined for. Just a couple of months after having passed the selection process, they inaugurated the Apple Store in Plaza Norte 2. Apple had created, let's say in some way, a quarry to be used for present and future needs. Some colleagues were located there, and others were waiting for a place, both for existing stores, and for other future stores. (Take as an example the future Apple store in the sun, in which hundreds of people would be needed).

The works of the Apple Store in Sol, which sounded like the next opportunity for us, were delayed much to our regret. What more would we have wanted than to start working only to finish the selection process. So we considered ourselves the first to be affected. After two long years of waiting, and in which every little time we have always maintained contact with the recruitment person by email periodically, finally it seems that the works are coming to an end, so the AMM of Apple's international personnel selection, summons us to a meeting last February of this and 2014 in whose email she specified as subject, next selection process, which makes us jump all the alarms, since we had already passed our process.

The day of the appointment arrived, this time in the luxurious and central Urban Hotel, and as we feared before entering, once inside the room where the interview would take place, we found some tables arranged as they were in the first interview of the process that we did two years ago. In the room there are several round tables in which we will take a seat as we enter it.

The interview begins ... Same presentation, same beginning, same mechanics, same process. EVERYTHING IS THE SAME AS IN THE FIRST INTERVIEW. We are undergoing a new selection process, in which NOTHING HAS CHANGED. What do they seek in us that we did not have before? Why to look for different qualities in us from then, is it still exactly the same interview and not a different one? Why do they ask us for something that they are supposed to want to know if we have no, with an interview exactly the same as two years ago? And most importantly: Apple, a company that boasts of giving equal opportunities, and no to discrimination, why are we exposed to a second selection process, when the normal thing is that we only go through one, like the rest from the people?

We could ask ourselves thousands of questions to try to make sense of all this, although unfortunately it does not. Therefore, and without wanting to remove any value from the selection processes that other colleagues may have undergone, we feel doubly evaluated with respect to the rest. We were being subjected to what we consider to be a hoax, so tension built in the room. Long faces, many nerves, faces of disbelief, surprise, disappointment.

Such was the tension that a colleague suffered an anxiety attack, so they had to take her to the back of the room waiting for her to calm down. All this was not for less, and it was nothing more than the fruit of disappointment after passing a selection process, and of remaining waiting for two long years Waiting for this moment to come

What at first had to be a meeting to reconnect, to begin to specify opening dates or to do the training course, any of them cause for joy; It became a torturous, tense and agonizing reunion, from which we knew we would not come out well. Once the interview is over and as we go out into the street, everything is lowered heads, comments of hopelessness, disbelief.

Days after this meeting, we received an email from the aforementioned selection person, communicating without further ado that we are out of the selection process, and without any explanation.

Pablo Ortega- By what means did they tell you that they had changed their mind? What arguments did they give you?

Apple scrapped- As we have mentioned before, they communicated it to us by email, and let's call him in some way ... argument, it was only that they had decided on this occasion to continue with other candidates, whose profile better adjusted to their current needs.

To this day we are still waiting for them to explain to us what that profile is, and what are the needs that they now have, and that they did not have before. After sending the selection person several emails asking for explanations of what happened, he has only deigned to answer one of them in which he tells us, briefly and verbatim, that he understands what happened, that he understands it, and that he will take it as an area of ​​improvement for future occasions. Something that on top of it sounds like a mess to us. Since then, given the flood of emails it has received, and given the scale that this is taking, we have not received any news, apologies or any solution from them.

Pablo Ortega- How many members are part of the affected group, Apple Scrapped?

Apple Scrapped- We are a group of 15 people that is increasing very little by little, and although we are all of us, we are not all of us, since at the moment the group has been made up of people who have managed to contact each other, knowingly that we are many more affected by this issue. But despite the fact that many of us knew each other by sight of the different interviews that we had to pass, you exchange your email with everyone you come across during a selection process, so it has been impossible for us at the moment to locate more colleagues to be able to do more pressure and join in our fight.

Pablo Ortega- Did you get to sign a labor contract? Have you tried or thought of suing Apple?

Apple Scrapped- Regarding your question as to whether we have formulated any complaint or movement before the courts, as you well know, we are aware of the strength of the company that we would be facing Given the case, it would be absurd to go in and spend money that we do not have, to get into litigation that not only would not get anywhere, but also would not help us to recover the work we earned after passing the whole process of selection.

Both in the event that we take legal action, as in many others, we are nothing more than ants to them, so we think about taking advantage of part of all the free time that unfortunately as unemployed we have, to report the case in our own way and expose it publicly, which is the only one we can afford, and that is the press and the media.

We would like it to be clear that we we have absolutely no problem with Apple, If not the opposite. We love apple.

As for whether we sign some kind of contract. Unfortunately not. When a multinational like Apple bets on you, you go through a selection process, and you trust what they communicate to you in writing, the least you can expect is that this happens. This is nothing more than a symptom that trust, loyalty and transparency were not mutual. Unfortunately what is signed is what is worth, but ... would you have distrusted Apple if you had been in our place? We think this question explains everything.

Pablo Ortega- What measures have you taken in the face of such behavior by Apple?

Apple Scrapped- Before reaching this extreme that we have been forced to go, we have sent our formal complaint, both to Apple's international recruitment person (The cause of the problem) by email, and by registered letter to Apple's own offices in California, for which we wrote a letter in English addressed to Tim Cook himself, without obtaining by any of the two mentioned ways any solution.

The reason for sending our complaint by certified mail to Tim Cook, knowing that he will not be the one reading them, was none other than to send our complaint to someone competent and superior to the HR department.

Pablo Ortega- What is your goal with all this movement? Would you like to regain the position that was guaranteed to you one day?

Apple Scrapped- We want to insist, and we do not want to be annoying, that the reason for our protest would not have taken place, if it had been an interview or process like many others in which your candidacy is rejected for reason "X". In this case, the reason is even more painful, since they are people who have successfully passed a selection process made up of three interviews from among hundreds of candidates, and then they leave you lying.

It is as if you get a 10 in selectivity to choose the career you want, and when the time comes they tell you that you cannot access that career, because your effort is no longer worth it.

Our real objective would not only be to try to recover our position, although we are honest: now we give it more than for lost.

Pablo Ortega- Se that you have sent a letter to Tim Cook himself informing him of what happened and that he has received it. Have you had any official response from Apple? Do you think the facts are being investigated?

Apple Scrapped- Indeed, as we have mentioned previously, we sent that letter to Tim Cook and we are aware that the letter was delivered by hand on April 18, without today we have received any response from him.

We are not aware, nor do we believe that the facts are being investigated, but we do have indications that they know we are here, and that they do not like it. We from here challenge you to that if what we claim, and with the evidence we have, is not true, take action against us or give a convincing version of events.

To this day, the absence of it shows that the indefensible cannot be defended.

Paul Ortega - Why have you decided to remain anonymous? Are you afraid of retaliation from Apple?

Apple Scrapped- There are colleagues who are afraid, others who are losing hope, others who believe that this will not get anywhere, and above all, and in what we all agree, is that what we would least like to see, are our names and surnames in a newspaper or any other medium. For what we want our anonymity to be respected.

We are unemployed people, each with a different story, and some with real family dramas given the situation. We have felt cheated and abandoned by Apple, but what we would not like is to have even more difficulty finding a job or make ends meet , because people relate our names to going against the company that should have hired us despite having passed the selection process successfully, or because we do not even get the money to pay us a lawyer in a possible Apple complaint towards us.

Apple knows who we are: if you want you can find us, either to help us, or to finish us off.