Steve Jobs had a harsh but funny comeback when an engineer once asked why Apple paid so little

Evan Doll, the co-founder of news reading app Flipboard, tweeted out a funny story about Steve Jobs from when he worked at Apple.

Doll worked at Apple from 2003-2009, according to his LinkedIn page. During that period, Apple and Google were accused of working together to not poach each other's employees. They, along with a number of other tech companies, agreed to a $415 million settlement with employees as a result of a lawsuit based on those charges.

Doll just got his check from that settlement. He tweeted that his check works out to roughly $1,000 per year for the time he spent at Apple. He joked that it "seemed fair." (Presumably, it was not fair because if Google and Apple were bidding over his services his earnings would have been much higher, especially when Google was pre-IPO and offering lucrative stock packages.)

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Doll then used that tweet as an opportunity to tell a story about an Apple employee asking Steve Jobs why Apple underpaid its engineers. Jobs response was the sort of thing only Steve Jobs could say.

Just got my settlement check in the mail for the Apple/Google no-poach class action suit. Worked out to about $1k/year. That seems fair ????

- Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015

Reminds me of a company all-hands in 2007 when an employee asked SJ why engineers at Apple were underpaid.

- Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015

His steely-eyed reply: "Maybe you should ask your manager why they don't think you're worth more." ??????

- Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015

To be fair, there were many Apple employees in the early to mid 2000s who did VERY well. But mostly b/c they wisely held onto ESPP stock.

- Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015

I naively sold my first ESPP stock in 2004, netted $4k to pay student loans- 2x my money, pretty sweet! Except it'd be worth $500k today ??????

- Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015

Anyway, in summary 1) don't try to time the market 2) do work that matters to you & time will feel well spent, regardless of the outcome. ???

- Evan Doll (@edog1203) December 28, 2015