4 ms·

One of the employees has posted her version of events online in great detail here: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html https://www.ashleygjovi

One of the employees has posted her version of events online in great detail here: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html Strangely, her timeline about Apple begins in March with an article she published about her health problems. I remember the story was #1 on Hacker News that day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26688965 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26688965 She was having health problems and believed they were the result of toxic waste somewhere on the site of her apartment complex property. I remember that the details of the story didn’t really support her claims as significantly as she suggested. I detailed my concerns in the HN thread about her other toxic waste battle: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26689837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26689837 The summary is that she was living in an upper floor apartment but she assumed something in the ground was causing her medical symptoms. She found evidence that an old toxic waste container might be buried somewhere on the 100 acre property surrounding her apartments. She used some questionable measurements (heart rate change of 10bpm and spurious readings from a generic indoor VOC monitor) to try to bolster her story, but it didn’t make sense that the thousands of other people on this site weren’t experiencing severe medical issues even though her apartment wasn’t close to the supposedly toxic ground. She is apparently also waging a significant battle against her apartment complex and the city for the issues she believes were caused by a toxic waste container that was supposedly buried somewhere near her old apartment. I bring this up because she highlights this story as the start of her Apple timeline on her site I linked above and brings it up many times throughout her Apple writings. She seems to imply this was somehow related to her harassment claims at Apple, though I’m not sure what she’s exactly implying with that claim.

dekhn 5y ago
your inferences are correct: she is not operating in a way that is rational or consistent, and is lashing out. It happens that her complaints are consistent with what the media wants to publish about the bay area and tech industry.
linuxftw 5y ago
Many people are sensitive to VOCs at levels most people aren't. I know several people that cannot be around strong synthetic fragrance (aka, unregulated VOCs) or it makes them feel ill. Whether it's a barrel of waste, or just chemical laden construction materials, most likely she was very much experiencing real health problems. Her blog is kind of hard to follow, and she seems a little nutty, but if her boss indeed tried to 'hook her up' with somebody, that seems like it could be considered harassment in some form.
- PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  > Many people are sensitive to VOCs at levels most people aren't. Yes, but she’s making huge leaps to claim that her 3rd-floor apartment is being filled with VOCs from an old toxic waste container that may or may not still be buried somewhere on the 100 acre property where her apartments were built. If VOCs were truly the cause, and we don’t know that, it would be far more likely to be coming from construction materials or the furniture in her apartment. I’m not doubting that she’s experiencing distressing symptoms. I am very skeptical of her conclusion that it’s due to buried toxic waste somewhere nearby and her ongoing battles against the city and apartment builders. This same person has been in the headlines for 3 different victimization stories in the past 6 months: The toxic waste story and her ensuing battle with the city, the time her work phone was subpoenaed for a legal case and lawyers wouldn’t let her selectively delete files from evidence, and now her harassment lawsuit against Apple. The harassment claims should be investigated like any others. However, before we grab our pitchforks in the court of public opinion it’s important to know the context of her actions. When someone is becoming an extreme outlier victim in multiple situations and promoting her case vigorously on social media, skepticism is warranted.
  - linuxftw 5y ago
    > she’s making huge leaps to claim that her 3rd-floor apartment is being filled with VOCs from an old toxic waste container I think part of her original argument in the case was that the cleanup was never actually performed, the city rubber-stamped the job, and that the entire site might actually be contaminated. She was getting the run around trying to investigate, everyone involved refused to look into any facet of the grounds. I don't recall if she provided any specific evidence of this causing a measurable affect in here apartment or not.

dekhn 5y ago

your inferences are correct: she is not operating in a way that is rational or consistent, and is lashing out. It happens that her complaints are consistent with what the media wants to publish about the bay area and tech industry.

linuxftw 5y ago

Many people are sensitive to VOCs at levels most people aren't. I know several people that cannot be around strong synthetic fragrance (aka, unregulated VOCs) or it makes them feel ill. Whether it's a barrel of waste, or just chemical laden construction materials, most likely she was very much experiencing real health problems. Her blog is kind of hard to follow, and she seems a little nutty, but if her boss indeed tried to 'hook her up' with somebody, that seems like it could be considered harassment in some form.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> Many people are sensitive to VOCs at levels most people aren't. Yes, but she’s making huge leaps to claim that her 3rd-floor apartment is being filled with VOCs from an old toxic waste container that may or may not still be buried somewhere on the 100 acre property where her apartments were built. If VOCs were truly the cause, and we don’t know that, it would be far more likely to be coming from construction materials or the furniture in her apartment. I’m not doubting that she’s experiencing distressing symptoms. I am very skeptical of her conclusion that it’s due to buried toxic waste somewhere nearby and her ongoing battles against the city and apartment builders. This same person has been in the headlines for 3 different victimization stories in the past 6 months: The toxic waste story and her ensuing battle with the city, the time her work phone was subpoenaed for a legal case and lawyers wouldn’t let her selectively delete files from evidence, and now her harassment lawsuit against Apple. The harassment claims should be investigated like any others. However, before we grab our pitchforks in the court of public opinion it’s important to know the context of her actions. When someone is becoming an extreme outlier victim in multiple situations and promoting her case vigorously on social media, skepticism is warranted.
- linuxftw 5y ago
  > she’s making huge leaps to claim that her 3rd-floor apartment is being filled with VOCs from an old toxic waste container I think part of her original argument in the case was that the cleanup was never actually performed, the city rubber-stamped the job, and that the entire site might actually be contaminated. She was getting the run around trying to investigate, everyone involved refused to look into any facet of the grounds. I don't recall if she provided any specific evidence of this causing a measurable affect in here apartment or not.