Steve Jobs’s sharp and cheekyย responseย when an engineer once asked why Apple paid so little
A funny story about Steve Jobs was tweeted out by Evan Doll, a cofounder of the news-reading app Flipboard, while he was working at Apple.
According to his LinkedIn page, Doll worked at Apple during the period 2003 to 2009. Apple and Google during this period were blamed for working together so as to not steal each other’s employees.
As a result of a lawsuit based on those charges, these two companies along with other tech firms, agreed to a $415 million settlement with employees.
When Doll received his check from that settlement, he tweeted that his check came out to approximately $1,000 a year for the time he worked at Apple. Jokingly, he said that it “seems fair.”
(Apparently, it was not fair, because if Apple and Google were endeavouring over his services, his earnings would have been much higher, mainly when Google had yet to go public and was offering profitable stock packages.)
Using the tweet as a chance, Doll decided to tell a story about an Apple employee questioning Jobs as to why engineers at Apple get poorly paid.
Just got my settlement check in the mail for the Apple/Google no-poach class action suit. Worked out to about $1k/year. That seems fair ??
— Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015
The reply was the kind of thing only Steve Jobs could say.
Reminds me of a company all-hands in 2007 when an employee asked SJ why engineers at Apple were underpaid.
— Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015
His steely-eyed reply: "Maybe you should ask your manager why they don't think you're worth more." ???
— Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015
To be fair, there were many Apple employees in the early to mid 2000s who did VERY well. But mostly b/c they wisely held onto ESPP stock.
— Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015
I naively sold my first ESPP stock in 2004, netted $4k to pay student loans- 2x my money, pretty sweet! Except it'd be worth $500k today ???
— Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015
Anyway, in summary 1) don't try to time the market 2) do work that matters to you & time will feel well spent, regardless of the outcome. ??
— Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015
