Apple Requiring Employees to Return to Office 3x Per Week Starting on September 5

[JM]

IMHO for my company and our IT team, it has slowed everything down. Before I could walk down to an office and talk to someone face to face. Now I have to get ahold of a person. Many never turn on the camera anymore. Many people try to communicate over Teams chats or email now and it just falls apart fast. I call them to cut to the point...and they do not answer half the time because they are not working and probably are at some place.

Preach.

My coworkers all do teams and google chat, and never want to come back. Communication is pretty terrible.

I get a lot of knowledge from walking around the office talking to other departments.

But ultimately I don’t have the long commutes they do, so my opinion on the matter is not worth as much. I’m sure I would be much more in favor of WFH 100% if I was losing two hours of my day to sitting in 5mph traffic :/

But. I also strongly suspect that they aren’t doing as much work as they could be since the remote computer work has lag to it and fails from time to time.

I’m not the manager, though 🤷‍♂️

The other departments are doing a 2/3 week, but when they told us to return for three days of the week: our department produced a LOT of complaints and “squeaky wheeling” about coming back to the office at all, so upper management caved and put a moratorium on office return. (But they are slowly, slowly introducing minor things that lead me to believe they are going to start forcing returns. But I could be wrong )

 

[steve09090]

Yup. Let's do the hour-long meeting while on the commute.

Nothing wrong with a work phone call, and this happened before we all got to Work from Home. Now all the entitled Karen’s want to stay home and whine about lost productivity.

People are using this as a form of pay rise. So they don’t have to pay for commute, or parking or lunch at the local eatery. If they want to stay home, they need to bargain away some of their $’s.

 

[4nNtt]

Get these cry babies back to work. Enough of this work from home. 3 days is more than generous. They went to the office before COVID they can do it again. If they don’t like it they can quit.

I think this will drive people to leave for other opportunities. I would strongly consider leaving a desk job now that WFH is standard practice for tech.

 

[svish]

Quite a long time since Apple wanted to bring employees back to office. This time it looks like it is happening!

 

[4nNtt]

I'm a regular critic of Apple and a huge proponent of remote work, but I don't how see how Apple is doing anything "unfair" here. Apple has made it well-known that they are a firm believer of in-person work, even to those of us who don't work there. It's fine if you disagree or think that's a "boomer mentality", but at this point if you're still at Apple but want a remote job, that's 100% on you as an employee.

It’s not unfair, but I think Apple will lose a lot of employees.

 

[JM]

Very important.

Socalizing.

Moving.

Testing the products together face to face.

If you just sitting at home you can go mad like a person in prison.

So many divorces and abuses happened during lockdown because couples had to spend unnatural level of time together.

You should only see your family, partner, kids at essential moments otherwise you all fight over small things.

You have to have diversity of people to interact with so you are always learning to socialize with many different forms of people.

The AC at our office broke today, so they told everyone they should probably WFH today if they didn’t already plan to.

My children banged on the glass French door throughout the day to bother me with hugs or something.

I felt very much like I was in a prison. A WFH zoo cage, even 😆

(Kidding, kidding… I love my kids and love hugs, but it would be really hard to have to ignore them every work day. It would be sad if they saw me everyday ignore them while they wanted to play with me, and probably wouldn’t be good for their psyche.)

 

[JM]

What issues? My iPhone 12 and 12 Pro have been working flawlessly for 2 years.

Stop lying. Apple is doomed and their products are worse than android.

🫢!!!!!

🤣

 

[JM]

I can’t speak for everyone’s experience, but I can speak for my own as a web developer. I work Mondays and Fridays from home and drive in Tuesday through Thursday, and most of my most productive days have been at home, maybe because I live alone, don't have pets, etc. — so there are absolutely no distractions, aside from the occasional Slack message. Very rarely are those of such priority that I can't wait to reply until I get to a stopping point.

Granted, I'm consistently productive, so my employer trusts me, which is unfortunately a radical concept for some.

I do need a good stern look and shouted verbal warning from my manager every hour to keep me focused and on task. Otherwise I’d be an atrocious employee and do unspeakable things without his hourly vein-popping screaming. I can’t tell you how life-changing his verbal abuse has been.

If it weren’t for bosses, I just might NEVER do anything worthwhile. Bosses are the TRUE GOAT, and we really should buy them more presents.

🤪

 

[JM]

Lol I’m a damn good worker but I will be honest my LG 34in monitor excepts dual external inputs. I regularly split screen with my Xbox and game 1/3 or more of the work day. Like I said, my work still gets done, but there is some distraction that goes on throughout the day.

Thank you for being honest.

Your IP address has been logged and your employer will be notified.

Thank you, have a nice day.

🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

 

[planteater]

For obvious reasons its much healthier to work in an office. Going to the office forces you to do one very important thing….move.

Just as important is it causes people to maintain human connections. Working from home can and does cause isolation for some people.

 

[JM]

Not yet, but it sounds like Apple is pretty much inviting it with its draconian policies.

I am far more productive working from home, although not everyone is. I stayed caught up during COVID. I found that the time that you would normally spend engaged in mindless office chatter or other distractions can be spent actually doing work, and you still have time left over to throw in a load of laundry or vacuum the floors during the workday. The hybrid model is pretty awful by comparison.

That’s one of the better points from my coworkers when they were protesting going back to the office three days a week.

They mentioned they were able to throw laundry in while working, and it improved their work life balance by having more time not doing laundry on the weekends. (Other points were: no lost time to makeup in the morning or getting work-dressed, no long commute, no paying for gas the company doesn’t pay for.)

It sounds like a perk for employees, but does it help the company? That’s the real question. The company has to be good, or the jobs won’t be around to provide WFH opportunities.

Our group has good numbers, so management has catered so far.

 

[00sjsl]

And you guys make physical products as all from home? Somehow i doubt that. Yes they are mass produced over seas, but anyone that’s actually worked in this industry also knows there’s lots of prototypes and PHYSICAL work involved in designing and producing these.

My company moved to hybrid working with hot desking at the office. They just ship prototype hardware to the home. I have better access to hw at home than at the office. Having said that my company is less secretive than Apple.

 

[planteater]

Working from home is a multiplier. The best employees tend to get better. The average slacker tends to get worse. That was my observation working from a home office for 12 years before quitting to join the real world a few years ago. I spent the last 3 years of it managing other home based team members across 3 countries.

Apple’s hybrid approach is a good one. It’s fair.

 

[JM]

People are using this as a form of pay rise. So they don’t have to pay for commute, or parking or lunch at the local eatery. If they want to stay home, they need to bargain away some of their $’s.

Exactly! 😮 It is an employee initiated pay raise! Thank you for pointing that out.

My impression is that it’s employees that feel emboldened to demand things from employers in the current climate. (Various articles exist regarding employees having the power right now. Though it’s interesting to see for how long.)

 

[bousozoku]

Get these cry babies back to work. Enough of this work from home. 3 days is more than generous. They went to the office before COVID they can do it again. If they don’t like it they can quit.

A lot of people have moved out into Central Valley, which is around a 3 hour commute from San Jose. Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto are further.

I'm sure it's difficult to be productive when you spend 6-7 hours per day on the road.

 

[Lucas Curious]

Get back to work. You got a nice office and we are hungry for upgrades!
Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave. If he was alive, they'd be in that office 100 hours a week and bragging about it.
Tim Cookie is too soft. I miss the old Apple where employees would get divorced and mess up their health for the sake of innovation.

 

[gmarm]

It's unfortunate how a company that wants to be perceived as forward-thinking enforces something so regressive.

I do hope they lose a lot of talent as a consequence and hopefully reconsider.

 

[steve09090]

A lot of people have moved out into Central Valley, which is around a 3 hour commute from San Jose. Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto are further.

I'm sure it's difficult to be productive when you spend 6-7 hours per day on the road.

Why would people deliberately move 3 hours away from their workplace? 🤷🏻

Apple have always said the WFH was temporary, so it’s their own fault. No point in crying now. Move closer or leave the job, but don’t put this on the employer.

It's unfortunate how a company that wants to be perceived as forward-thinking enforces something so regressive.

I do hope they lose a lot of talent as a consequence and hopefully reconsider.

Wow. 2 days a week is absolutely progressive. Apple have backed employees, but the employees appear to be regressive, not Apple.

 

[MacGizmo]

 

[George Dawes]

Does seem daft to have such an amazing building just standing around empty

 

[hans1972]

Personally, I'm quite happy with it, and now that I've converted to being fully remote, I love it. I like having the option to go in to an office, but I don't understand why some companies are making it mandatory for everyone to go in just because. Sure, some work is hard, or even impossible to do remotely, but still...

It's about building and maintaining a corporate culture and to a certain degree control. Most high-level managers believe 100% working from home will erode corporate culture and make the employees less loyal to the company over time.

I mean, if you're 100% working from home, you can work for anyone, anywhere.

Also I have seen here in Norway, that young people who are just starting their careers and thus lack experience and often doesn't have the extra space at home, dislike 100% working from home.

 

[spazzcat]

Then back it up with a conversation. I am generally interested in your point of view, and being quite reasonable in wondering why WFH is so amazing.

Not OP, but for me, there are several reasons; I don't have to drive two hours every day, and I can use that time for things like working out, learning new skills, etc. I went from putting 15,000 miles a year on my car to putting 3,000. I don't have to deal with people talking around me about things I don't care about. I don't have people interrupt me with stupid chitchat or other things at work. I can make fresh meals at lunchtime every day. The list goes on and on...

 

[spazzcat]

It's about building and maintaining a corporate culture and to a certain degree control. Most high-level managers believe 100% working from home will erode corporate culture and make the employees less loyal to the company over time.

I mean, if you're 100% working from home, you can work for anyone, anywhere.

Also I have seen here in Norway, that young people who are just starting their careers and thus lack experience and often doesn't have the extra space at home, dislike 100% working from home.

Only a fool is 100% loyal to their company because their company has zero loyal to them. You have to look out for number one and do what is right for yourself. And I have worked for large, medium, and small companies, and ending corporate culture is not bad, large companies have the worse culture of all three.

 

[steve09090]

Only a fool is 100% loyal to their company because their company has zero loyal to them. You have to look out for number one and do what is right for yourself. And I have worked for large, medium, and small companies, and ending corporate culture is not bad, large companies have the worse culture of all three.

....based on the companies you have worked for.

 

[timber]

It's about building and maintaining a corporate culture and to a certain degree control. Most high-level managers believe 100% working from home will erode corporate culture and make the employees less loyal to the company over time.

I mean, if you're 100% working from home, you can work for anyone, anywhere.

Also I have seen here in Norway, that young people who are just starting their careers and thus lack experience and often doesn't have the extra space at home, dislike 100% working from home.

I have noticed that the people that have a stronger dislike of WFH usually are management, higher management with their corner offices, garage parking spaces and company cars or lower management with their need to prove they serve any purpose and junior people which lack of experience, connections and worse home arrangements.
All the other know by this point they won't be CEOs, do not feel the need or are inclined to engage on corporate politics and therefore have nothing to gain from all this socializing or whatever which comes from office work.
If management had to endure the same as regular employees they would understand why people can become so happy with WFH.