苹果（Apple）员工给人的印象总是激情饱满，每当有新零售商店开张或者新款iPhone上市，商场里到处都是他们齐声高呼口号的声音和东奔西走的忙碌身影。你是不是好奇，苹果公司到底对它的员工进行了怎样的培训，才让他们如此狂热？戴维•西格尔上周日发表在《纽约时报》（New York Times ）的头版文章为人们提供了一些线索。

    这篇文章是《纽约时报》推出的苹果公司系列报道的第4部分。该系列其他部分将苹果公司树立为“网络经济”负面形象的典型：避税、输出就业、剥削中国工人。而这一部分的开篇也不例外，这一次它给苹果公司安的罪名是：提供毫无前途的零售工作。

    跟其他部分一样，这一部分的内容非常充分，而且相对比较中肯，但一样存在根本性的缺陷。虽然选择苹果公司是因为它具有极高的知名度，可以吸引更多的浏览量，但客观上看完文章的读者会很容易得出这样的结论：苹果公司的政策并不像《纽约时报》暗示的那么差劲，甚至要好于它的大多数竞争对手。

    比如，报道提到，苹果商店初级员工的时薪是11.25美元（该文见报前苹果公司刚刚实行的涨薪没有计算在内），比最低工资水平（7.25美元）高出不少，甚至高于盖普公司（Gap），比瑜伽与运动服装连锁店露露柠檬（Lululemon）销售员的12美元时薪也不差多少。露露柠檬是西格尔能够找到的付酬最高的一家零售商店。

    2001年，芭芭拉•厄莱雷奇在《美国生存体验实录》（Nickel and Dimed）一书，描述了自己卧底沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）所体验到的“穷忙族”们的生活。很明显，西格尔的文章并没有达到这样的深度。

    不过，这篇文章确实让读者深入了解到了苹果商店对员工的教化过程，其中包括下面这个关键环节：

    一位经理称，经常有人在得到公司提供的工作机会之后激动得热泪盈眶。如果入职的新人还只是苹果粉丝，那么经过公司的培训课程，他们就会成为苹果公司虔诚的门徒。根据工作岗位和地点，苹果公司的培训课程长度从几天到几周不等。

    培训最开始是“热烈欢迎”仪式。新员工进入房间后，苹果商店的经理和培训师起立为他们鼓掌。刚开始，掌声通常会让培训生们不知所措，不过掌声持续几分钟后，新人们也会主动加入其中。

    If you've ever wondered what kind of training is required to get Apple employees to behave the way they do at the opening of a new retail outlet or the launch of a new iPhone -- whooping, hollering and tearing around the shopping mall -- David Segal's front-page story in Sunday's New York Times offers some clues.

    The piece, Part 4 in the paper's puzzling series about the company, begins like the others -- setting Apple up as the exemplar of all that is wrong with the companies that make up the "iEconomy": avoiding taxes, exporting jobs, exploiting Chinese workers and, in this piece, creating dead-end jobs in retail sales.

    Like the others, the story is well reported and relatively balanced. But it suffers from the same basic flaw: Having chosen to focus on Apple (AAPL) because the company is so high profile and sure to draw page views, the reporting leads readers to the conclusion that Apple's policies are not as evil as the set-up implies and in fact are better than most of Apple's competitors'.

    In this case, the $11.25 an hour entry-level Apple Store employees make (not counting the raises Apple handed out just before the Times' story appeared) is considerably higher than minimum wage ($7.25), better than the Gap, and nearly as high as the best-paying retail outlet Segal was able to find: Lululemon, a yoga and athletic apparel chain where sales staff earn about $12 an hour.

    "Nickel and Dimed" -- Barbara Ehrenreich's 2001 undercover expose about the life of Wal-Mart's working poor -- this is not.

    But it does take readers deeper inside the Apple retail indoctrination process than anything I've read before, including this key section:

    One manager said it was common for people offered jobs to burst into tears. But if the newly hired arrive as devotees, Apple's training course, which can range from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the job and locale, turns them into disciples.

    Training commences with what is known as a "warm welcome." As new employees enter the room, Apple managers and trainers give them a standing ovation. The clapping often bewilders the trainees, at least at first, but when the applause goes on for several lengthy minutes they eventually join in.