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Apple CEO Tim Cook 'Can't Wait' for Employees to Return to In-Person Work
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I agree, but I will argue that this was always inevitable. Apple had every incentive to upset the status quo back then. Today, Apple doesn’t lead a flock anymore. They cater to an audience, and it is this new relationship with their customers sets the tone for what sort of company Apple will become, because customers have all the power in this relationship.
I do feel that Apple still has an edge over other companies in that it’s one of the few with a design-led approach to coming up with new products. They still focus on the user experience and this is why I see myself continuing to use their products for a good many years to come.
I don’t think Apple has lost its ways though. Times change, circumstances changed, the company changed, and that’s just the way she goes.
By collaborating together and sharing a common vision, drive, and purpose.
That manifests much larger when in-person, where you can get to know each other better.
The COVID crisis has turned us all into antisocial weirdos who question anything that isn’t remote, or covered in four masks with a team of minimum wage workers following us around for disinfectant rituals. I’m reading this thread to see how many condemn Cook for this statement. I’ll soon see if I’m disappointed.
Lol loving the people who want to fart, not shower, and work in pajamas start using the “but muh environment” concern card when they run out of good reasons to not go back to the office. Boo hoo. Buy a Tesla, move closer to work, and plant some trees.
Also, I’m doubting these claims of massive productivity gains by working from home. By whose measure are we using? You’re more productive because your boss is watching Netflix and working on his garden, and thus giving you less to do.
Also, I’m doubting these claims of massive productivity gains by working from home. By whose measure are we using? You’re more productive because your boss is watching Netflix and working on his garden, and thus giving you less to do.
If people touch me at work, there's gonna be hell to pay.
Why are people so focussed on social interactions at WORK? Don't you have friends and family or hobbies?
Sheeesh, the deadbeats at work are NOT my primary source for social enjoyment!
The people you meet at work are people you are forced to interact with, not people you share interests with.
I fear having to go back to work listening to boring conversations about stuff I couldn't care less about. Draining!
yeah i know. we have that plus ring central plus calendar plus every other possible tool, but the simple act of scheduling a meeting for something that should take 2 minutes is a waste of time in itself. it's like this.
remember in the old days you could call a business and get a human on the phone? now instead you get a machine with many options and you have to sit through them all till you get something that might be what you need. then you get another option menu. then you are put on hold and eventually 20 minutes later you talk to a human for like 2 minutes. the whole experience could have been that 2 minutes long but you have to jump through all these hoops to get there. that's what everything is like right now. There is no instant access to anything. and it's just a few minutes here to a few minutes there, but after a few meetings, you've lost at least an hour of productivity.
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Oh I am perfectly aware of where you are coming from. Again, Cook build this company with Jobs the second time around. First half time as his right hand then as his successor picked by him.
I was pointing out the irony of your statement, but thanks for the kool aid.
I mean, I’m sure folks did get laid off due to stealing or some other policy-breaking action. Other than that, nope.
I mean... FaceTime is very different from Zoom and WebEx. Those 2 are literally business/conference focused. FaceTime is marketed as more personal/friendly even now that they have Group FaceTime.
They’re all video chat, but they definitely serve different purposes and that’s ok. They can all coexist.
Also, of course he wouldn’t mention Teams Lol why would he mention Microsoft’s product? There’s no need.
I see what you’re saying, but your solution isn’t one size fits all. People (you and myself included) need to try and understand that what works for you doesn’t work for everyone.
I started a new job last year where I would LOVE to turn to the person next to me and ask a question and get a quick answer. Now? I have to Slack someone and hope they aren’t too busy to answer.
I can’t turn to my neighbor, knock on a door, etc. For *me* personally, I’d like a hybrid model. Some days in the office so I can collaborate in person and have face to face conversations. And other days I’ll work from home and be comfortable / have the ability to get errands done.
It also doesn’t hurt that our office is really nice and perfectly located.
Being 100% remote or 100% in-office isn’t ideal, IMO.
Every time I see someone begin talking about this subject, they immediately try applying it to every single individual in the entire species. If by “we” you’re talking about the tiny minority of highly social among us, then great, but say that. If by ”we” you mean the humans moderately functional in groups of 200 or less, this species traditional upper limit on their ability to retain a sense of humanity among their peers, then hey, super. But if you’re going to try to establish the fantasy that everyone everywhere wants to live in an 8 billion person social feeding frenzy all day long, forget it. You know why design teams are most creative and productive when broken up into small groups of 4? That’s all the social stress a high-functioning human at work can actually handle before seeing seeing the decline in the quality of their experience and output. Just 4. You can say “we” are social beings, and I can understand the desire to think of everyone all in this great and flawless utopian system together having a wonderful time, but even maintaining this fantasy, there are some serious operational limits on that. And it ignores a very significant percentage of humans who purposely choose specific isolating living and working conditions because they aren’t social at all. There is nothing in our long species history that has prepared us for the utter shiteshow of our world taken completely over by an interconnected human hive of 8 billion people still operating on the same primitive selfish ape behavior.
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LOL I know right, what a doomed company. You should email tim apple stat and tell him he’s making a mistake. Try not to bring up the fact that apple is the most successful tech company in the world. make sure to tell him you’re a developer
That might be true - iPhone 4s was a great device.
my AirPods just don’t connect to existing calls - ist so anoying - apple makes me feel like the loser they are.
its just not working - that transfer call thing1
I love collaborating - but guess what - its mainly a mindset thing - nobody keeps you from meeting some guyzngirls from work and innovate in the park taking a walk or sit.
what i see - covid - made a lot of People having „ticks“ some crazy face action and things like that - guess its a good thing entering the spaceship/park again!
To be honest, while I’m mostly with you I do see the value in it. I feel like opportunities for collaboration are rarer now but on the other hand the ability to focus on my work is just amazing and I don’t want to lose that. I’d be happy going to the office for key meetings or tasks that do require more collaboration.
Unfortunately, it's this narrow mindedness from people in their 30s+ who are dominating any kinds of discussions in the news about working from home at the moment. Working from home *is* great if you're old enough and wealthy enough to have your own home with multiple rooms, with a dedicated space at home where you can work, with family around that you get to see all day, especially if you work in a field that isn't too collaborative or are senior enough that your interactions with others are largely an input/output kind of thing rather than actual discussions. However, working form home sucks if you're younger, earlier on in your career, where you need to collaborate and interact more with others and are still learning. Maybe you live with some friends but you still spend almost your entire day in one room, the same room you sleep in. Or maybe you are lucky enough to have moved into your own place but now you interact with no one all day long and you can go for weeks with your only in-person interactions being an Amazon delivery guy.
People like you need to understand that working from home is *great* for you. But it *sucks* for others; largely people who have less 'clout' in the workplace anyway and are even less likely to be asked for their opinions. Offices are not going to go "the way of the rotary phone". They'll change and adapt, hopefully working will be more flexible and will be a mix of working from home and working in an office, so that it can be the best of both worlds for all involved and hopefully the time in the office can be made better by making those offices nicer places to be in.
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Working itself will go away - ofc its necessary to have kind of community spots and meeting places. This needs not necessarily be owned by A company - you can rent it occasionally.
i think theres a lot of mind-set change coming!
Texas already had a bunch of laws and agreements to winterize their power stations and other infrastructure as a result of the 2011 deep freeze. Nothing was done.
Unless the people of Texas watch the power companies like a hawk I bet in another year nothing will be done. These changes are extensive (creating new buildings to house components in temperature-controlled environments) and expensive and will require substantial rate hikes.
Allright, sure. But that is what you can do in your private life not whilst singing the artificial corporate Kumbaya. Only reason Cook wants his employees present is because he doesn't trust them to work enough whilst they are out of his sight. In reality people are overworking from home, but hey, who cares if they can't be tracked every minute.
I am in too small of a space for working from home. 2 bedrooms, 5 people, and only the 2 adults can use the toilets on their own. We now have technology (cheap ANC headphones) and when needed I can turn on Youtube to distract kids during a meeting where I might need some level of quiet in the background. Depending on work for interaction is not ideal. I have other functions in life, and they are available to anyone. There are clubs, churches, social groups, volunteer opportunities. If your only interaction is the UPS guy, that's not your employers fault or problem.
I am in management and have 2 new staff under me which we hired just before COVID. This has been amazing with their learning, since we never had an MS Teams chat running before COVID. They are very happy and both just passed their first annual review with very high marks. They can either DM me, or ask it to the group and we can collaborate there. This stops bad info from spreading, because sometimes they'd just go to the person they were most comfortable with, but maybe they had outdated info. Now everything is in the open. My staff know exactly when I'm best to reach, when I'm more likely to be distracted by home stuff. In the office, I was interrupted randomly so much, the newer staff would have a harder time or walk by and see someone else in my office. They are progressing very fast, for new staff. It will be hard to justify the resources we used to put toward in person training, if they really look at this objectively. So much red tape is gone, it will be a sad dark day if it starts creeping back. We work 9-5. I have staff with heavy/not ideal home life loads and I may get reports from them at 9pm though I don't hear much during the day. As long as the work is done well, I am so happy they can do the work at a time best for them. The idea of "the office" is being paid for your presence at a location. Just seems archaic. It's not like we are doing assembly line work.
The commute time in general can be brutal. I was commuting about 45 mins each way (plus or minus 10 minutes) depending on traffic. 1.5 hours a day, 5 days a week. When I started my position in 2018 I was put at a desk in a back corner behind a curtain divider against a windowless wall, and while it was private compared to rest of the open office setup, I absolutely hated being there. No natural light, secluded in an artificially lit corner....it felt like a prison for me. For someone that does 100% of their work on a MacBook Pro it makes little to no sense to be spending so much time and effort when I bring my laptop everywhere.
Well, I know how much my train ticket is, I know what I spend on food on average, and without taking into account the journey time, I save about £500 per month. My cost of being at home is minimal. I can walk the dog for an hour during normal work time and work an hour longer. If I calculate my savings per year, and how much more I'd need to earn before taxes, that's about £9,000-£10,000 a year an employer would have to pay me to work in the same office building 5 days a week. Add the employer's added cost and we are at £10,000-£11,000 a year. Plus we don't have enough space in the office for everyone anymore
