Toxic Apple executive leered at coworkers, remarked on fitness trainers breasts and butts: report

A top Apple executive is facing accusations of fostering a toxic work environment — including allegations that he suggestively leered at coworkers and made inappropriate remarks about fitness trainers’ breasts and butts, according to a report.Jay Blahnik, vice president for fitness technologies, allegedly bullied subordinates who made HR complaints and pushed more than 10% of his team to seek mental health leaves of absence since 2022, according to a New York Times report.Blahnik, 57, leads a division of roughly 100 staffers after joining the company in 2013 to work on the Apple Watch – a wild success at the time that helped boost sales after Steve Jobs’ death.But Blahnik could be verbally abusive and inappropriate, according to nine current and former employees who spoke to the Times.He also allegedly made frequent inappropriate remarks about colleagues and clients at Apple.The longtime Apple exec would remark on the breasts and butts of trainers who filmed workouts for the app, according to other sources who worked on the team.“At the end of the day, we don’t matter,” Kayla Desautels, who led the fitness team’s social media before leaving last year following a mental health leave, told the Times.

She added that she had “never worked anywhere more toxic.”During a meeting in 2021 about a fitness feature on Olympic skier Ted Ligety, Blahnik joked about sleeping with the skier, two sources who attended the meeting told the Times.Blahnik later suggested that a member of the team had convinced Ligety to do the feature by offering the skier a neck massage, according to the report.Apple has settled a claim of sexual harassment against Blahnik, and he is currently facing a lawsuit alleging retaliation.An Apple spokesperson told the New York Times that “there are many inaccurate claims and mischaracterizations” in the story.At another time, Blahnik allegedly implied that one employee’s wife must have had an affair with another man since their son ...