Apple Offering Work-From-Home Support Roles to Retail Employees [Updated]

[Krizoitz]

I think a face-to-face work environment is usually better most of the time, but after we prevail over COVID-19, I think there are a lot of people who will say to their employers, why can't I work from home, it worked before.

I certainly hope companies are more open to alternative working arrangements in the future and that the current situation helps them reevaluate how possible that is.

However a temporary, out of necessity arrangement that works for a limited time does not always translate into a successful, long term, out of personal convenience arrangement. Its an argument that will have limited appeal I think.

 

[Emanuel Rodriguez]

I think a face-to-face work environment is usually better most of the time, but after we prevail over COVID-19, I think there are a lot of people who will say to their employers, why can't I work from home, it worked before.

Except it doesn't work well. This is a temporary crutch in MOST cases, make no mistake. There will be some jobs that end up being remarkably practical to be done remotely, but most jobs will return to normal. Even just the convenience of being able to walk down the hall to talk to somebody is far better than having to email/call and have them not respond/pick up, etc. Working remotely has significant disadvantages.

 

[44267547]

Not surprising, Verizon is doing the same thing for their retail sales people. They are sending them computers to help with the influx of calls to customer service.

Verizon has had major layoffs with the retail level, not also they shifted their store hours, but it seems that if they have less than two years of experience, a lot of those employees currently don’t have jobs. The difference with Apple, they’re not laying anyone off in terms of who they're providing computers to.

 

[finbred]

He's not fat. Just Festively Plump

Nah, he's wearing an air-conditioned shirt.

 

[Halikaarn]

This is a good idea because:
a) good optics, Apple taking care of employees who they will want back asap.
b) set up a more distributed workforce for this kind of thing as a hedge

 

[UnusedLoginID]

Trust me, most of the sales people at an Apple Store would be incapable of solving technical problems on the phone. It requires very different skills.
Unless the boundaries are set where they are Level 0 support, ie. just dispatching calls to Level 1 support except for obvious answers to the customer issue like:
- quit and relaunch the app
- restart or hard reset your phone
-… or my favorite, plug in the desktop power cable in the wall!
They could also help customers reset their AppleID, gmail, yahoo email passwords.

The thing is that the current situation will teach many Apple users that there are other ways of buying products or getting answers to their questions, other than physically going to a store, and that is to go the Online store or call the AppleCare number. Who knows, they may like it!
If everyone going to the store would call in, or order products online, then technically you don’t need a physical store any more.
Scary thought for the employees but I bet when the stores reopen half of them will be layed off or will stay in their remote support capacities.
Life after COVID will never be the same, even for Apple…

 

[I7guy]

...
Life after COVID will never be the same, even for Apple…

Life will get back to normal. People will go back to their old habits. At least I will.

 

[crisss1205]

Verizon has had major layoffs with the retail level, not also they shifted their store hours, but it seems that if they have less than two years of experience, a lot of those employees currently don’t have jobs. The difference with Apple, they’re not laying anyone off in terms of who they're providing computers to.

That is not true at all. I know people who just got hired by Verizon a few months ago that are now working customer service.
There has not been a single person laid off in several year.

 

[44267547]

That is not true at all. I know people who just got hired by Verizon a few months ago that are now working customer service.
There has not been a single person laid off in several year.

So Your opinion Automatically overrides mine? I could easily contest your claim just as much as you can mine, therefore, you can’t dismiss what I said, just as much as I can dismiss what you said. FYI, That’s not how discussion works.

There are three Vz ‘corporate’ stores in my city, all of which have laid off their employees, it was one of the first major economic moves in my city due to the pandemic, obviously do the close quarters employees are involved with.

As for the ‘hires’ as you’re mentioning, feel free to validate that those are not temporary hires , they’re not permanent solutions, because they migrated employees to home for some positions in terms of technical support/customer relations.

 

[crisss1205]

So Your opinion Automatically overrides mine? I could easily contest your claim just as much as you can mine, therefore, you can’t dismiss what I said, just as much as I can dismiss what you said. FYI, That’s not how discussion works.

There are three Vz ‘corporate’ stores in my city, all of which have laid off their employees, it was one of the first major economic moves in my city due to the pandemic, obviously do the close quarters employees are involved with.

As for the ‘hires’ as you’re mentioning, feel free to validate that those are not temporary hires , they’re not permanent solutions, because they migrated employees to home for some positions in terms of technical support/customer relations.


So I’m not really sure why you’re trying to be all defensive about thi You’re n, when there’s been multiple corporate Verizon stores my area they have laid off employees. And the ones that they are hiring, or temporary hires, which is even posted

Wait do you work for Verizon? I don't think so. Mine is not an option. It is fact. They closed down the stores but they did not lay off the employees. The employees who used to work in the store are now working from home in other roles. When those roles are no longer needed they will go back to retail.

The people I am talking about that got hired were hired to work retail as a regular full time employee. Then the store was shut down so they had them work from home.

What proof do you have that they laid off those employees.

 

[44267547]

Wait do you work for Verizon? I don't think so.

I can see this conversation is clearly out of your realm, as this isn’t relevant what you’re asking me whatsoever. [Which I could ask you the same question, but I won’t, because it has no relevancy to my opinion versus yours]. However, I explained (Twice now) in my city, multiple stores have had layoffs, but they’ve shifted service rep positions to home, also hiring temporary positions to help fulfill the call-center overload. Feel free to research this on the Internet, there’s plenty of empirical data supporting it. Verizon stores have all closed down in my city for that reason alone.

Anyways, Trying to entertain your unsupported opinions, just as I have my own personal data of what’s occurring in my region, isn’t leading to the actual thread topic for discussion.. If you want to discuss the actual thread topic regarding Apples migration movement, then feel free to do so.