4 ms·

The firing for for simply helping a friend seems shocking. I did, however, once know a fellow that did tech support for an ISP, that used his work calls to sou

The firing for for simply helping a friend seems shocking. I did, however, once know a fellow that did tech support for an ISP, that used his work calls to source his freelance onsite tech support business. Once the main company found out they let him go. Omitted from the article is whether the OP charged for his time. But I can't help but think that either Apple is ridiculous, or we're not hearing the whole story.

ape4 6y ago
I don't get it either. Does Apple actually have a policy against doing something that the Store offers?
- hellofunk 6y ago
  If the story doesn't make sense, that usually means we haven't heard the whole story.
  - emn13 6y ago
    Well, if you assume that an Apple Store cares very little for it's experts, then the story makes sense. Which isn't implausible, right?
  - kube-system 6y ago
    Moonlighting clauses are common. I am not sure what doesn't make sense here. Businesses add them because they: 1. don't want to potentially lose revenue 2. don't want to dilute their brand 3. don't want any liability associated with an employee doing work outside of their officially sanctioned capacity 4. don't want to culturally set an acceptable level of noncompliance with procedure even if the above violations aren't egregious.
    - donor20 6y ago
      Two reasons we have anti-moonlight. Insurance is very concerned about claims resulting from off the clock / third party work related to day time work. So if you are a doctor working in a practice group, and then do freelance work, that is going to absolutely freak an insurance carrier out. Security - people don't realize that a lot of stuff on-premise / on-network is tracked and logged. So if you "help" someone out off-site / off work people get nervous. T-mobile employee doing a sim swap with customer in store on video - sure. T-mobile employee logging in off hours to do a sim swap - maybe sketchier even if they are "helping a friend".
sukilot 6y ago
If paid freelance is banned, then free freelance is banned because it's trivial to say "no I didn't get paid".
ggggtez 6y ago
Just one idea on what might have happened. If you look at it from the manager's point of view, it is probably something like: Employee told a potential customer that he will make a home-visit, for free. There is no way that the Apple Store would support making promises like that. But if he made that promise while he was at work, it could be construed that he wasn't doing a personal favor, but acting on behalf of his job. So if anything went wrong (say, he fried the computer) then Apple could potentially have some liability.

ape4 6y ago

I don't get it either. Does Apple actually have a policy against doing something that the Store offers?

hellofunk 6y ago
If the story doesn't make sense, that usually means we haven't heard the whole story.
- emn13 6y ago
  Well, if you assume that an Apple Store cares very little for it's experts, then the story makes sense. Which isn't implausible, right?
- kube-system 6y ago
  Moonlighting clauses are common. I am not sure what doesn't make sense here. Businesses add them because they: 1. don't want to potentially lose revenue 2. don't want to dilute their brand 3. don't want any liability associated with an employee doing work outside of their officially sanctioned capacity 4. don't want to culturally set an acceptable level of noncompliance with procedure even if the above violations aren't egregious.
  - donor20 6y ago
    Two reasons we have anti-moonlight. Insurance is very concerned about claims resulting from off the clock / third party work related to day time work. So if you are a doctor working in a practice group, and then do freelance work, that is going to absolutely freak an insurance carrier out. Security - people don't realize that a lot of stuff on-premise / on-network is tracked and logged. So if you "help" someone out off-site / off work people get nervous. T-mobile employee doing a sim swap with customer in store on video - sure. T-mobile employee logging in off hours to do a sim swap - maybe sketchier even if they are "helping a friend".

sukilot 6y ago

If paid freelance is banned, then free freelance is banned because it's trivial to say "no I didn't get paid".

ggggtez 6y ago

Just one idea on what might have happened. If you look at it from the manager's point of view, it is probably something like: Employee told a potential customer that he will make a home-visit, for free. There is no way that the Apple Store would support making promises like that. But if he made that promise while he was at work, it could be construed that he wasn't doing a personal favor, but acting on behalf of his job. So if anything went wrong (say, he fried the computer) then Apple could potentially have some liability.