‘Toxic’ Apple executive leered at coworkers, – Business News
A high Apple executive is going through accusations of fostering a poisonous work setting — together with allegations that he suggestively leered at coworkers and made inappropriate remarks about fitness trainers’ breasts and butts, in response to a report.
Jay Blahnik, vice president for fitness applied sciences, allegedly bullied subordinates who made HR complaints and pushed more than 10% of his group to hunt mental health leaves of absence since 2022, in response to a New York Times report.
Blahnik, 57, leads a division of roughly 100 staffers after becoming a member of the company in 2013 to work on the Apple Watch – a wild success at the time that helped enhance gross sales after Steve Jobs’ death.
Jay Blahnik, who leads Apple’s fitness group. APPLE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
But Blahnik might be verbally abusive and inappropriate, in response to 9 present and former staff who spoke to the Times. He additionally allegedly made frequent inappropriate remarks about colleagues and purchasers at Apple.
The longtime Apple exec would comment on the breasts and butts of trainers who filmed exercises for the app, in response to different sources who labored on the group.
“At the end of the day, we don’t matter,” Kayla Desautels, who led the fitness group’s social media earlier than leaving final yr following a mental health depart, advised the Times. She added that she had “never worked anywhere more toxic.”
During a assembly in 2021 about a fitness characteristic on Olympic skier Ted Ligety, Blahnik joked about sleeping with the skier, two sources who attended the assembly advised the Times.
Blahnik later instructed that a member of the group had satisfied Ligety to do the characteristic by offering the skier a neck therapeutic massage, in response to the report.
Blahnik leads a division of roughly 100 staffers on the fitness group. blackzheep – stock.adobe.com
Apple has settled a declare of sexual harassment towards Blahnik, and he’s at the moment going through a lawsuit alleging retaliation.
An Apple spokesperson advised the New York Times that “there are many inaccurate claims and mischaracterizations” within the story.
At one other time, Blahnik allegedly implied that one worker’s spouse should have had an affair with one other man since their son had a completely different hair coloration, in response to a number of former staff.
He would leer at the group’s inventive director, Wil Tidman, and praise his outfits – one time joking with workers that Tidman was having an affair with a male producer, sources advised the Times.
Then in 2022, Blahnik despatched Tidman a textual content message that Tidman discovered inappropriate and unsettling, two sources aware of the message mentioned.
Blahnik helped create the Apple Watch’s fitness characteristic. sompong – stock.adobe.com
Tidman left work on a medical depart shortly after the message, employed a lawyer and raised a harassment declare with Apple, in response to a former worker’s lawsuit. Tidman himself didn’t file a lawsuit, however reached a settlement with the company.
Apple additionally denied claims of “harassment, discrimination [and] retaliation” in a lawsuit filed by former worker Mandana Mofidi, 41, who claimed she was bullied and retaliated towards for making a grievance to human sources about Blahnik.
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In a legal submitting, Apple mentioned Mofidi had “received constructive feedback and coaching from her supervisors in response to a well-documented history of unresolved performance issues.”
Apple and Blahnik didn’t instantly reply to The Post’s request for remark.
Mofidi, who joined Apple’s audio group in 2021, claimed that Blahnik had praised her work early on — however that modified after she spoke to HR concerning the investigation into Tidman’s grievance, in response to the lawsuit.
People getting into an Apple store in Manhattan. Jimin Kim/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
During a review with Blahnik in her first yr at Apple, she raised issues that she had acquired a smaller raise than her male counterparts, in response to the lawsuit.
The subsequent day at work, Mofidi alleges that she was requested to talk with HR about Tidman’s grievance.
Mofidi tried to excuse herself from the investigation – claiming she was “nervous” about “his vindictiveness” – however was advised it was obligatory, the swimsuit mentioned.
During a group assembly two days later, Blahnik exploded and began yelling at Mofidi about a missed deadline to choose music decisions for an episode, in response to the swimsuit.
That yelling episode “kicks off this whole campaign that ensues for months,” Mofidi alleged.
Several present and former staff alleged Blahnik created a poisonous work setting. Chinnapong – stock.adobe.com
Mofidi began to obtain emails from one of Blahnik’s staff criticizing her work, which she believed was a coordinated effort to create a report of poor efficiency and fire her, the swimsuit claimed.
Two colleagues, Chris Neil and Nathan Olivarez-Giles, had related retaliatory experiences after talking about Tidman’s harassment declare, three former staff advised the Times.
Neil and Olivarez-Giles took mental health breaks from Apple and finally left the company.
In early 2023, Mofidi mentioned she was advised she needed to decide on between a buyout offer or a efficiency enchancment plan.
She advised human sources that she was being focused as a result of of the sexual harassment review and her feedback about unequal pay.
Human sources launched an investigation and guaranteed Mofidi she wouldn’t be retaliated towards – however the habits continued, in response to her lawsuit.
Apple Wellness, the company’s health service for workers, discovered Mofidi was affected by nervousness and despair, so she took a medical depart of absence, in response to the swimsuit.
She requested to maneuver to a different division after her depart ended, however her request was denied, and Mofidi submitted her resignation, the swimsuit mentioned.
Her lawsuit is set to go to trial in 2027.
