A man called Khalid Parvez from Bangalore, Karnataka, who claims to be a former employee of Apple, took to LinkedIn to claim that he had quit the company after working there for 11 years without a job in his hand because of workplace and mental harassment arising out of Islamophobic comments that were made by his colleagues.
The linked in post by Khalid Parvez was posted by a Twitter account called @SaffronSalim, saying, “An employee who worked at Apple India for 11+ years in various capacities like Sales, Trade etc. had to face Abusive behavior & Islamophobic comments from colleagues. He reported it to HR & Employee Relations. And in the end nothing happened to those employees instead the Muslim employee resigned after months of working with HR & ER hoping there would be some action. When you think all the islamophobia, genocidal atmosphere happens at street & market level like what’s happening in Uttarakhand & your life is not impacted at corporate life. You are wrong”.
An employee who worked at Apple India for 11+ years in various capacities like Sales, Trade etc. had to face Abusive behavior & Islamophobic comments from colleagues. He reported it to HR & Employee Relations. And in the end nothing happened to those employees instead the Muslim… pic.twitter.com/gAmGDsGQE1
— Dr. Extra2ab Ø (@SaffronSalim) June 11, 2023
The post essentially linked it to the Uttarakhand protests after a minor girl was trapped by a Muslim man. The incident in Purola led to Hindus protesting against the incidents of atrocities against Hindus by the Islamists of Purola. Linking to this incident, the handle claimed that Islamophobia affects even corporates and not just the Muslims in Purola.
The post was then picked up by the mainstream media. Mint reported that Parvez was suffering from mental health issues because Apple dismissed his concerns about Islamophobia. While the Mint in its report added the full text of the LinkedIn post, Hindustan Times embedded the LinkedIn post. The headline of the Hindustan Times report read, “Apple employee in Bengaluru alleges Islamophobia, harassment; quits after HR inaction”.
The post by Khalid Parvez essentially said that he had, for the first time in 11 years, claimed that he was being harassed with abusive words. “But (first time in 11 years) I raised a grievance with HR regarding some serious accusations such as #mentalharassment, #abusivelanguage, a possible #businessmisconduct, #Islamophobic comments and also called out some dumb #managerialerrors that left me and my family living out of a suitcase for 4 months and then ended up causing a butterfly effect of #mentalhealth issues for all of us”, he said.
He further said that the company did conduct a 2-month inquiry but eventually told him that his allegations were unsubstantiated and there was no proof that was found.
Here is the full text of the post by Khalid Parvez:
Yes! I just resigned from the world’s most valuable company without a job in hand! I loved working for Apple It helped me and my family to re-establish ourselves after my father’s demise.
It made me a better professional, a better person. I ended up dedicating a third of my life to this amazing organisation. But (first time in 11 years) I raised a grievance with HR regarding some serious accusations such as #mentalharassment, #abusivelanguage, a possible #businessmisconduct, #Islamophobic comments and also called out some dumb #managerialerrors that left me and my family living out of a suitcase for 4 months and then ended up causing a butterfly effect of #mentalhealth issues for all of us.
I was asked to “trust the system” and was assured of a proper investigation.
All I expected to hear was a few words of compassion – empathising with what I went through and some measures to ensure that it doesn’t happen again
But after 2 months of supposedly “thorough” investigation the #employeerelations comes back with nothing but denial, insensitivity, counter accusations and ended up ridiculing my mental health and family issues.
Until then I assumed that my battle was against the few gentlemen that I accused. I wasn’t prepared that I would be met with some kind of legal deposition. It seemed like the ER Executive was hellbent on protecting the company and management’s interest – not the employee.
I was bullied with statements from the ER ridiculing my mental health saying “If you want Apple to acknowledge that your mental health issue’s happened because of Apple – then I’m sorry. We are not medical experts.” When I asked what if my mental health worsens – the ER replied saying “In that case, we would need a doctor’s certificate to ascertain that you are medically fit to work.” When I asked about the Islamophobic comments – the ER said that none of my statements/incidents were substantiated by other employees.
This is when I understood that there was never an investigation, this was some major corporate cover up. Now I had a tough choice. Either fight against these bullies or choose to handle a family emergency. I preferred to walk away as my family needed me more than my will to fight back against the corporate giant. I resigned the very next day.
The only reason why I am calling out these #hypocrites is to convey a message to my fellow #Apple Colleagues and all my fellow corporate victims. Please don’t be afraid to ask questions, please raise your voice whenever you see discrimination, misconduct, any kind of abuse or bullying – DON’T TRUST THE SYSTEM BLINDLY like I did (at least don’t trust the local system). Please escalate. Escalate beyond the regional/national teams. And please document each and everything. And I would ask all of you out there, has something like this happened to you? Has anyone here got stuck in this kind of corporate legal bullshit? How did you deal with it or come out of it? #Appletoo Ashish Chowdhary
What the media missed to highlight
While the media seemed keen on picking up a story that drummed up the trope of Islamophobia, they missed to highlight a few crucial points in the post of Parvez, which indicates that the trope of Islamophobia is possibly being used to even other scores.
First and foremost, it is important to note that Khalid Parvez has mentioned no specifics in his post. He has not mentioned what the so-called Islamophobic comments were and how he was mentally harassed by his colleagues. We have no idea what these comments were and why he apparently spiralled with mental issues.
The second most important point is that while he claims he quit because of Islamophobia, he himself admits that the company did conduct a two month long inquiry into his allegations and found no proof. Given that even in a LinkedIn post, Parvez has provided no proof or details of these comments, one is left wondering what these allegations really were. Parvez, according to his post, has quit the company and his LinkedIn post is meant to announce the same. After quitting, he has no compulsions to make his post vague and not given details of the so-called harassment he faced.
Further, in his post, he mentions that he had raised some concerns over “business misconduct” and certain managerial errors which led to him apparently “living out of a suitcase for 4 months”. He has provided no evidence or details of the alleged misconduct or managerial errors either, just like his charge of Islamophobic conduct. Even if we assume that there was some managerial conduct, it is entirely possible that the claims of Islamophobic conduct is being made to settle scores for the alleged managerial errors.
Fact remains that while the media will pick this story up and drum it up simply because it mentions Islamophobia, the LinkedIn post which was highlighted on Twitter first has no evidence and no specifics to be taken at face value.
