How far is too far? Gawker talks to Apple retail staff

In response to the Wall Street Journal’s laudatory article on Apple‘s efforts to shape its retail experience, Gawker talked to former Apple retail staff who shed even more light (less positively so) on how far the brand goes to control language and behavior: http://gawker.com/5812622/working-at-the-apple-store-tales-from-the-inside

The issue: at what point does a brand go too far and alienate staff while trying to control (vs optimize) how they interact with customers?  

Jack just released a white paper titled, appropriately, “Employees Come First (Not Customers)”. Here’s a link: http://jackmorton.com/pdf/employeeBrandAlignmentWP.pdf