Apple Employees Asked to Return to Offices for Three Days a Week Starting in September

[Act3]

If your work doesn't require face-to-face interaction, then you should be able to have a choice.

you do have a choice, no one forcing you to go into the office... don't like the policy then leave.

 

[Fred Zed]

It was inevitable, they love micro managing in the USA.
Oh forgot to mention, they (corps in general ) distrust their employees.

 

[DanTSX]

Just remember most of these people here talking about hiring/firing people, what a big shot manager they are, etc are probably department managers at the local retail shop or the local Wendys.

Yes I manage a blockbuster vide

 

[Act3]

No, the manager can build the team that works like he wants them to.

and get rid of the non team players. some folks just aren't cut out for working with others.

 

[9927036]

I’m surprised at many of the responses here. In the U.K. many sectors now see a good remote policy as table stakes for attracting talent.
If you are in a job where you aren’t micro-managed and left to be productive on your own terms why would it matter where you are? Let people work where suits them best. They will either produce quality work or not.
I’m preferring working from home: better equipment, greater comfort, easier to concentrate and I think for some jobs collaboration face to face is overvalued. I’m a developer. I can deal with code commits and zoom calls whether sat in an office or at home office. The face to face stuff is vanishingly rare.

Not so in the US. Many mangers only know how to micromanage. Note the quotes from Timmy. That gives you a sense of the the "working" environment.

 

[Act3]

It was inevitable, the love micro managing in the USA.
Oh forgot to mention, they (corps in general ) distrust their employees.

you call going back to work at the place of employment that one agreed to when accepting the job offer micromanaging? we are in a sad state of times

 

[9927036]

Exactly. My wife is a teacher and many of her co-workers were terrified to go back to school last quarter, but of course happy to frequent grocery and hardware stores where employees have been working in the public space the whole time. Now of course, they're suddenly heroes.

In some parts of the US teachers still have not gone back.

 

[DanTSX]

It’s funny how ppl claim they are much more productive working in the office…keep telling yourself that after you checked your email in the morning and then browse the web, watch Youtube and talk to your co-workers, drinking coffee all day and occasionally check your computer, type a few words to make it seem you make progress with your work.

Believe it or not, productivity can be measured. Depending on your job, for some people it’s gone up massively. This shows how often people take coffee breaks and chat with their coworkers without being productive.

Guess what. Those were the productive people to start with......

 

[Abazigal]

What is? People literally spending 4-5 hours per day in various kitchens drinking coffee, talking to their co-workers about their hobbies and other non-work related things? And no, I’m not exaggerating.

I addressed this briefly in my earlier post. I suppose if you measure productivity strictly quantitatively (eg: how many lines of code you write in an hour), then you probably will see an improvement in the short run (due to fewer distractions in the workplace, like you mentioned). Of course, this also assumes that they are disciplined enough to manage themselves at home, and there are not any distractions like young children.

In the long run however, I suspect that the lack of interaction with your co-workers will result in less innovation overall, because I still believe that the best ideas happen when people are in a room brainstorming, not over a zoom meeting, or when your job requires lots of back and forth. So while quantity may stay the same or even improve, I have concerns with the overall quality of the work produced. The more people involved in making that final product, the more the final quality will suffer.

 

[ericg301]

I can understand Apple's secrecy. Two weeks isn't much considering what we've been through. But every business is different. Me and my teams will work remotely indefinitely with only minimal time in office.

It’s two weeks plus every Wednesday and Friday

 

[DanTSX]

I don’t even engage with people who talk like an 80s action star. I’m not “chief” or your “chief” or whatever. How about you update your vocabulary?

Chief is chic again.....homeboy.

 

[Act3]

In some parts of the US teachers still have not gone back.

that is politics causing that

 

[9927036]

Makes sense for a company like Apple, which relies heavily on close collaboration between various departments for its products. Most companies are not built to succeed with the decentralised employee structure found when work is done at home, and Apple isn't one of them either.

I am also not convinced that WFH is all it's cracked up to be. I am still a firm believer of face to face communication, and I find that for many people, there are just too many distractions at home. As a teacher, I too enjoy being able to wake up later, not needing to commute to work (though I live like 15 minutes walk from school), and being able to zoom on my iMac (some of my colleagues are already facing screen burnout issues on their work laptops from excessive zooming). But home-based learning hasn't really been all that effective for the students, and I am under no illusion that I will have a fair amount of catching up to do when we go back to school.

But I still find it easier to meet up with my superiors in school to discuss workplans and ideas, which I find to be easier than trying to coordinate things over zoom or FaceTime (which I did too, but by then, the agenda was already like 90% done and we were just touching up the final details).

To the people who feel that they are getting alone fine WFH'ing, I would say to look at the overall bigger picture. It's not just about how much code you can churn out when left to your own devices. It's about a decline in the product innovation process, brought about by a decline in team communication and idea exchange, which may in turn lead to subpar products and services. In the end, it's the company and the consumer who suffers ultimately.

Such a phenomenon will probably take a few years to manifest; the ramifications won't be apparent right away, but that doesn't mean harm hasn't already been done. Just like when you get sweet drinks, you don't start getting diabetes right away. And some even claim that the immediate sugar rush helped them clock better timings in their runs.

I believe that in time and with hindsight, this whole work from home phenomenon will end up proving to be a head fake that was more about combatting the pandemic than it is about a dramatic revolution in the way the corporate world does business.

The close collaboration that resulted in Apple's AirPods Max and AirPods Pro not supporting Apple Music Lossless audio, as one example?

 

[Act3]

god forbid if we ever need this generation to fight a war for our freedom. they'll cry that they can't work at home in their underwear

 

[amartinez1660]

I’m surprised at many of the responses here. In the U.K. many sectors now see a good remote policy as table stakes for attracting talent.
If you are in a job where you aren’t micro-managed and left to be productive on your own terms why would it matter where you are? Let people work where suits them best. They will either produce quality work or not.
I’m preferring working from home: better equipment, greater comfort, easier to concentrate and I think for some jobs collaboration face to face is overvalued. I’m a developer. I can deal with code commits and zoom calls whether sat in an office or at home office. The face to face stuff is vanishingly rare.

You are way too advanced and far away into the future mate and you have way too much work ethics… I think you should lose some of that and share it with others or something /s.
I agree with what you say, if there’s proof to boot after 2 years of work remotely, then why force the older ways?.
What’s worse is that I started mentioning to friends how in my personal opinion and situation wfh has been actually great and beneficial… several of them didn’t bat an eye, they would say “that’s how I work since a decade or more ago”. Either freelancers, custom inked deals, several developers too, etc.

office 3 days and home 4 days sounds ideal to me. I would also want to only go in Tues-Thurs.

edit: before the dislike brigade takes over… I rather work remote with the OPTION to go in if I want to. if I *have* to go in, I would rather it be 3 days in a row.

Completely reasonable, nothing against having options. Don’t mind the dislikes… like I mentioned above, several people actually have been working from home since forever. And actually these people make sometimes $200K or $300K a year.

Get back to work, people. Your free ride is over.

My… free… ride? There was a free ride? I want my free ride, completely missed it. What free rides are you referring to? How do I get them?

Nice try bro…I’m a millennial…but whatever helps you justify your expectation that you think you are more “productive “ at home chief

My previous comments already address a bit how some have been more productive and wealthier from home.
I may ask how this works though, I make prototypes, usually fully working full fledged ones in two weeks time, stressful as heck… when I started working from home, the timelines didn’t change. We still have to make fully working prototypes two weeks at a time, so, what gives, how am I suddenly less productive? Not only that, it all became a bit less stressful, sometimes finishing one day or two ahead of time and ironing out things with that extra time throwing an extra unexpected gift or two.
That being said, yes, nobody is denying that not everybody can… some people have that .5 kid too many, or the toddler a few months too young, or the living room a couple of sq ft missing that makes it go from livable to crowded when everybody is always constantly at home. For those (or any other compartmentalizing reason) I completely understand that it has been chaotic and going back to the office is the way to go for those.

 

[9927036]

I'm glad our company is more flexible.

Productivity hasn't fallen, in fact, it's risen.

The company has seen benefits from people working from home, so we are being given a choice on how much we actually want to spend in the office vs working from home. The company and us, the employees, have adapted working remotely. Of course there are some who want to go back into the office part time, or fulltime, and that's completely OK. HR / Management treat employees as adults, not as children who can't be trusted to work away from an office desk.

I notice that you are in Canada. That explains things. 😉

 

[randomdomdkflg]

I feel bad about the state of our nation that we have a generation with work ethics like yourself

Really? Because I'm quite proud that there is a generation of people finally standing up to the absolute BS right-wing mentality that continues to fester in the American mind. Work work work. OBEY.

Go choke on your bootstraps... maybe you keep them at the office?

 

[9927036]

People who don’t commute to/from work in the Bay Area needs to experience what it is like before talking.

I highly doubt much of the tech talent needs to be in the office. I didn’t. In person 1-2x a week to maintain team cohesion is reasonable but 3-4x is on the higher end.

As others have echoed, Google and Apple can’t and won’t leave their campuses to be openly remote bc of the $ dumped into it. But it’s not the only reason. Imagine the jobs and local spending the city gets upon the return. The politicians had a hand in this.

I wouldn’t work for a co that required more than 2-3x per week. WFH has enriched my life in so many ways.

The dollars spent on a building is a poor reason. Do you think Timmy was told by the city politicians to being back everyone mostly full time?

 

[Cycom]

I don’t even engage with people who talk like an 80s action star. I’m not “chief” or your “chief” or whatever. How about you update your vocabulary?

Yeah, ok my guy.

 

[nvmls]

Apple is very demanding and competitive. You have to live for the job, always over 100%, always putting in unpaid extra hours. It’s a little like going to Stanford, Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge and being at the top of your class all the time. It is hard, especially mentally.

Yeah, I heard the intern who designed the Magic Mouse put in extra hours chasing Ive for assistance with the charging port's location.

After finally reaching out to him, Ive's reply was "no worries, we'll put out more colors"

 

[DanTSX]

I addressed this briefly in my earlier post. I suppose if you measure productivity strictly quantitatively (eg: how many lines of code you write in an hour), then you probably will see an improvement in the short run (due to fewer distractions in the workplace, like you mentioned). Of course, this also assumes that they are disciplined enough to manage themselves at home, and there are not any distractions like young children.

In the long run however, I suspect that the lack of interaction with your co-workers will result in less innovation overall, because I still believe that the best ideas happen when people are in a room brainstorming, not over a zoom meeting, or when your job requires lots of back and forth. So while quantity may stay the same or even improve, I have concerns with the overall quality of the work produced. The more people involved in making that final product, the more the final quality will suffer.

This is what we are seeing.
Developing talent and institutional knowledge are getting hit hard. Certain jobs performed collaboratively through a workflow are losing their ability to innovate solutions.

 

[dogslobber]

Apple has struggled to survive the COVID pandemic. This should at least allow them to make some forward progress.

 

[Act3]

Really? Because I'm quite proud that there is a generation of people finally standing up to the absolute BS right-wing mentality that continues to fester in the American mind. Work work work. OBEY.

Go choke on your bootstraps... maybe you keep them at the office?

people have already stood up for employee rights and still do, they are called labor unions...so showing up to the office is now right wing BS? I'm guessing with your attitude , you are stuffing chalupas at TB or disgruntled that your republican governor has taken away your UE benefits and told you to get to work

 

[now i see it]

The monthly expenses for that Spaceship have got to be astronomical.

 

[JCCL]

I'm really shocked about the perception about remote work = low work ethics. For those of us used to work and manage Global teams, even before the pandemic, this really sounds completely ridiculous. You have to learn to trust and measure based on the outcomes and deliverable of the work. Remote work isn't for everyone, and there are people that just don't have the discipline.

But if you have the right team and are in a line of work that don't need face to face interactions all time, you should be able to get the work done just as good. You don't need to be looking over the employee's shoulder all the time. Sure you will have to apply corrective actions every now and then, and it is challenging to interacts as a full team especially as different timezone are at play (APJ + Europe + US West Coast is a nightmare to align), but the team can be as productive as any other.