Not long after Jobs’ passing, Bob Mansfield wanted to leave the company. Mansfield was a key figure in Apple’s hardware engineering department, and Cook was concerned his departure might alarm shareholders. So what Cook did instead was convince Mansfield to stick around a while longer for, possibly, very large sums of money. And though Mansfield did stay at Apple, he barely worked after that until taking on the Apple Car project according to Gurman.
At least they’ll never cancel the iPhone…right? | Image credit — PhoneArena
What’s more interesting is that the company is still employing this method now, almost 13 years after Jobs passed away. The latest example is Apple CFO Luca Maestri stepping down in 2025. Though Maestri will no longer hold the title of CFO the company is keeping him around regardless, for providing counsel to Tim Cook amidst other duties.
Apple isn’t short on money, not by a very long shot. But it’s also one of the biggest, most beloved companies in the world. Is keeping around senior employees on payroll for barely any work really that helpful now?
Because I doubt this massive corporation is going to lose much interest from the public if someone they probably didn’t even know about leaves.
