But whereas the well-staffed, well-trained Apple stores used to be an asset in ambitious new rollouts—like for the Apple Watch in 2015—this time the understaffed, poorly trained Apple workers turned into a liability. 11/
It was hardly the only reason the Vision Pro flopped—the price tag didn’t help. Neither did the shortage of useful apps, the relatively heavy weight (~1.5 pounds), and the weird “persona” that showed up on people’s screens when you did a video call. 10/
Many employees struggled to place the headset on people’s heads properly, which could result in blurry images. 9/
Within about a week, Apple abandoned the idea that Apple store workers should become fluent in the script, and let them read it from iPads. A far cry from the kind of showmanship Jobs was famous for. 8/
The temps and recent hires didn’t have any experience with a complicated rollout, and it showed in many cases. 7/
“I got a 20-minute demo. I got maybe 30 minutes to review the script, did a demo on one person who had went to Cupertino, and was thrown from the nest,” said Sam Hernandez, a longtime salesperson at a flagship Apple Store in Chicago. 6/
When it came to the Vision Pro, many managers didn’t give employees time to do the training mandated by Cupertino. 5/
Training for Apple store employees has shifted from a classroom style format to computer modules that new hires click through. 4/
But the corporate folks in Cupertino didn’t quite grasp that this was no longer Steve Jobs’ Apple Store. During 15 years under Tim Cook, the stores have become increasingly understaffed and have relied much more heavily on temps. 3/
Apple HQ choreographed an elaborate rollout for its $3,500 mixed-reality headset, which required store workers to learn a 20-25 min script and get more than five hours of training. 2/
My book on the college-educated working class is out today! Here’s an excerpt in WIRED about how the chaotic rollout of the Apple Vision Pro was the last straw for a lot of Apple workers. 1/ www.wired.com/story/book-e...
Finally, people who follow politics know that Zohran Mamdani won over a lot of frustrated college grads in NYC last fall. But I’m not sure people appreciate quite how big that margin was. For college grads under 30, Mamdani won 84%! 10/
Then there’s this striking Gallup poll from a few days ago. The portion of college grads who said it was a good time to look for a quality job was over 70% as recently as 2022. By late last year it had dropped to 19%. 8/ www.gallup.com/workplace/70...
Last year, the exact same portion of college grads and high school grads said they expected to be better off in a year—32 percent—while college grads were much *more* likely to predict they would be worse off. 7/
Relatedly, beginning in the 1960s, college grads were generally much more optimistic about their future financial situation than people with only a high school diploma. But that gap dropped substantially over the last decade. 6/
If you look at 4-year-averages, college grads have never been more pessimistic than over the past four years. 5/
There are tons of data points showing how demoralized college grads are, but a few really caught my eye. The first is from the University of Michigan, which allows you to break out consumer sentiment by education level. data.sca.isr.umich.edu/demographic-... 4/
If you’re interested in the topic, my book “Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College Educated Working Class,” comes out April 7. 3/ us.macmillan.com/books/978037...
A generation of people in their 20s and 30s was told that if they do all this homework and take these AP classes and run up this debt and get their degree, their place in the upper-middle class would be secure. And suffice it to say it hasn’t worked out that way for a lot of them 2/
I have a story up today about why young college grads are feeling so angry: It’s more than just rising unemployment and the threat of AI. It’s a deep sense of betrayal. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/b...
Thank you Kate! bsky.app/profile/kate...
Are you using AI at work? Please tell us how! And whether it's make you feel more anxious or less... www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/b...
More and more white collar workers are hiring heart rate variability coaches to get ahead at work. Is that a good idea? Maybe... www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/b...
The ritual book unboxing… out soon!
Trump admin abandons cases against big law firms that resisted its exec orders www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/u...
Dan Ariely, the best-selling behavioral scientist, reached out to Jeffrey Epstein in hopes of advancing his research. Then the relationship evolved www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/b...
Some news: Workers at a Patagonia in NYC file for a union election. They're organizing with RWDSU, which kicked off the union campaign at REI a few years ago.
In 2022, a group of SpaceX employees wrote an open letter asking the co to distance itself from Elon Musk's online behavior. They were fired and the NLRB opened an investigation.
Then Musk funded Trump's election win. Now, the Trump NLRB has dismissed the case.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/b...
The country's top labor regulator has dismissed a case against SpaceX for firing 8 workers who criticized Elon Musk. Regulators “seem to have lost their independence and mission to protect workers rights," said the Biden prosecutor who brought the case www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/b...
