T he San Jose Mercury News has run a piece from Mike Cassidy, who often covers Apple related stories for the newspaper, about a boxer fired from her part time gig at Apple. According to the article, Kelsey Jeffries, a part time Apple employee pursuing a professional boxing career, was laid off from Apple a couple of months after giving an interview to two TV outlets about her boxing career. The article also says Ms. Jeffries thinks it was punishment for having given the interviews after being told not to. From The San Jose Mercury News:
Maybe you remember Kelsey Jeffries, the woman who split her time between a professional boxing career and a job working on a Web site for Apple Computer retailers.
Turns out someone finally found a way to knock out Jeffries. Apple Computer laid her off in January, just as news about her boxing career (now 20-7) was spreading. Apple says the layoff was business as usual in the downturn, but Jeffries suspects a sucker punch.
I wrote about Jeffriesi winning the world featherweight championship in November. Requests for interviews from TechTV and Telemundo followed, as did a stern talking-to from Apple managers, Jeffries says.
"They were basically mad at me for me having done that and not letting them know about it."
Jeffries says she was told not to talk to the television outlets. She acknowledges that she went ahead with the interviews, but says she avoided talking about her work at Apple. Both broadcasts made the connection, she says.
Within weeks, Jeffries, 27, was gone.
The full article, which is not an investigative piece, goes on with comments from Apple, as well as additional comments from Ms. Jeffries.