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My company has now decided that IF you live further than 25 miles from the office, you can permanently work from home. I live 12 miles, which means I will have to go in at least 3 days a week. This is where I get angry. It's as if I'm being penalized for living closer to work. I have worked here 20+ years as well as many others. When I took the job I knew, as well as those that live 25+ miles away, that it was an "in office" position. To now come out and state that if you live x distance from the office you can stay WFH, seems like some sort of discrimination to me.

I'm very interested to see how things turn out in my situation.
Your company has given people an incentive to move further away. Odd choice.
 
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The company I work for never used covid as an excuse we were in the office every single day and never followed any mask mandate boss said it was our choice and none of us were sick and we felt with the public. 6 days a week.
Thats intense. My job is medical adjacent so we never worked from home unless suspected CV19. Everyone just kept coming in like normal.
 
Everyone makes choices, this entitled threat of quiet quitting is typical behavior these days. Yeah bathrobes and slippers are cheap no doubt.
And before you ask, yes, I used to live in the states for a few years. But paying up to 45% in taxes, no healthcare, and absolutely everyone (yourself included) just absolutely bent on making sure everyone is as miserable as they are and try to get rid of as many rights as possible for themselves and especially those around them on topics that do not concern them. Supposed to be coming back next year, but think I might just skip.
 
Always support the employees. They are the people who suffer to make the corporation and managers on high rich. They are you and they are me.

If the employees don’t like it, they have the right to petition. If Apple doesn’t like it, they have the right to say no. The employee has the right to seek work elsewhere. I doubt we’ll see much in the way of change until these traditional companies can no longer compete with remote operations. That day is coming.

I made the choice to work remotely a few months before the pandemic started by seeking employment elsewhere. There was nothing about my job that necessitated working in-person (I manage websites and do development and design work) and my employer wouldn’t accommodate me so I left. Now I work four days per week remotely and have three days off. You guys have no idea what you’re missing out on. I have more personal time than ever. I can roll out of bed and start working within 5 minutes. If I’m running late from work, I can just go eat dinner with my family, spend time with my kids, and pop back on later if I need to finish up something.

The volume of work that I do remotely is easily 3x my in-office job. There is absolutely no way I could focus this well in-person. Gone are the pointless meetings where anything of substance is rarely accomplished. Gone are the coworkers stopping by my office door to chit-chat about crap I don’t care to hear about. Gone are all the background noises and birthday parties and long expensive lunch breaks eating at restaurants with fellow employees. Gone are the phone calls and long-winded email threads when I can just hop on Slack for two minutes to hash an issue out via text or do a quick screen share.

Everything I need to do is in a task management system. Everything I need others to do is in the same system. I can track it all in real-time to see exactly where in the process we are for any project and make notes and attach screenshots and provide feedback for those under me to review and they are all notified instantly.

Doing business the old fashioned way is cute and quaint but this is how you really get crap done in 2022. Of course it depends on the specific job at hand but my advice to Apple is to stay nimble and flexible where you can or you’ll fall behind. Maybe not this year or next year but suddenly you’ll find yourself wondering what went wrong. The future waits for no one.
That’s simply unbelievable. Perhaps in rare cases, but I laugh when people say that work has more distractions and “the guy” that keeps talking to them stops them from being productive.

At home, if you have kids and a family - they WILL be a disruption and you can’t tell me they don’t talk with you and disrupt a work flow. I don’t buy you get 3x the work done. I think you feel that way without a commute and that’s fair. But if what you say was true, there wouldn’t be a battle between employers and employees. It would be obvious how much more productive people were - if they were 3x better.

I work from home. Don’t claim that there are fewer distractions. And I don’t even have kids. The number of times my wife needs me to do something during the day or calls from work or there is some house project appointment.

I literally will drive over an hour to an office to get things done at times. At an office, it is your space, you can shut the door, and you can ask an intruder to leave. I cannot see the logic of fewer distractions at home. I think that’s just what people say because they don’t consider their family a distraction when, from the employers point of view, they are.
 
That’s simply unbelievable. Perhaps in rare cases, but I laugh when people say that work has more distractions and “the guy” that keeps talking to them stops them from being productive.

At home, if you have kids and a family - they WILL be a disruption and you can’t tell me they don’t talk with you and disrupt a work flow. I don’t buy you get 3x the work done. I think you feel that way without a commute and that’s fair. But if what you say was true, there wouldn’t be a battle between employers and employees. It would be obvious how much more productive people were - if they were 3x better.

I work from home. Don’t claim that there are fewer distractions. And I don’t even have kids. The number of times my wife needs me to do something during the day or calls from work or there is some house project appointment.

I literally will drive over an hour to an office to get things done at times. At an office, it is your space, you can shut the door, and you can ask an intruder to leave. I cannot see the logic of fewer distractions at home. I think that’s just what people say because they don’t consider their family a distraction when, from the employers point of view, they are.

I work from home. I did for years pre-pandemic. I don't have to get up, get dressed up, put on "outside" makeup, do my hair for something more than Zoom quality decent appearances, and I don't have to pack a lunch or spend money and time on a purchased meal from a cafeteria or offsite restaurant. I don't have to work in a godawful "open office" where I am constantly distracted by noises, people, and the lack of privacy to do heads' down work. I get to spend more hours of my week doing stuff I want to do rather than deal with all of that.



My house isn't distracting. I don't feel obliged to do laundry during my workday or clean the house unless it's me wiping up a spill as I grab some lunch from my stocked kitchen. If I get a hankering to get out for a minute, there's stuff closer to my house than there was to my office.

I have an entire home office that's my own. So does my husband. My kids are in college and they live at home but they also have their own stuff going on and they know we work remote so they don't bug us at all. The most distracted I get is by the cats, but they like to hang out with me while I work and that's minor.

There's no down side. I dislike people in my face all day.

Ps. If you are distracted by home improvement projects, praytell who handled that while you were in the office? Your wife, by herself? So, what you are saying is that you want to go away and focus only on your job while she runs everything else?

Also... most people don't have an office door unless they work from home.
 
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Like I said, if Apple could have outsourced every office based job to India and other cheaper places they would have done so already. Apple support is handled by an outside contractor, so is their website and Apple repairs. Most recently it was reported that many Apple recuriters would lose their jobs with the article pointing out that these people are not Apple employers but 3rd party contractors who are placed at Apple sites around the world. So basically what I am saying is Apple already outsource a lot of their work so if all these office based jobs that have allowed Apple employees to work from home are jobs that can be handled by a computer, a phone line, internet access and zoom calls to bosses, the job would have already been outsourced. The fact the jobs havent mean's the job involves them being locally based/country based.
Your logic is since Apple hasn’t done it then they’re not going to do it. There’s one flaw with that. Apple wants their employees in the office so they can’t outsource employees who they want present physically in their Cupertino office to India. If Apple is somehow pressured into allowing these employees to work remotely they are giving Apple an additional option of outsourcing their work. That was my point.

I think we’re going to see more outsourcing in other companies who just realized wait we survived just fine with employees not physically present. There was this belief that if you had an employee working in an office they had to be in the office building and could not work remotely because that would be terrible. In many instances that has proved to be false and employees are successfully working remotely.

Of course this is all just speculation but I feel it’s possible. Just because there’s not a whole lot of difference between working remotely 500 miles away or 3000 miles away.
 
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Snarky/oddly angry comments not withstanding...

I work in finance and can virtually guarantee my household income eclipses yours. I have the ability to do about 95% of my job from home if I wanted to, but I don't want to.

Human beings need designated spaces; a space for relaxation/play, and a separate space for work and productivity. Working from home blurs these lines, and anyone who does the mental gymnastics required to convince themselves and their employers that they're as productive at home as they are in a dedicated workspace is kidding themselves.
Superiority/inferiority complex aside, there are no mental gymnastics. What works for you doesn’t necessarily work for others or equate to consensus of the majority. Some have the ability to “flip the switch” between work and home. I can do it, maybe you can’t. Your opinion is noted. It’s wrong, based on available data, but noted.
 
Thirdly, and HERES THE MAIN ONE...... Each and every employee went to a job interview..... and accepted the job based on where they lived, the commute, the office they were working in... etc etc. Just because its nicer and cheaper not to commute does not mean they now have the right to demand a change in their working conditions...
many years ago: ... just because it's nicer not to smoke in office rooms does not mean they now have the right to demand a change in their working conditions... oh, wait...
 
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I cannot lie, i totally understand Apple wanting employees to return to the office. At least they not require 5/6 days a week. Working together face to face is different than isolated at home. How convenient it may be.
 
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That's how it goes these days. Folks will fight tooth and nail on taking away others' rights.
It’s a right to work from home? I wasn’t aware of that.

I don’t think anyone is trying to take away someone’s rights or even stop them from working at home. It’s just a group of people discussing whether it’s good or bad and the aspects of it. It’s a discussion forum and no one here is actually in charge of Apple employees to my knowledge. If there was someone here in charge I don’t think they would reveal that and any discussions here aren’t going to change what’s going on at the company.
 
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On the contrary, I have very clear ideas. Lumber yard? I can’t have any fun there.
Apologies. I should’ve stated, “informed ideas”. Your opinions are anecdotal, at best.

And lumber yards can be terribly fun. Think of the potential for lost digits or limbs! Not to mention the daily, “will the saw cut <insert object name here>” contests. Plus, the employee discount would be very nice with the price of lumber these days.
 
Thirdly, and HERES THE MAIN ONE...... Each and every employee went to a job interview..... and accepted the job based on where they lived, the commute, the office they were working in... etc etc. Just because its nicer and cheaper not to commute does not mean they now have the right to demand a change in their working conditions... THEY took the job on knowing full well what it entailed..... Covid was a temporary and unprecedented problem and its time to get back to normal like it or not.

I'm pretty sure that if one stays at a company long enough, the company will change the terms without alerting the employee so why's this even a thing you're talking about? If one was with a company long enough, one would go from having an actual office space that is private, with a door that closes... to a cubicle... to an open space... and back and forth because companies love to do that to people. So, the pandemic comes along and a lot of people who were stuck in open office hell realized that they could repurpose a room in their house for a PRIVATE office and zero commute time and expense. It went well. The end.
 
With all due respect, but highly educated professionals have always been in a position of power because they will jump ship easily. If Google allows WHF and Apple doesn't, guess what will happen.

If enough do Google can offer smaller packages and be more choosy. Emplyees leaving and giving up options, etcc. may find Google won't matcch them becasue tehy have more potential workers to chose from. A supersatr I slikely able to dictate their own terms, but Apple is likely to be flexible in such a case as well.

Even if Apple try and force the issue I cannot see how they can win this unless each and every employee's contract specifically states that their place of work is (enter works address) because if their contract just states they are to be at work or their work station by a given time, WFH employee's can claim that they do this already by being at their point of work (spare room, bedroom, garage, desk in corner of another room) at the time specified in their contract.

The employer gets to dictate the place of work, not the employee.

People need to socialise, people need to interact with others is no longer a justifiable excuse for wanting people back into the work place because the pandemic put paid to that.

A lot depends on what is being done. I've told potential clients no because the work could not be done remotely but required actual in person interaction; and I would not take the job because I knew it would not end well for either of use.

In other case, remote was fine with just an occasional in person checkin because some things are just easier to go over in person.
 
My company has now decided that IF you live further than 25 miles from the office, you can permanently work from home. I live 12 miles, which means I will have to go in at least 3 days a week. This is where I get angry. It's as if I'm being penalized for living closer to work. I have worked here 20+ years as well as many others. When I took the job I knew, as well as those that live 25+ miles away, that it was an "in office" position. To now come out and state that if you live x distance from the office you can stay WFH, seems like some sort of discrimination to me.
Your new company policy is BS. Reminds me of when I worked for the government in Canada. To qualify for limited parking spots at the office there was a point system. One of the key categorires was the distance one lived from the office. Cheap Charlies who chose to live far away because housing was less expensive or because they enjoyed the country environment were unfairly rewarded in the parking situation. They made a voluntary choice, why should that give them an advantage in the parking pool?
 
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I know this seems weirdly controversial now - and ive no idea why...

But this strikes me as utterly entitled and ridiculous behaviour.

Firstly..... 3 times a week? is that all?? more than generous of apple.
Secondly.... like it or not there are some roles where collaboration is needed, and not in zoom meetings and the like - theres no substitute to face to face interaction. I wonder out loud how much better iOS 15 could have been and iOS16 too.... (though I accept that might just be nonsense)

Thirdly, and HERES THE MAIN ONE...... Each and every employee went to a job interview..... and accepted the job based on where they lived, the commute, the office they were working in... etc etc. Just because its nicer and cheaper not to commute does not mean they now have the right to demand a change in their working conditions... THEY took the job on knowing full well what it entailed..... Covid was a temporary and unprecedented problem and its time to get back to normal like it or not.

The easy answer is if you dont like you job or working conditions (and only 3 days a week in the office which is much better than you had when you took the job on) then simply resign. Stop wasting time and energy with petitions etc - your employer is well within their rights to mandate working arrangements like this and if your office job requires you to be in the office then get in there or move aside and give one of the many thousands out there who would love your job the opportunity to do it and work from that amazing Apple Park location (id love to work there!).
You forgot to list all the reasons why WFH is better, or I guess the main reason, what driving into the office actually benefits the employee and company. With everyone doing WFH now, is Apple faultering?

The commute, gas cost, etc., "just because"? Please...
 
At an office, it is your space, you can shut the door, and you can ask an intruder to leave.

Not if you work in an open-space. You can politely ask some people near you to talk more quietly, but discussing stuff can be part of the work and there is no avoiding that. In my home I have my home-office and the only discussions I hear are those between me and my remote colleagues.

And that is a door I can actually close, whereas I cannot prevent other employees in the office from bothering me, even indirectly, since the open-office is by definition a shared space.

I cannot see the logic of fewer distractions at home. I think that’s just what people say because they don’t consider their family a distraction when, from the employers point of view, they are.

As per example above, how many distractions you have at home and how many distractions you have at work can be a much different situation depending on a case-by-case basis. It's not always true that there are less distractions in the office as it's not always true that there are less distractions at home.

For me and basically all my colleagues, the home is the more distraction-free environment, but that's because there is this insistence of organizing the office in open-spaces which are complete BS for doing conceptual work which requires both focus and collaboration between other employees.

Our employer is actually considering restructuring in part the office layout to better accommodate this kind of work since many provided feedback in that direction and clearly motivated the reasons why working from home is in some situation a better deal than coming in the office for them.
 
You forgot to list all the reasons why WFH is better, or I guess the main reason, what driving into the office actually benefits the employee and company. With everyone doing WFH now, is Apple faultering?

The commute, gas cost, etc., "just because"? Please...
Oh for goodness sake... IT DEPENDS ON THE JOB!!!
There are millions of jobs out there..... millions of permutations of roles and responsibilities...

Some, sure, can adopt the WFH model... of course they can.... SOME....... and sure, for those people there are benefits as you started to list... but thats not the point of this discussion...

But, if a company such as Apple deems that a role that they are paying for is best performed in an office environment then thats that.... no amount of whinging and whining will make the blindest bit of difference.

As someone said earlier. at what point did employees think they can start to dictate terms to their employers? Especially when those terms were set at the point the employee accepted the job in the first place and has been performing that job perfectly fine in the existing paradigm before being allowed, by necessity, the WFH temporary option. Temporary.....
 
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I guess it is hard to explain to people that they just have been used to try out some new society model by Klaus Schwab or something and now they have to go back to the usual until the next experiment will take place.

People are not stupid and felt on some level that they have been used and now they have a right to say "It is not OK to use me for your experiments" and whoever chooses to continue working from home have a right to do so.
 
A fairly complex situation overall, not just for Apple but for most of the companies in the Valley. On one hand, it is clear that the general trend of WFH is not going away and most companies (especially in tech) can probably accommodate that to some extent. The question is, what to do with the office spaces, how to handle areas where access needs to be controlled and monitor, i.e. engineering, product design and so on. Also, what about the housing market? I don't think many of the people working in the Valley would actually live in the Valley unless they've had to under the current circumstances.
you missed amount of time spent in commute. Companies in Bay Area have increased work load taking into consideration that people are saving at least 2/4 hours/day by working from home, now they don't want to reduce work load even if we start traveling to office.
And i was talking to councilmember representing my district he said that City doesn't make much money from resedential property taxes, most of the City's income is from commercial realestate. So if every employee wants to work from home how are cities supposed to make money for services they provide ?
I do agree that cities in bay area waste lot of money so may be this is good thing.
 
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