Apple Taking Extra Time Off at Thanksgiving in Recognition of Year's Success

[anjinha]

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What heck?? Would Steve Job allow this? If no, then must be good reason. He give employee free product like amazing iPhone but never allow people to be soft and lazy. Cook learned nothing from the great Steve.

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I'm really digging this more humanistic Apple. This is a company I can get behind now.

Cook >>> Jobs

Steve did the exact same thing last year.

 

[imageWIS]

Damn it Apple! Why don't you do what almost every other US corporation does and take away paid days! And for the retail people: close the stores and have them stay home, without pay!

 

[Behindthelens24]

Good, well deserved.
The company I work for has done almost the opposite this year, they've blocked holiday from Nov 16th through to Jan 12th. And I've got 'no choice' but to work Christmas eve until midnight.

And the company wonders why their employees hate their jobs so much and just can't be bothered with it anymore.

Same here. I work in retail, and the company I work for is horrid. They've taken EVERYTHING away from the store employees. I'm in the same boat as you. It's still nice to see the big man notice his underlings' good work and give them a little break. I'm sure their corporate employees actually work and are held to a high standard. I wish I could say the same for the corporate employees where I work.

Enjoy.

 

[bretm]

What?
Mr. Jobs leaves us, and Tim Cook is already taking time off?

What baout shutting down the store and giving retail employees paid time off?...not so much, huh.....

What about shutting down the store on the day after Mr. Jobs death for his recognition? not so much, huh

But yuo go ahead and take your vacation Mr. Cook.

Hourly employees don't get paid time off. Hence the term hourly. They may get bonuses or commissions or profit sharing, etc. Salaried employees are expected to perform no matter how many hours they work or how late they have to stay or whether they get to see their families or not. They are often told to put vacations on hold because things like the 4s are running behind. They aren't given extras. This is their job and combined with their skill set that took more time to acquire than a training class, they get paid handsomely for it. I'll bet some aren't that that great though - but just love being part of something big. When they get back from their extra couple paid days of vacation, they'll most likely have a buttload of extra work sitting in front of them because they just lost 2 days off the next deadline.

So yes, give it a rest.

 

[Hikkadwa]

Time off ?

Sort out the mess you've made of keynote first!

 

[cxny]

That's a great move Mr. Cook, Steve would be proud of you!

 

[rorschach]

Clearly they need to be working harder after the big flop that the iPhone 4S has been.

Apple Announces Over One Million iPhone 4S Pre-Orders in First 24 Hours

 

[reden]

Retail store employee hipsters get the shaft!

 

[rorschach]

Retail store employee hipsters get the shaft!

When I worked at a large Apple Store, we used to get double pay and they raffled off 15-inch MacBook Pros and iMacs, iPods, and $50-$100 iTunes gift cards all day for employees on Thanksgiving. People used to love working that day. Enough people volunteered that people who wanted the day off got it.

 

[darkplanets]

I'm going to assume you are not a business owner. Of course paid time off changes productivity; by definition, you're not doing your job when you're not there, that's a loss of that productivity. And if you're saying that you can be gone for 6-8 weeks and it makes no difference, that's typically because your department divides up your workload among your co-workers. Surely you can see that management might view that as possible case of over-staffing in that department?

Everybody likes vacation, and the more the better. I'm happy for the Apple employees, well deserved. But it's a question of whether a business, and the market segment in which they operate, can absorb or accommodate that loss in cost-revenue structures; not all of them can. It's not like that "Paid" part of PTO comes free.

Everything is relative. Change productivity by what factor? A few days is not going to break the proverbial bank, especially when the company is doing so well. This isn't a 6-8 week break, as you said above. Of course having PTO is a loss of productivity and money by definition, although this could be mitigated by the benefits of vacation. Ever hear of burning out? Employees are people; they aren't slaves or machines of infinite capacity-- you wear them out and they have a sub-standard performance. You do however have to consider that I'm addressing this article, of which the subject is Apple. Not all businesses. Obviously some businesses cannot accommodate that loss in revenue or time... especially the smaller (and less corporate) they become.

Since you're presumably a manager by your comments, you should know to work smart, not hard. Having someone's nose to the grind stone 24/7 may not be as beneficial as working smart-- it's all about managing your employees efficiently and playing off of their strengths, not running them down to inefficiency, especially if their jobs require creativity and problem solving, ala science and technology.

 

[Shrink]

I love the "Steve would do this" and "no, Steve would never do that" as if the posters were privy to his private thoughts.

I realize that folks think they are extrapolating from past behavior and can deduce what he would have done in this or that situation.

Sorry.... ABSURD!

 

[farmboy]

Everything is relative. Change productivity by what factor? A few days is not going to break the proverbial bank, especially when the company is doing so well. This isn't a 6-8 week break, as you said above. Of course having PTO is a loss of productivity and money by definition, although this could be mitigated by the benefits of vacation. Ever hear of burning out? Employees are people; they aren't slaves or machines of infinite capacity-- you wear them out and they have a sub-standard performance. You do however have to consider that I'm addressing this article, of which the subject is Apple. Not all businesses. Obviously some businesses cannot accommodate that loss in revenue or time... especially the smaller (and less corporate) they become.

Since you're presumably a manager by your comments, you should know to work smart, not hard. Having someone's nose to the grind stone 24/7 may not be as beneficial as working smart-- it's all about managing your employees efficiently and playing off of their strengths, not running them down to inefficiency, especially if their jobs require creativity and problem solving, ala science and technology.

I wasn't addressing a few days off at Apple, but your comments about longer PTO and productivity in Europe. No one said anything about nose to the grindstone / burnout as the alternative, which is obvious.

 

[dethmaShine]

Good question. Here is a nice story from a former Apple employee detailing Jobs' return to the company. In the story, the author mentions leaked emails:



I wonder if Tim Cook is going to tighten this up?

I seemed to have read that story somewhere in the recent times. But, this is not a good sign.

 

[TMay]

I seemed to have read that story somewhere in the recent times. But, this is not a good sign.

Why is it assumed that these emails aren't for public consumption? It would seem to me that Apple PR would be happy to release them.

Not everything needs to be a secret, especially if every Apple employee has already told his family.

 

[organerito]

What Steve Jobs are you talking about the real Steve Jobs who was a very private family man, or the Steve Jobs who you would love him to have been so you can pick on him?

Steve Jobs was not a family man until he had a family (~15 years ago), and then he became a very devoted father.

What Steve Jobs are you talking about the real Jobs or Saint Steve Jobs? He said it himself. He wanted to have a biography so that his daughters would know him better.

 

[AppleScruff1]

When I worked at a large Apple Store, we used to get double pay and they raffled off 15-inch MacBook Pros and iMacs, iPods, and $50-$100 iTunes gift cards all day for employees on Thanksgiving. People used to love working that day. Enough people volunteered that people who wanted the day off got it.

Where did you work that the store was open on Thanksgiving Day?

 

[accessoriesguy]

That's real great, my current boss is just as good. He gave us Columbus day off on monday, he's a super swell guy, works actually more fun when the boss's are around!!!

 

[mackandproud]

I walked into an apple store a couple of weeks ago.

Just about every single product they sell is simply gorgeous. Their airbooks are the best looking and best designed computers I've ever seen.

Here's to hoping they top themselves in the future!

 

[badhatharry]

It took a total of 12 hours to update my iPhone and iPad, after getting the OS from direct download links. Bang-up job, guys. Take the week off.

 

[SydneyJunkie]

steve jobs wouldnt have done this

 

[anjinha]

steve jobs wouldnt have done this

He would and he has.

 

[flo2009]

I wasn't addressing a few days off at Apple, but your comments about longer PTO and productivity in Europe. No one said anything about nose to the grindstone / burnout as the alternative, which is obvious.

imo both of you are oversimplifying

consider these two stereotypical examples:

(1) blue-collar worker in some factory
- hired to work 40h/week
- after his shift ends he goes home and spends some quality time with family
- if he is slow he gets fired as the time budget he can work is fixed and determined by shift schedules etc
- works overtime (or weekends) when told to do so and gets compensated for it
- if he is late to work, goes early, ... he needs a replacement to take his place, if there is no replacement tough luck
- you give him PTO and his annual output goes down proportionally

(2) junior consultant at a major consulting firm
- employment contract says 40h/week
- after "work" he spends a few hours writing up the day's results, then takes a shower and spends 3-4 hours socializing with the client, when he gets back to his hotel room late at night he puts in another few hours to rework his slides for the next day's presentation
- if he is slow he just works more overtime until he breaks down; then the quality of his work will suffer and he gets fired.
- if there is a legal obligation to keep track of overtime everybody reports fake values, nobody wants to red-flag himself; overtime work is done from home whenever possible for the same reasons
- nobody cares when or how long he works as long as he shows up for meetings and is there when the client needs him; taking a few hours off to pick up his daughter is generally no issue.
- you give him PTO and he will probably spend most of that time working from home; in any case he will be back on his original schedule by next week.


Most jobs are somewhere on a continuum between these two extremes, the exact position is usually determined by company culture and pay-grade.

But 3 days PTO does usually not imply that all project deadlines are shifted by 3 days.

 

[the8thark]

Perhaps many of you have never heard about this before, but this is not the first time that Apple has given everyone the week off for Thanksgiving week. Steve did this in the past. There's nothing to see here. Move along.

MacRumors page views. It's all about the page views.

 

[carlgo]

Cook may be more perceptive about what is happening at Apple than Jobs was.

Likely he just saw that people were too stressed and getting unproductive in some ways. It was one new thing after another, often to the neglect of existing programs.

Jobs was by all accounts a tough guy to work for and at some point people just can't handle that kind of approach any more.

It's a new time and I expect that with the ability to breath a little, the employees will take the company to new heights.

 

[JAT]

Wow, to insult a dead man who give you everything you love. Is sickening.

Steve invented football? Thought he was younger than that...