I guarantee we would have seen some new hardware at WWDC if there wasn’t a chip shortage going on.
While this years WWDC was underwhelming, sometimes it’s best for companies to polish things.
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Apple Still Planning Return to In-Person Work in September, Despite Employee Complaints
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I guarantee we would have seen some new hardware at WWDC if there wasn’t a chip shortage going on.
While this years WWDC was underwhelming, sometimes it’s best for companies to polish things.
The decisions made back when they joined reflected the world at that time. But the world's changed in the past 1.5 years. Back then, remote work was something of a unicorn, the occasional person could negotiate it but most probably didn't bother to ask. Now it's being seen as a desirable benefit by some and some corporations are adopting it, possibly permanently. So as people are going back to the office, it's fair to think they'll be re-evaluating whether those terms are even relevant anymore or if this new environment means it's just not worth it anymore.
I think people here are being a bit too dramatic. If/when my office says they want people to come back to the office, I will definitely speak up. Doesn't mean I am entitled or a little baby. Its the new standard. And I am more than welcome to find a permanent work from home job, but I first want to discuss with my current employer as I like this job. There is NOTHING wrong with this. The way people here are posting is basically saying you can't say ONE WORD about ANYTHING work related. You should just be happy you have a pay check and keep your mouth shut for ANYTHING ELSE. That is just not right.
I am NOT 50 and I agree. if you own your own business, have employees that you pay, and insurance for them taxes, etc... I think the perception is different. It is my company, and my risk. please follow MY rules, or find somewhere else to work. if it is MY problem, I will have no employees and no business to operate and will be working alone. basically, he who pays makes the rules, as it should be, but if no one is willing to work for you, you better bet the rules will change. I love this country and our free market, works as it should.
Are people still stay-at-home due to the Pandemic? I know IT people work remote or at home, and have been for years, I understand that. But is COVID still keeping people from going back to the office still?
We were back to work in April. Last year April 2020. Took 2 weeks stay at home, then everyone back in the office. A year plus later, not one person got sick, no family members sick, no clients came in sick. And our entire office has been vaccinated since Dec / Jan.
Maybe we all dodged bullets not getting the virus? Probably. But at our place it was sort of frowned upon to stay home or strongly encouraged to be back in the office pretty much right away. And it felt normal last year, it really didn't feel like a pandemic for me, everyone came in office, worked full days 5 days a week 8am to 5pm at the office with everyone, real little mask wearing too, boss told clients not needing masks when coming in, the entire time last year, and zero issue, and actually business was booming very good, and shocking that not one person got COVID or anyone we dealt with.
I disagreed with most of that, think work-from-home would have been smart and much safer, but it just wasn't an option, I mean it kind of was, but no one did, and you were looked at as a toxic bad guy, or a wimp and scaredy-cat, and not a team player if you stayed home, so no one did. All of 2020, everyone was here in person at the office the whole time, and pretty much no masks. Was so strange, like a pandemic wasn't really happening.
We were back to work in April. Last year April 2020. Took 2 weeks stay at home, then everyone back in the office. A year plus later, not one person got sick, no family members sick, no clients came in sick. And our entire office has been vaccinated since Dec / Jan.
Maybe we all dodged bullets not getting the virus? Probably. But at our place it was sort of frowned upon to stay home or strongly encouraged to be back in the office pretty much right away. And it felt normal last year, it really didn't feel like a pandemic for me, everyone came in office, worked full days 5 days a week 8am to 5pm at the office with everyone, real little mask wearing too, boss told clients not needing masks when coming in, the entire time last year, and zero issue, and actually business was booming very good, and shocking that not one person got COVID or anyone we dealt with.
I disagreed with most of that, think work-from-home would have been smart and much safer, but it just wasn't an option, I mean it kind of was, but no one did, and you were looked at as a toxic bad guy, or a wimp and scaredy-cat, and not a team player if you stayed home, so no one did. All of 2020, everyone was here in person at the office the whole time, and pretty much no masks. Was so strange, like a pandemic wasn't really happening.
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And this is what we don't want. The programmers that know the system well can be better suited for making bug fixes. The AppleCare customer support rep that knows what they are actually talking about is much better to be on the phone with than someone that has started their first day and doesn't know anything.
Lmao. They don't have to work there and employers don't always know what's best for their business.
Stay home too long and it’s really bad for mental health.
And physical health. Bad for the back and your butt.
Staying home too long with family and fights happen. So many couples broke during Covid because they spent too much time together. They have to smell their farts more often and fight about what to watch on TV and listen on iTunes.
Some lots of other people spent too much time on social media because they had not enough contact with people but they got their heads fked up by Dorsey and Zuckerberg’s disinformation and headfk platforms and then they got pushed into other places like Telegram and get fked even more.
If you can go back to work physically you should because the price you pay for being isolated in the long run is the same as committing suicide. You will become outcast, mentally ill, cropped in old age if you don’t move around and make real contact.
btw wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your surfaces clean you filthy animals.
And physical health. Bad for the back and your butt.
Staying home too long with family and fights happen. So many couples broke during Covid because they spent too much time together. They have to smell their farts more often and fight about what to watch on TV and listen on iTunes.
Some lots of other people spent too much time on social media because they had not enough contact with people but they got their heads fked up by Dorsey and Zuckerberg’s disinformation and headfk platforms and then they got pushed into other places like Telegram and get fked even more.
If you can go back to work physically you should because the price you pay for being isolated in the long run is the same as committing suicide. You will become outcast, mentally ill, cropped in old age if you don’t move around and make real contact.
btw wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your surfaces clean you filthy animals.
Yes. To add to this, I think people give way too much importance to water cooler/coffee talk. I work for a large company, 99% of the time its "Hey Fred, how are the kids doing?" instead of "Hey Fred, I have an idea that could change the entire company LETS TALK!". If you are unable to have a nice chatting session remotely asking how someone's kids are, then that is on you. NOT remote work. I have gotten closer to co-workers working remotely than in the office.
At the other end of the spectrum, my office is in Times Square, a few blocks from the hotel that had some of the first cases in NYC back in March 2020. We've been remote since then, triggered by two cases a few days after those first one. Since then the entire building has been limited to a handful of people, about 300 out of several thousand. They even went so far as to deactivate everyone's security cards so we couldn't be nudged into coming in by managers.
There's been a handful of cases among those 300 but they recently opened to about 1000 more people a few weeks ago. Current requirements are mandatory testing multiple times a week and masking everywhere. If you're vaccinated you're allowed to skip the testing and masking at your desk. Everyone else is still home until at least fall.
And you know what? We've been booming too even with most people at home. Profits in my area are nearly 10x which is ridiculous.
Then there's my sister's company which is a big defense manufacturer. They went remote and never looked back. Last month they closed a corporate office and told everyone who used to work there that it's 100% remote now.
I don't think people are saying that. Apple said they want people in the office 3x per week. People did speak up (just like you said you would), and Apple listened to their employees requests and they are doing what they see is best for them as a company by going through with the 3x per week. Unless anyone here works for Apple HQ we don't really know what is going on there. Companies will do what is best for them. Some companies can do work from home fulltime and others are too small to do it full time. It's not the same for every employer.
At the end of the day, Apple is going to do whats best for them and the employees will do what is best for them. If that means leaving Apple for another company then that is their choice.
Um how is an office any different?
Work at the office:
Wake up, take a shower, sit at kitchen to get ready, get in car, sit for 45 minutes in traffic, get in the office building, sit in an office chair for 8 hours with some bathroom/15 minute breaks and a lunch break, get out of the office building, sit in a car for another 45 minutes, get home, sit and have dinner.
Work at home:
Wake up, take a shower, sit at kitchen for a bit, get in my home office, log in to work, sit and do work for 8 hours with some breaks, log out.
See whats missing there? Just basically sitting in a car. Which can do way more harm than you think. I get way too stressed when I drive and its not healthy either.
And I have actually been more healthy working from home. Going for a walk or a run during a lunch break is not a good idea as I really don't want to spend the rest of the afternoon all sweaty. But doing it from home I can take a shower after. Or better yet, I can actually go swimming during my lunch break.
Office basically 8 hours sitting in a cube
Home basically 8 hours sitting at your desk
Its really not different. Taking out the 1.5 hour car time and I am more productive. I am not sitting for an additional 1.5 hours every day.
To me, it also sounds like a solution in search of a problem.
If Apple can demonstrate that their product design workflow works, and assuming there isn’t another pandemic-level event that forces people to stay away from the office, I am not really seeing the impetus to transition to a 100% remote arrangement.
It’s like trying to get all my work done from an iPad. It’s great if I can, but it’s not really a priority for me, and I won’t force the issue.
To me, the opportunity to work from home remains “nice to have, but not essential”. Maybe Apple will eventually get there (this is probably more of a gradual process than something you can force overnight), but I am going to trust that from a macro perspective, Apple’s leadership knows best what is necessary (and non-negotiable).
Have you seen some of the posts here? "QUIT WHINING", "Go back to work babies". There have been a lot like this.
I work in New York tech, and I’m still wfh. But I’ve had early doctor’s appointments and walk in my neighborhood before work, and I definitely see plenty of people on their way to work. Subways seem to have rush hour again. I don’t know if everyone is back in the office full time, but it really looks like my firm is more the exception to the rule than the norm here in NYC. It’s not just banking here, so much of everything seems to be closer to normal than not, my firm is just being very conservative in terms of bringing us back to the office.
That’s about where it’s at for me. I wouldn’t mind a job that lets me be remote one week a month or so, but I’m not gonna fight for it.
I’m also a single millennial, one of not an insignificant number, and an extrovert. I’ve legitimately struggled with being 100% remote. Not only is it too easy to spend 15 minutes here or there on household or personal tasks instead of work, but social interaction, even small talk or office conversations, is something I’ve really missed. And fraternizing in the office builds teams and develops office cultures, it serves a point.
It’s been a bit easier in terms of socializing since my church has been meeting in person. The beginning of the pandemic was a particularly hard time for me as things shut down and opportunities to get out of the house and see my friends and meet new people started to vanish. Not everyone has kids or loved ones nearby to spend time with, not everyone can be happy sticking their head down and doing their own thing. There are perks to working remote, sure, but, on the whole, I wouldn’t mind being in the office again, at least part-time.
Three days of in-person work seems like a good compromise to me.
Another way to look at this whole situation: there are almost 8 billion people on the planet. Chances are there is someone, somewhere that can do your job just as good if not better for a lot less. A person that only works from home is replaceable, period.
Another way to look at this whole situation: there are almost 8 billion people on the planet. Chances are there is someone, somewhere that can do your job just as good if not better for a lot less. A person that only works from home is replaceable, period.
Meet an associate, senior manager, other employee at the water cooler and discuss a specific situation you would not have been able to do on zoom. The human interaction is what is left out of the equation above.
Don't meet another human being for 8 hours face to face, to go to lunch, to go out after work, to have an intensive conversation while whiteboarding ideas.
Yes I do and it's more than you describe.
I used to walk or work out at the gym in the building during my lunch break.
It's a very different experience, more positive experience, working in the office. But hey....to each their own and if working from home is your jam then have at it. But personally I would love a hybrid approach with more flexibility than Apple is giving.
I guess it depends on the industry, let’s suppose I work for video game company A, but I go freelancer: Electronics Arts, Square Enix, Nintendo (more likely a contractor for Nintendo), random movie vfx studio A/B/C (many many dozens to go by that now need games-like expertise), etc are down to outsource.
They actually do that already since forever and they pay outsourcing considerably higher than their own employees (I don’t understand why this).
The original company A has a hole I left behind, many more holes by other “entitled” employees moving to more flexible companies, company A would be quite compelled to hire me back as a contractor and fill the dwindling posts instead of me helping the competition.
Now, granted not everybody can do it, me I won’t, I’ll go back to work (a bit grudgingly until the feeling goes away) if I have to. Maybe find a hybrid middle ground. But there are some top talent that wow, what a homerun it has been for them to say “nah, I won’t go back… you can outsource me though, if you can pay more than these other ones”.
Hardly the case in the U.S., where the overwhelming power is with the companies, supported by a servile judiciary system. The U.S. is possibly the only developed country without a right to vacation, and where corporations are considered "people." Don't even get me started with pensions. So yes, ways to go in terms of giving more power to employees. If the pandemic helps in this, it will be a welcome side effect.
Hahaha! You’re making my argument for me. Exactly. Even by your uneducated estimate, half of employees must return to work in person.
There’s a big variance among classified information. Some meaningless budget memo that has zero value can still be classified as “secret” or even “top secret” because the USG plays it safe and classifies any and everything they can remotely justifyI hate to break it to you, but even government agencies are moving to a hybrid of remote and on site work. Not everyone has to do all of their respective work in a SCIF....
When it comes to the workplace, even the intelligence community is going ‘hybrid’
Human capital leaders in the intelligence community say the new hybrid work environment will prompt a cultural shift in how managers and supervisors communicate with employees and set expectations about performance and promotions.federalnewsnetwork.com
For the “actual” high value information on which lives depend — the stuff most people think of when they think classified — that information is certainly not being permanently delegated to remote work platforms.
Hate to break to it to you.
The point you make and I agree, is top, top talent can write their own ticket. But how many of us are in the strata of the best of the best?
What's sad is the amount of entitlement shown in some of the posts. It is true that providing a compelling work environment, good benefits, flexibility keeps a certain percentage of people happy, which should go a ways toward doing a better job...but it still has to be done on terms the employer wants. It is also true that some people sacrifice to get the work/life balance to what they want.
There are options for everybody and one size does not fit all.