Is Apollo that bad?

Close friend worked at Apollo as an associate. Outside of the late nights + soul-crushing hours that others have alluded to on this thread, the most outrageous thing I heard about was how associates were actively discouraged from interacting/socializing in the bullpen (regardless of workload). As in, if associates were seen socializing in any way, or if their interactions were perceived as not being directly related to work or moving workstreams forward, they would be verbally criticized and essentially told to go back to their desks and fall in line. It's a small detail that's unlikely to elicit particularly visceral reactions, but it's a preposterously oppressive aspect of the culture that speaks to how deeply miserable the experience is. My banking + MF PE experiences were on the more taxing end of the spectrum (at least, based on what I observed), but I genuinely harbor no resentment from those years and look back on those times fondly given aspects of my experience - unrelated to the number of hours I worked - that made those experiences both beneficial and tolerable (at that point in my life). I'm still prone to taking more punishment than necessary since that's just how I'm wired (a residual part of my pre-MBA experiences), but generally speaking I have exactly zero patience for higher-ups/cultural norms generating unnecessary and infuriating friction for absolutely no reason. The job is hard enough as it is; folks don't have to be overly-positive or de facto cheerleaders, but if people actively choose to disregard reasonable decency simply because they can (power dynamics), then I will have no problem being devoid of sympathy if those individuals get physically maimed in an unlucky accident.

Otherwise, yes, working there sucks. You have to be committed to very specific goals for Apollo to be your employer of choice as an associate. One drawback of working at Apollo that is low-key, and which doesn't get discussed on this forum very often, is that the stigma that comes with working there - even for people in banking/PE who have every insight imaginable - is unambiguously negative. Entirely unrelated to morality; if you're in finance/banking you might have sensed the underlying tension I'm referring to when someone mentions that they're going to/currently working for Apollo. For context, my banking group was GS TMT/MS M&A-caliber, so my peers had options. The overwhelming sentiment boils down to: sure, congrats you're going to Apollo but in 0.5 seconds I'm not going to care and the admiration that crossed my mind is no different from others going to MFs; in fact, most of the people I know declined to participate in the Apollo interview process (or proactively expressed a disinterest upfront in conversations with headhunters) because there was no discernible upside to make up for the very tangible and widely-known downside that comes with working there (vs. other MFs); and, and this is unique to Apollo, I am more likely to think that you are a complete psycho until proven otherwise so this interaction isn't likely to progress beyond the few words we will exchange here.

In other words, as someone who adhered precisely to the BB IB --> MF PE --> HBS/GSB track, I am very skeptical of anyone's credibility if they view working at Apollo as distinctly elevated relative to other highly-regarded exits post-banking.