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Apple Staff Complain About Plans for Return to Office Work in Letter to Tim Cook
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I may have learned math and logic differently than you, so hoping you can enlighten me on your point here. I want to make sure I’m understanding you correctly.
Say someone has a 10 mile round trip commute each day, 3 days a week. Obviously, if they no show their job, they will be fired, so they comply with their in-office requirements.
They do “drive other places” during the week—groceries, gym, etc—averaging about 10 miles/week of what we’ll call “other driving”.
So, all together, that person averages 40mi/week of driving.
Then, their in-office days are eliminated, and thus, their work commute. They still drive their other places.
Still, they now average 10mi/week as opposed to 40. Less driving, less emissions, less environmental impact.
It isn’t as though the environmental impact of driving is a binary—drive places vs. never go anywhere in your car at all, ever.
So, if people are literally lessening their environmental impact by driving less, what makes the request “stupid”?!?! They’re accurately describing what would happen.
Power. It's all about maintaining power and control over others.
Probably just to justify managers’ jobs. I have worked at places where they treat the employees like children and management will micromanage every aspect of their dealings even to the point of what TV station should be on in the break room.
No one will answer this.
For all the people talking about “spoiled brats” and “whiny babies”, they sure do like to use a kid-level argument as to why it’s better or necessary: “…because.”
Apparently because innovation takes place when you are by a water cooler and that just doesn't work remotely?
Have you not seen most workers? That is exactly what they expect.
I showed up, so pay me. Nevermind my performance.
There is a line of people who would beat down the doors to work at Apple if these people don’t want to. They knew what the work culture was when they signed up; it isn’t like the intensity of work required is a secret. It is like a PA having their parents write a note to try to get out of working early mornings and late nights doing this like copying sides and getting coffee. Get over yourself, do the work required and one day you will be in a position where you call the shots. That is how work works. No one wants to work in the office overnight on occasion but that is life sometimes. Otherwise, quit and find a job with a company that isn’t known for their demanding work ethos.
Sorry, but things are changing. More and more businesses are starting to offer 100% remote work. I can actually apply for more jobs in other states and I was not able to before. The fact that Apple is even bringing up a hybrid approach means things are changing. Why is it such a big deal to write a letter stating you are better working at home?
We are no longer in an epidemic situation, by definition, and there are effective vaccines and effective treatments. At this point, Covid is another type off dangerous “flu” that these same employees and companies ignored every year other than “we recommend flu shots.”
For the age group working at Apple, exposure and infection is not any more serious than the flu. And one hopes that people will take the adage of “feel sick, call in sick” more seriously moving forward.
For the age group working at Apple, exposure and infection is not any more serious than the flu. And one hopes that people will take the adage of “feel sick, call in sick” more seriously moving forward.
If your work tasks do not really require you to be at the office, then you should of course be allowed to work from home. But as others has pointed out, it's about control. If you ask your boss this question, you will probably never get a good answer. Just "that is our policy". And then you are expeced to follow it and shut up.
It’s a well-known fact that prehistoric man got the idea for both fire and the wheel at the stonewatercooler.
it simply wasn’t possible for them to have discovered and identified that need any other way.
Luckily, Blarg had scheduled a recurring 1-on-1 with Grog to “check-in” on project progress throughout development.
It wasn’t sufficient for Grog to produce the wheel and fire for Blarg by showing it to them upon completion, Blarg needed to see the work in process.
Also, Blarg required Grog to work on them in a specific cave, even though that particular cave had no intrinsic value to the project…Grog’s tools were portable.
…but Grog knew that he had to be seen as a “hustler”, because Blarg wouldn’t evaluate his performance in his performance, but rather on his proximity/visibility.
…and that setup is the only path to success no matter what the project, and the universal basis for all workflows in use today. I certainly see no reason to ever change it.
Or what if he went to get a Coke instead? That would have changed everything.
I haven't been sick in well over a year since we worked from home. I really wish people would have that attitude - "feel sick, stay home".
Um, the whole point is that everyone needs to be protected, not just Apple employees.
Now, all Apple is asking for 3 days in the office starting in September…
The employees are whining that they want to be allowed to work entirely remote if they desire. And, their emotional argument is inappropriately co-opting inclusion and diversity to further their aim. Um, unless you were hired to be remote, you worked in the office before COVID-19. It's time to go back to the mothership, babies!
Welcome to the new Millennial / Gen-Z work ethic Apple!
The employees are whining that they want to be allowed to work entirely remote if they desire. And, their emotional argument is inappropriately co-opting inclusion and diversity to further their aim. Um, unless you were hired to be remote, you worked in the office before COVID-19. It's time to go back to the mothership, babies!
Welcome to the new Millennial / Gen-Z work ethic Apple!
The dinosaurs will die out… again. WFH is here to stay for many. Sorry dinos.
Welcome back to profits over people. Give me a break. The most profitable company on Earth, who goes around calling themselves a 'startup' because they are so flexible, can adapt.
Not to mention that Blarg required Grog to carve out a presentation on a cave wall on exactly how he would create the wheel and fire that actually took longer to do than creating the wheel and fire themselves.
That because that number includes Apple Store Employees and Customer support. People working at the California mothership are making 6 figures easy.
The sad thing is, if one PhD from MIT had gotten up from their desk to go to the Coke machine 13 seconds later in 1978, humanity would already have a working perpetual motion machine and unlimited clean renewable energy.
As it stands, the other phD that they would’ve otherwise bumped into noticed their shoelace untied, so they bent down to tie it, and the collaboration never happened.
Sounds like I am the only one that sides with the employees here. Pretty much everyone I know (in London - both small companies and huge corporations) has been told they can work from home from now on, and it seems many tech companies are doing the same over the pond. Asking people to come back in 3 days a week from March seems to be going against the trend. At least in my opinion anyway. Personally I was far more productive at home and ended up working many more hours than when in the office. It was a win win for both employee and employer. But it seems my take is not very popular here! I guess Apple is the only one that has forked out for a building that holds 30,000 people. Most other companies will see this as an opportunity to save on rent/office space. Apple can't do that.
Sorry, didn't read through the 24(!) pages of comments here, but I'll just say I agree with Gruber on this:
Oh not at all, there's several commenting who agree with you. I'm among them. Even the people who didn't want to work from home initially now say "not going back unless directed to". And our group puts in more actual productive time this way.