Apple Hiring Fewer 'Genius' Employees at Some Retail Locations
Apple has slowed down on filling technical support or "Genius" roles at some of its retail stores, according to a report from Bloomberg. Employees at some locations have been informed that Genius positions will not be filled after the departures of people who previously filled those roles.
Bloomberg cites reports from several retail workers, who have suggested that Apple's lack of hiring could be for cost-cutting reasons or to decrease the number of employees at stores that are no longer seeing the same number of customers after the pandemic.
Apple has not laid off any workers nor is there an overall hiring freeze, but Apple has allegedly retracted verbal job offers for Genius roles in some situations in addition to halting hiring.
Despite these reports, there are still Genius roles advertised on Apple's website, and Apple has declined to comment on the situation.
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Top Rated Comments
I want to walk in and poke around & not be bothered.
Why they think we all want to be accosted by blue shirts is beyond me.
It's pretty obvious who the employees are (they are everywhere!) -- we can find them if we need them.
It honestly stops me from going into the store if I happen to walk by at the mall.
Just don't want to have that interaction and dismissal process to simply come in.
The quality of the geniuses, in my experience, has been going down for a decade.
Hiring less of them and/or saving costs around this point are all big negatives.
In retailing, one of the few costs that can be changed in the very short term–days and weeks–is hourly staffing levels. Most other costs, including inventory, rent, utilities, and salaries are fixed and won't vary much whether a store is open or closed. So when sales are not at the levels predicted when hiring hourly employees and when issuing work schedules, store managers have to reduce staffing expenditures. Unprofitable stores aren't good for anybody because they end up closing permanently.
Personally, I think there are a lot of problems with how the retail industry manages and treats its workers (this is why I'm no longer a retailer). But fixing these problems will require massive changes in public policy, consumer expectations, corporate priorities, and how retailing companies are financed.
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ETA: the first part of this post sounds somewhat disconnected to the discussion that precedes it because I was responding to claims in posts that have since been removed.