Blowing the whistle on one of the most powerful companies in the world does not come without consequences. 

Ashley Gjøvik, the former Apple employee, has spent the last year documenting and publicly speaking out against potential safety concerns, allegations of bullying and surveillance of employees at the iPhone maker. Gjøvik thinks a lot, however, about whether the saga has been worth it. 

“I think about this all the time because my life is such a goddamn nightmare now,” the 35-year-old says from her home in California. 

“Should I have done this? The answer is always wholeheartedly yes, because it was all based on safety.” Gjøvik’s initial complaint in March 2020 accused the Cupertino-based company of chemical exposure at her office.

While she doesn’t regret her decision, Gjøvik admits that becoming an enemy of Apple has made her life far more difficult. 

As senior engineering program manager, she was earning the equivalent of almost £300,000 a year and enjoying lavish company parties before being fired from Apple last September for allegedly leaking confidential information.

Not only has she lost her job, but also close friends who worked with her at the tech giant. She now battles regular online harassment and admits to feeling paranoid about dark cars driving around her neighbourhood with tinted windows. One of the latest messages in her inbox reads: “if Steve Jobs was still around he would pull you out by your hair and force you to turn tricks on the corner because that’s the only talent you have”. 

Yet she laughs often. Despite the difficulties and mental battles each day, she is studying public international law and human rights at Santa Clara University and her passion for calling Silicon Valley to account hasn’t waned. 

“We need to reassess how we treat these companies. Every day that goes by they become more powerful, we become more dependent on them. We need to see more whistleblowers, we need to see more people coming out,” she argues.

“It’s harder for people like me who were in a senior position [to speak out]. I was very embedded with executives and strategic decisions and I was paid a lot of money, so much money, I cry about that a lot. Last year I made $386,000, I believe.” 

Gjøvik is known as the most outspoken out of a group of Apple staff to break from the company’s culture of secrecy and complain about its workplace policies last year. As well as supposed environmental health and safety issues, she has spoken about privacy concerns and alleged that Apple pressured her into revealing details of sexual harrasment she says she had experienced.

Most of the others shared their stories anonymously in a campaign that became known as #AppleToo, dragging the tech giant into a growing wave of employee activism that had already started to take hold across Silicon Valley. At Google, for instance, more than 20,000 staff held a walkout against forced arbitration agreements and alleged payouts related to sexual harassment in 2018.  

While Gjøvik thinks the industry needs more whistleblowers to come forward, she admits that doing what she did isn’t necessarily a good idea – and says that trauma therapy is vital for anyone who publicly blows the whistle, not something to be taken lightly. In fact, Gjøvik isn’t sure she’d advise doing this at all.

“I do not recommend blowing the whistle,” she says in a burst of laughter. “We talked about the online stuff, but there’s also the ostracisation. I lost a huge social circle. Because Apple’s so secretive, pretty much all your friends are co-workers. 

“Also, just coming forward, everyone’s questioning your integrity, your ethics, your honesty, your sanity, everything. Constantly, you’re under the microscope. It’s hard and I’m lucky in a sense that the only one impacted beyond me directly is the dog. If people have family, if they have a spouse that will also be under that microscope.” 

She urges anyone working in big tech who wants to call their company to account to tread with care and consider the downsides first. 

“When I say I would not recommend, that doesn’t mean I’m saying don’t do it. I just would never go around and say everyone should be a whistleblower – it’s a nightmare. I was in a position where I had a lot of insider knowledge and documents that were meaningful. If you’re going to come forward, you need to do a risk benefit analysis. 

“With whistleblowing you can’t just think about today, tomorrow, or the next month. You have to think, what does that whole path look like? What do you want to achieve?” she adds.

“If you just have a stack of documents you want to get out, you can do that anonymously, potentially. But maybe you need the credibility of someone authenticating it. 

“It really does need to be checklists and spreadsheets, to see if it’s worth it. The more we have people coming forward who can make a difference, it helps run the waters a little bit.”