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How many AI teams at Apple’s scale have you been director of? None? Interesting that you find yourself an authority on the subject.
How many companies have you owned that built a beautiful campus or anything at the scale you mention? Many have such a feeling of entitlement in this labor and economic bubble we are experiencing.
 
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Our teams have been FAR less productive when working from home. I’d like everyone back in the office but I’d also like a relaxing of the rules on start and end times. We don’t need hall monitors but we do need in person collaboration.
 
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You're not a marriage counselor to work from home. You work at a company that builds products, some are life-changing products, products that require maximum focus, productivity, discipline, quality check, again and again. At-home productivity will never equal at-work productivity. At-home discipline will never equal at-school discipline.

Just like you'd never be comfortable with a home-schooled heart surgeon; or get on a rocket built by engineers who worked from home.

Anyway, that said, good riddance to him. There are no irreplaceable people.
Well said.
 
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We all knew that stuff like this was going to happen. Companies were bound to ask people to come back to the office at least part-time. Some folks were going to want to continue to work from home, so they have a decision to make. A good friend of mine is a software engineer, and he thinks 2 days per week in-person would be optimal for his team. I guess it really varies depending on the project and the make-up of the team.
 
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I love hearing that “Tim Cook doesn’t understand today’s world”, “Apple is behind the curve”, “they want people in the spaceship because it was expensive“. Comments about, probably, the most successful management board of the world. Of course, they can make mistakes, but I’d be more humble.

There will be (as there were, before the pandemic) remote and on-site jobs. Remote jobs offer one more advantage from the employee’s view, and that’s it. It’s even probably a good strategy if you can’t compensate in other areas, and some people will value its convenience over career ambition. But I think it’s naive to think you can land a great job at a company like Apple, and work from your home. We can’t have everything.
 
At-home productivity will never equal at-work productivity. At-home discipline will never equal at-school discipline.
Well, for myself, I can honestly say it's the opposite. I've always felt bored and distracted in office settings, but can be highly productive from home. Mind you, as a professional artist of 20+ years I developed self-discipline early in the game...
 
So the definition of a snowflake is someone that lives life on his own terms? Sounds like freedom to me.
He’s not living live on his own terms:
Google then Apple = both in office. He waited until back in office started. That is being forced to make a choice, not making one yourself on your own terms. Again we’ll see him working elsewhere most likely.
 
You were hired to work in a building, not vacation at home in your pj's.

Put on your bigboy pants and get back to the job you were hired to do

lol ! How is it vacationing if one is still producing the same quality and quantity of work ? No one was hired to work in a building, but only to fulfill the requirements of the job. Whether it's done onsite, remotely, in a suit, or pjs is mostly irrelevant.

But, it takes a certain mindset, experience with leadership, and maturity to realize this concept. Unfortunately, this clearly eludes you and others with a similar thought process, as is evident in this thread.
 
What is their problem? They were all absolutely fine working from office before the pandemic hit and now it's suddenly the crime of the century to be called in to work? I don't get it!
It is no different than the market price of fresh fish. Sometimes it is up, sometimes it is down. In either case if you are a fish monger you charge what the market can bear.
 
Considering Siri AI status, it might be a good thing his resignation.

Dont’ get me started with the lead executive of Siri whom also was brought in from Google and now after 1.5yrs has stock options and ONLY to show for 3yrs work:

Purchasing Shortcuts from an indie developer to be implemented into iOS/iPadOS called “Siri Shortcuts”,
Slightly better sounding voices + 2 additional voices,

In that order. Anything else what Siri has gained in 3yrs?
Anyone else thinking Google employees are the Trojan horse nail in the coffin for Siri’s lack of further development at Apple in that time frame? Just a thought.
 
If somebody is that poor at home, they are undoubtedly poor performers in the office.
I don’t think that is necessarily true… some people need to compartmentalize aspects of their lives in order to dedicate enough mental energy to each at the appropriate time. Just because a person has a hard time being 100% in work mode from home doesn’t mean they can’t be 100% in a location and atmosphere exclusively devoted to work.
 
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Zoom/Teams are good enough for many, but not for always. With everybody working from home almost 100% of the time, creativity is often suffering. The question is what balance to strike. Also, the balance will not be the same for every role and for every person.
What I have personally been missing most in the previous two years, is the great ideas that come out of chance conversations that do not happen as much via Zoom/Teams.

Btw, I just spent a week with some of my US team members for the first time in two years. Everyone on our US team works remotely and they only get together in one place 3 to 4 times a year. It was amazing to finally get everyone in the same room again. Creativity was flowing all the time and we all left completely energized.
Yes, but "absence makes the heart grow fonder" applies here. It's the infrequency that allows you to enjoy and appreciate those moments. If it was all day every day, then it'd just be "par" and lose all value. "I can just go see Foo any time I want; I'll stop by tomorrow when it's convenient."

This is that feeling of suffocation people feel in relationships when you're around each other ALL. THE. TIME. "Office mates" are just another type of relationship. Starve them and they die; Suffocate them and they die; Peace is in the middle.
 
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Whatever your view of WFH, it is now seen as a legitimate benefit. Thus, for some people it is a dealbreaker. Companies that insist on staff being in the office will likely loose employees and have a smaller talent pool to hire from going forwards. I see it as the same as not offering a decent healthcare plan or below average salary - why would you expect top talent to come and work for you. At the same time, I can definitely see reduced salaries for WFH staff being the tradeoff.

As several have said, the only thing that matters is that the work gets done to the right standard by the agreed deadlines. Such a transistion to WFH was always going to take some getting used to and probably some drop in productivity whilst people got used to it, but the pandemic enforced the switch was done and now individual companies will be able to see how productivity of their staff has changed. I'm sure there will be some staff that struggled to adapt to WFH, but that is where a good line management structure would identify and solve the issues - it's likely that someone who slacks off at home is also someone who slacks off in the office.
 
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A little clarification needed — the article makes it sound like this person was the main director for AI at Apple. His LinkedIn profile states he is “a Director of Machine Learning in the Special Projects Group”. He also started at Apple about a year before the pandemic hit. So he didn’t have much time to get his feet wet and connect with the culture at Apple.
 
I can tell you that I am able to get the same amount of actual work done in a little more than half the time by working from home. No commute. No colleague interruptions. Less breaks for lunch and coffee. Not as many extraneous phone calls. Less socializing generally. So, I am sympathetic to argument that for some people the benefits of working in an office do not outweigh the costs in terms of time and efficiency. I guess it depends on the individual.
Individuals, indeed. Some of us are introverts and/or ADD; we like our own space and time.

There are others who do crave and need interpersonal interaction. Others trying to force the first group to exist and operate like the second group is borderline cruelty.

Asking someone to betray and act unlike themselves is merely living dishonestly and non-genuine. You'd THINK HR and "MBA people" people know this by know; apparently they slept through their minor-in-psychology course. Thats why automated systems like Bambee now exist... written by the ADD nerds. ?
 
He’s not living live on his own terms:
Google then Apple = both in office. He waited until back in office started. That is being forced to make a choice, not making one yourself on your own terms. Again we’ll see him working elsewhere most likely.
Have you ever been secure enough to quit a job without already having a new one to go to?
 
As a company like apple, there are always ones that could fill in the space easily. If you don't want to, those talented younger one will. It's just a matter of time. Think it another way; if APPLE were having employees working from home since the era of Steve Jobs, do you think the APPLE can be it is now?
 
Absolutely no reason for anyone to work in the office. Zoom/Teams is perfectly fine, and likely more efficient than being in an office. I mean, you at least save the hour or 2 you waste commuting every day.
Yeah, except you'd miss the real interaction with people. I think most people have no idea of the importance of seeing another human being face-to-face, instead of face-to-screen.
There are so many details, so many feelings that get filtered while having a face-to-screen conversation.
This I think will inevitably cause these people to be less in contact with reality, and in this specific job - but really, probably any job - it's paramount to be as connected to reality as possible.
 
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