Ashley Gjøvik

Can anyone find the OP on epa.gov? That would be preferable to a dropbox.com link. We merged half a dozen of these threads. Related URLs follow. If there are others, let me know here and I can add them. https://twitter.com/ashleygjovik/status/1805006150410162322 and https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1805006150410162322.html https://mastodon.social/@ashleygjovik/112668309100333232/ https://www.ashleygjovik.com/3250scott.html

Yeah. I think she has real concerns that need to be addressed to make her whole. I'm not sure this is "the world needs to know"-level stuff though. Good on her for speaking her mind anyway. The "open kimono" stuff sounded bad to me (edit: depends on the context [2]). At the same time, she is giving these veiled threats to Apple while an investigation appears to be underway, > .... also makes me wonder what would happen if I shared the incidents [redacted] investigated and said weren't "policy violations" like [redacted] [1] I can see why Apple would want to part ways with that. It's standard for everyone to keep their mouths shut while an investigation is underway. If you don't understand and follow that contract then you're tainting the investigation. [1] https://www.ashleygjovik.com/uploads/1/3/7/0/137008339/published/scree… [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28478276

One of the employees has posted her version of events online in great detail here: 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 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 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…

> I have never been accused of “sexism” despite the “risk” of working with women and men including giving advice to all genders. Glad to hear it :). It's nice to know that things aren't that bad after all. > Maybe you should think about the “advice” you give and why you are so worried about getting “cancelled”. Fair enough. The advice given to the OP was "when closing sentences in presentations, you finish the sentence in a way that sounds like you're asking a question. Something to pay attention to going forward". [1] The boss than later provided feedback when she improved that in her presentations by saying "you did great. I didn't hear you going up an octave at the end of your statements, came across as much more authoritative, it's super refreshing to provide feedback and then see you attempt to act upon it." In general, I don't really see that as sexist at all. However, the person getting that advice said "This #tonepolicing is totally okay feedback to get from my #bigtech #male leaders and not #sexist". At this point, considering that anything seems to be able to be taken as "sexist". Maybe it's better to keep your mouth shut when giving feedback to females. Again, Why risk your entire career for one person? That's my logic at least. I hope that doesn't mean I am sexist. 1. https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html

This was originally a comment on https://www.ashleygjovik.com/3250scott.html via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40773136

Even better context: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/3250scott.html

> this person presents themselves as someone who takes a lot of effort to try and make happy. Frankly it sounds exhausting. Your comment reminds me of the Ashley Gjovik story that made the rounds on HN a few times. She was reportedly a project manager at Apple, but reading through her billion-word blog[1], it seems she spent all of her time as an activist filing complaints to regulators and fighting literally everyone and everything in the company. I don't understand how people can keep their actual job performance satisfactory when they're so busy filing complaints and appeals and appeals to appeals and meeting with lawyers all day. Truly, it must be exhausting for them, too. 1: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/apple-legal-battle.html

This is the website of the Apple accuser Ashley Gjøvik: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html

I had never heard the phrase, "open the kimono", before, as referenced here in a summary of events leading to her firing: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html I find it hard to see the implicit sexism in this. Truth be told, if I heard the phrase around the workplace and someone took issue with it I'd probably be internally rolling my eyes. Am I different from the average person? Do other people have an automatic, internal and visceral reaction to such locutions that I'm lacking?

This mirrors how I feel about this. I've just learned about this today from this HN post, and the first thing I did was check out her feed and websites for something like that. It's weird isn't it? She has this whole persona/business built around this Apple thing. And she's talking about unions and such on company Slack, come on now. Reckless lol. https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html I've worked with people like this, they cause a silent rot within teams. I mean look at this https://twitter.com/ashleygjovik/status/1422380335703101443 - totally benign feedback so that you don't sound like you're always asking a question (I've personally had this feedback given to me!) and immediately she skewers her boss as "sexist". Bad juju.

Apple employs 90,000 people in the US; there are two complaints, one of which was filed by someone who has an extensive axe to grind: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html I'll let you make up your own mind about the likely merits of their specific complaints. As far as the article and it's headline, "U.S. labor agency investigating..." is clearly intended to imply that existence of such an investigation is notable, when in fact: "The NLRB receives about 20,000 to 30,000 charges per year from employees, unions and employers covering a range of unfair labor practices described in Section 8 of the Act."

Her story about having to turn over nude photos of herself, stored on her personally-owned (edit: apparently a work phone) phone, to Apple lawyers sounded very awful. She's got a summary of it all here: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html She also appears to have a few smoking guns, like this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E8o4fb3VEAEDVHM?format=jpg&name=large

I remember this story, this was the person how accused Apple of sexism because a superior gave her mild feedback about her presentations [1]. Shes also been very vocally negative about Apple on Twitter for months, airing internal complaints via Twitter [2]. And people have been spamming her tweets on HN for a while... in an attempt to build outrage I guess? Color me real skeptical that she is telling the truth here. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28066459 [2] https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html

There's a lot more. https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html Edit: I don't understand her endgame. She's not going back to work at Apple after the negative publicity she's been generating. She probably doesn't care because she's in law school and will be graduating soon. Is her goal to negotiate a generous settlement? The negative publicity reduces the value of her settlement. (Companies will pay for an NDA as part of a settlement, but only if the damaging info isn't already public.) Is she pursuing some naive, idealistic notion of justice? Or is it all to establish "cred" for her future legal career?

> In early 2015, Apple started stealth semiconductor fabrication activities in a facility located at 3250 Scott Boulevard in Santa Clara California, less than two hundred feet from thousands of homes. The factory intentionally vented its exhaust of solvent vapors and toxic gases straight from the roof and into the ambient outdoor air, with little or no abatement. The factory was only one story while the apartments were four stories tall, nearly ensuring the factory exhaust entered the apartment windows and 'fresh air intake' vents. > Gjovik lived at these apartments in 2020 and found herself in the emergency room within one week, disabled by symptoms of solvent and gas exposure. Later in 2020, Gjovik conducted air testing and bio-monitoring which found the presence of Apple's factory exhaust inside her home, and inside her body. Source: https://www.ashleygjovik.com/3250scott.html Furthermore, we're talking about a company that willingly sources materials from effective slave labor in the Congo and other areas, while gaslighting their customer base about their commitment to inclusivity. There is no defending Apple here. These decisions are made by multiple people who should all be in prison.

https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html July 2, 2021 In a heavy redacted email she was exposed to a substance and want to know "what chemicals & at what levels, for future cancer monitoring, etc." It made me curios what she was exposed too. July 20, 2021. Here I think she is accusing someone from apple of smuggling and "violating of the US embargo & sanctions against <redacted>" I assume is Iran by the length of the redacted text. July 28, 2021. She wants to transfer to ER and is refused 42 times. If she would have been transferred to ER she would have publish every complaint she investigated and used everything for here own lawsuit and her own cause. July 29, 2021 Long email were she is unhappy with the investigation and what the conclusion of each investigation to be sorted by area of the law to route them to different lawyers. In the list we get toxic tort but no details. I think any health issue that she will have in the future would result in a lawsuit against apple. Aug 6th, 2021 Long list of articles were she was mentioned and tweets. She talks about Apple not doing exposure testing but nothing else regarding the chemicals. August 14th 2021 Post a picture of a colleagues office with 5 bottles of alcohol and 3 bullet cases with the tip (the bullet) removed and 1 old musket ammunition. Not one of the items is live ammunition but she say it is live ammunition. She took a picture of a colleague looking at a rifle specs. At this point it would…

There is definitely sexism in tech. No doubt. I've seen it, and I push back when I do. With that disclaimer out of the way, I would have serious concerns about a male employee with 'valley girl' rising terminals in meetings. According to Wikipedia [1] while there are differences between the way men and women 'valleyspeak' it does in fact apply to both. I would address both the same way, seeking to understand - in open dialogue - whether there was a basis in (lack of) confidence and trying to find ways to support them further in their career development. Maybe suggest public speaking classes, especially if available through work. [edit] further to [2] I found the way the feedback was communicated around the rising intonation friendly, positive and when addressed, the progress was kindly affirmed and remarked on. I saw no negativity in this. I did see someone who was indignant about receiving criticism, however, and took it to a level rarely seen in a professional setting. To call this the 'nuclear option' would be a bit of an understatement. Reading the back and forth documented in [2] is an absolute train wreck. Once I got a few pages in, I started to empathize deeply with Apple ER. That's not an easy job some days. One tweet the author posted said: > "... when #Apple just tried I said 'No thx, Mr Suicide Nets.' If you're going to create a nervous breakdown you get to watch it unfold in real time & now I'm on Twitter again." Referring to Tim Cook as 'Mr Suicide Nets'…

Fyi, she’s the same woman whose apartment complex was apparently built on toxic waste that made her sick (only her), yet noone could measure any harmful substance in her apartment, the authorities couldn’t help and tried to cover it up. [1] It seems strange that she happens to be also the victim of organized workplace harrasment at Apple. And again, the authorities (internal Employee Relations) refused to help, and tried to cover it up…? Either she’s the most unlucky person… or maybe it’s all in her head? Take a look at her website documenting her “ordeals” at Apple [2] To me, it looks like the scrapbook of a paranoid schizophrenic who meticulously collects “evidence” on their “gangstalking”… Just look at this tweet [3] where she talks about fighting Apple, Northrop Grumman (!) and the Irvine Company, and tell me with a straight face that she’s not a wacko. [1] https://sfbayview.com/2021/03/i-thought-i-was-dying-my-apartment-was-b… [2] https://www.ashleygjovik.com/ashleys-apple-story.html [3] https://www.ashleygjovik.com/uploads/1/3/7/0/137008339/published/scree…