Apple's Director of Machine Learning Resigns Due to Return to Office Work

[doboy]

All companies should mandate return to work so these crybabies would have no jobs.
edit: however, I do want Qualcomm employees to work from home for sake of my commute

 

[Analog Kid]

I'm pretty sure those buildings existed before 2020. But what is their current occupied percentage? I'll bet its not 100 percent.

I’m sure you’re right on both points. Yet they also didn’t give up their leases or sell the properties. The companies people point to as making remote work able to replace office work aren’t themselves willing to live on a diet of their own dog food.

 

[pshufd]

FWIW, even Zoom and Slack themselves seem to think it’s important to have a large corporate office in a major city…

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And how's that working out?

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

I work at an insurance company in downtown Toronto, Canada. Our bitch of a VP made is making us all go back to work in the office. All the work I do is on a computer, and nearly all my communication is done via email or MS Teams. There's ZERO point in going back to work. Anyone who thinks you need to come in, is doing this out of malice. I can't stand having to wake up early just to WASTE 2 effing hours a day just to do the same job at location B instead of A.

Malice, or enjoying the status of being the king in the office, or just stuck in the tired old mentality of working-at-home-is-slacking-off.

 

[Rafterman]

Many high end jobs are competitive. Just being the mighty Apple isn't always going to be enough. Companies have to offer competitive compensation and benefits. And now, working from home is one of those benefits. The genie is out of the bottle. Adapt - or die.

 

[pshufd]

All companies should mandate return to work so these crybabies would have no jobs.

Why don't you buy up all of their shares so that you can dictate the terms of employment?

 

[Rafterman]

I’m sure you’re right on both points. Yet they also didn’t give up their leases or sell the properties. The companies people point to as making remote work able to replace office work aren’t themselves willing to live on a diet of their own dog food.

But, like every company, some HAVE to be physically there. No one is denying that. But a good number don't have to be theree too. Why give up a lease for a building you still need, even partially?

 

[pshufd]

Many high end jobs are competitive. Just being the mighty Apple isn't always going to be enough. Companies have to offer competitive compensation and benefits. And now, working from home is one of those benefits. The genie is out of the bottle. Adapt - or die.

Apple seems to have lost a lot of talent lately - I do rather wonder why.

 

[m4mario]

When you work from home, you might be doing focused work, but overall, the team's productivity usually goes down. There is individual work, and then there is team work where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Where employees put the team's outcome ahead of individual accountability. Work from home has created an ambiance where everyone has done the job assigned to them, but the overall outcome of the project is not as innovative/exciting. Work and products are no more exciting, just something you do for money. And for a company like Apple, that was built on exciting products, its not going to work in the long run.

Management has the numbers. If overall productivity is actually better than earlier, as some employees who want to work from home claim, then management will want to continue that, won't they? If you see WWDCs after lockdown, most of the good releases have come from work done while offices where open. Last year was the most boring WWDC ever.

 

[Axemantitan]

I wonder if Apple would still be insisting on return to the office if they hadn't spent a fortune on their new campus?

 

[russell_314]

I need to have a conversation with my boss. That jerk makes me come in to work every day 🤦‍♂️😂

 

[Rafterman]

I wonder if Apple would still be insisting on return to the office if they hadn't spent a fortune on their new campus?

I imagine those companies with new palaces are more likely going to insist on occupying the buildings to capacity.

 

[pshufd]

When you work from home, you might be doing focused work, but overall, the team's productivity usually goes down. There is individual work, and then there is team work where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Where employees put the team's outcome ahead of individual accountability. Work from home has created an ambiance where everyone has done the job assigned to them, but the overall outcome of the project is not as innovative/exciting. Work and products are no more exciting, just something you do for money. And for a company like Apple, that was built on exciting products, its not going to work in the long run.

Management has the numbers. If overall productivity is actually better than earlier, as some employees who want to work from home claim, then management will want to continue that, won't they? If you see WWDCs after lockdown, most of the good releases have come from work done while offices where open. Last year was the most boring WWDC ever.

I've worked on distributed teams where you don't see your coworkers except on Zoom and Slack. I've seen companies where everyone works from home. And these teams have done well. This is necessitated by distributed work around the world. Where you have to deal with all kinds of accents and writing that you have to sometimes interpret. So there are a lot of work environments where there is no in-office option. Our loaded office costs were $5K/month and our office policy was that if you wanted to work from home, you could, with your manager's approval. Because real estate was already tight.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

For me, the real solution is 100% flexibility. There is an office available for those that want to come in sometimes, or always, because either: they are more productive that way because their home is too distracting; they enjoy the face to face social interaction, networking, and professional communication with colleges; they want to keep their home and work lives seperate.

For myself, if I had a job with 100% office/home flexibility, I'd go and live in various different countries a few months at a time, enjoying the culture, food, and people, picking up new languages, drop into a ski town for a few months in winter, Bali or wherever for a few months surfing, Europe for a bit of this and that, drop into the office city for a few weeks every now and then for a bit of face to face and networking, pop in to my home town to hang with family for a while, and so on. In fact, I am currently putting everything in place to put myself in a position to do exactly that. And Little Timmy Control Freak can go jump in the lake.

I do thank him for finally creating decent MBP's again after the 2016-2020 disasters. Just one thing missing Timmy, can we please have the Kensington lock put back in please? It is well and truly thick enough for the slot. I used to travel with a 15" 2012 Unibody MBP back in the day, and with the Kensington lock slot in it, I could even stay in backpacker hostel dorm rooms, and loop a Kensington cable lock around the bed frame, with my laptop in a bag under my bed sheets, and feel pretty safe that no one could steal it easily. I've ordered a new 16" M1 Pro MBP 32GB 2TB, and at that eye watering price, the thought of travelling with it without the Kensington slot leaves me with still needing to work out how to travel with it safely. Sure, there are lockers, but not all places have them.

 

[sorgo †]

And how's that working out?

Right, because I’m sure that has nothing to do with the pandemic trend/narrative being put on the temporary back burner and everything to do with corporate office space.

 

[Apples Apples Everywhere]

Mr Cook said that despite a smooth transition to remote working, it was not an adequate replacement for in-person collaboration.

"For all that we've been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other," he said in the document, seen by The Verge.

"Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate."

He added: "I know I'm not alone in missing the hum of activity, the energy, creativity and collaboration of our in-person meetings and the sense of community we've all built."

 

[madrigal77]

Bye bye entitled crybaby loser.

 

[Apples Apples Everywhere]

Mr Cook said that despite a smooth transition to remote working, it was not an adequate replacement for in-person collaboration.

"For all that we've been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other," he said in the document, seen by The Verge.

"Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate."

He added: "I know I'm not alone in missing the hum of activity, the energy, creativity and collaboration of our in-person meetings and the sense of community we've all built."

To me these statements of “something essential” and “there are things” are too vague to be respected by creative professionals.

It just sounds like dogma.

No offense to Tim who I like very much.

Are ”hum“ and “energy” supposed to be tangible competencies? Someone should tell Linus Torvalds that Linux would have won if only it had more hum and energy.

 

[Pezimak]

No, I said people like him, which surely would include at least one person involved in high-level Siri development given the trend and prevalence of this sort of complaint.

I’m sorry basic reading comprehension is so difficult

So you are now claiming, when you say 'like him' you're actually claiming your comment wasn't anything to do with Apples director of machine learning quitting at all, it was a comment meant to include anyone working at Apple.
Well considering what you typed was:

In other words, the state of Siri is no mystery with people like this at the helm.

Perhaps you should be more clear in your own context about who exactly you mean because anyone would think your referring to the director of machine learning at Apple. And FYI Apple doesn't just use machine learning in Siri. Try and phrase your comments better to avoid confusion.

 

[applebro]

I don't blame them at all. Working from home has been a complete game changer for me. If I was forced to come in every day I'd leave as well

 

[m4mario]

I've worked on distributed teams where you don't see your coworkers except on Zoom and Slack. I've seen companies where everyone works from home. And these teams have done well. This is necessitated by distributed work around the world. Where you have to deal with all kinds of accents and writing that you have to sometimes interpret. So there are a lot of work environments where there is no in-office option. Our loaded office costs were $5K/month and our office policy was that if you wanted to work from home, you could, with your manager's approval. Because real estate was already tight.

If a certain work is done always distributed, then there is nothing to compare to. And like I said, individuals are completely capable of working and reporting from home. The real comparison is when a team works from office and then the same team switches to remote. If the outcome is the same, then Apple will continue with it won't they? Apple had clearly sent a memo to employees that they have to statistics and that they see a drop in outcome since WFH started. In the modern world, if they lied about something like that, they will get sued.

 

[AppleInLVX]

Cool. How does Starbucks make your drinks?

While I get your point, they are none of them baristas or heart surgeons. I'm an office worker, and there is literally nothing I do at the office I can't do at home. In fact, when I'm at the office, we *still* meet via zoom because one of our team is at a different location. Under those circumstances, there's more to be gained without the overhead of travel or the risks still inherent in returning to the office. No, not everyone can do it, but for those who clearly can, the choice should exist.

 

[- rob -]

The guy was probably paid too much and he just left because he had better things to do.

This. The equity vesting in whole was probably enough to retire in alone.

It is interesting that he’d be driven to throw shade on his way out though. That swan song stuff is unprofessional.

 

[pshufd]

Right, because I’m sure that has nothing to do with the pandemic trend/narrative being put on the temporary back burner and everything to do with corporate office space.

Corporate office space is always a factor and any real estate team is always working to optimize costs. But the stock chart is a reflection on management and the economic environment. What does this say about management?

 

[sorgo †]

So you are now claiming, when you say 'like him' you're actually claiming your comment wasn't anything to do with Apples director of machine learning quitting at all, it was a comment meant to include anyone working at Apple.
Well considering what you typed was:



Perhaps you should be more clear in your own context about who exactly you mean because anyone would think your referring to the director of machine learning at Apple. And FYI Apple doesn't just use machine learning in Siri. Try and phrase your comments better to avoid confusion.

Be pedantic/twist my words all you want; it doesn’t change them. ”People like this” = people sharing in the entitled diva mindset. I thought that was clear enough but here I am having to spell it out (i.e. repeat) it again for you.