There is another interesting phenomena of work life. When I shifted from engineering to finance, I got involved in a lot of budget negotiations. It amazed me how many issues would not be resolved by email or teleconference, but would get resolved face-to-face. I suppose there is something about observing body language and human contact that facilitates arriving at a common understanding. On some level, I guess we are still social animals. Perhaps, this is one reason everyone from heads of state to small business owners still make an effort to meet in person.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple's Director of Machine Learning Resigns Due to Return to Office Work
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
🙄 this looks like religious fanaticism, calling out to libertarian jesus...And the woke have done it again. Elon are you there?
I never said that he’s not free.
Where is the specific words I’ve stated that?
Again out of context or too emotional against my posts you’re taking out of context.
My perception is mine and for me it’s valid. When someone leaves because their in a comfortable position to do so in my view isn’t being free that’s just their ina position of power or confidence to do so.
Being free is doing it when even you are not in a position of power or wealthy or readiness. That shows a real person because dispute the comfort, confidence, safety net, they have the cajones to act regardless. And it’s pure will and nothing else to aid that decision, in fact there are many reasons to go against th at decision without such power, comfort, or wealth.
To be honest, at this point in time, I have no idea what you’re on about. But my opinion on this subject is as I stated.
1, if you can do your job from home, then great. It’s better for the mind and the soul to be free from the shackles of the 9-5.
2, in some situations, it’s better to be working as a unit, chatting, bouncing ideas, just being ‘as one’ in a close knit environment.
This is hugely dependent on the type of sector you work in, so I’m targeting the higher echelons of Apple as per the op.
It’s posible some of your colleagues may spent considerably more time commuting and via public transit? Possibly?
Most major proponents of work at home only are voices commonly due to high commute times I’m guessing. You’re lucky to have such minimal
commute time.
If they’re so consistent in slacking you’re in your right to consider laying them off.
If I may, have a few warnings or suggestions been communicated and also tracked? Is there skills they have that are useful and worth the extra time to get them to change back to your expected productivity in your metrics?
People that are lazy and have no ambition to be productive will loose their jobs, unfortunately. I’m not an advocate for anyone being fired - despite what most of not all my posts in this thread may seem. Lack of ambition could be just that person or lack of focus nor care in what they do or even not appreciative in having their role. Conversely it’s possible that their skills warrant a better job or role and their feel bored and not driven enough to really feel ambitious.
So I’m asking if possible if all this was considered or taken into consideration before laying them off? Not judging a question but more food for thought if none of some have not already been considered.
Cheers.
No it sounds like there may be different requirements, cultures etc. without specifics it’s hard to say, but in my case in person collaboration has boosted efficiency, design and end product.
Company has been on a hiring spree and while it takes a varied amount of time to fill the myriad of positions, new employees have been starting left, right and center.
I think they should give people the option to work from home BUT have a camera on the entire time they're on work hours and be monitored while they're working. If they have a problem with this then they need to work from the office as their other option. You cannot be away from your desk at home during work hours. If you're ever off camera for longer than 5 minutes, (3 warning rule) then fired. Shouldn't be an issue since people are super productive at home and way more productive than in the office lol.
Productivity isn't the same as sitting in front of a screen for X hours in a day, people usually spend 8 hours in the office every day and on average isn't very productive anyway.
I notice two extreme responses to feeling one's self to have been treated badly by society:
1. Connect: Become deeply empathetic and painfully sensitive to others in your or similar situations, being hypervigilant for making mistakes or social faux pas, punching upward at authorities and powerful people/groups when socioeconomic arguments are engaged, given people the benefit of the doubt, even to the point where it is self-harming (such as with an abusive relationship partner or employer)
2. Depersonalize: Become antipathetic and obsessed with power/strength, respond to disagreements with unnecessary/irrational aggression, view people in a b&w in/out-group manner, rejection of rules (while criticizing opponents for breaking the slightest of them), and seemingly enjoying cruelty/punching downward at others, especially to punish people for being "soft" or being victimized by powerful systems/persons
#1 is far less harmful to others than #2, and society actively benefits from people who choose #1 (while it is actively damaged by #2), but it's definitely still an unhealthy and extreme position to end up in due to the amount of stress and anxiety involved for the person who lives it. A healthy person should be able to relate and empathize, but not experience disabling emotional consequences or PTSD-like behavior while doing so. A person should also be able to disconnect from the world to some degree, so that they can function with and in it, but not to the degree of a person who has gone down the path of #2.
There are political agents that are sourced from #2, who actively encourage the rage of #2, hoping to direct it to get people to vote against their own interests (because they've made society itself into an enemy, but given it a simplified handle/name, like "SJW", "woke", "liberal" or, worst of all, "groomer"). Its fingerprints are all over the anti-worker rhetoric, and yet some of them think they're defending "red-blooded blue-collar American workers" while spewing anti-worker-empowerment trash.
No one here is talking about retail employees. They do not work in offices so cannot ‘return to the office‘.
That's your experience. It's valid, but it's not the rule. There are so many people saying the exact OPPOSITE of what you're saying: less distraction at home. More dedicated to the task on their own time. People are TOO REACHABLE in the office (distraction).
Goodness, I'm glad no one to whom I report directly would ever support this ridiculous and draconian approach.
Doesn't matter if you go in to work or not. If your company decides they can get cheaper employees by exploiting some other nation's workforce, that's what they will do whether you are WFH or there in the office every day. People have been laid off forever while BEING THERE every day. What MIGHT help is to be buddies with HR managers or top level executives who probably never see their employees even semi-regularly, and therefore have zero empathy for them.
You should probably go outside and have a walk, jog, hike, etc., and go socialize with someone because you're expressing irrational anger at someone you know nothing about, due to a tech news article.
You may not like sports and kids, but it is so statistically improbable (to the point I would call you a liar), that there isn't something in the world no work related that you do enjoy talking about, and have had conversations about.
Again, even in your examples, the reasons you left jobs was personal interaction, not financial. And if you worked at multiple jobs where the bosses were "bullying sociopaths" and the respective HR departments were caricatures of conspiracy theories, it sounds like the problem might not be them. Psychologists estimate that as much as 3-5% of the population could be sociopaths. This makes finding one about 1 in 20, two 1 in 400, and three one in 8000. Its not impossible, but it is unlikely.
Social lives will always be tied to jobs because working together is social. Teams usually work efficiently than individuals.
And my 'anecdote' about education has years of worldwide data backing it up. Feel free to look at any genuine research covering the quality of education, test scores, and so on during COVID lockdowns. It may have been needed to help stop the plague (not trying to debate that), but it was certainly less effective. Look at how in-person universities - like Harvard - favor in person schooling over remote learning.
Likely not salaried: Apple Store employees (except management), call centers, or anyone working in manufacturing (which Apple does not own, but I mention because they depend deeply on them, have dedicated Apple groups at Foxcon, etc.). The rest are likely salaried. The guy this article is about is definitely salaried, as are probably most people at Apple's main campus who isn't maintenance or sanitation.
But most people who WORK, in general, in the USA? Not salaried. By far.
And that story (the silicon engineering theft claim) said that those materials were taken FROM THE WORKPLACE before the person LEFT THE WORKPLACE, and had nothing to do with remote work.
As a web developer, I work remotely on Mondays and Fridays, and in my office (shared with two other developers) in between. This is almost exactly the opposite of my experience; I am generally more productive at home specifically because people can't march up to my desk with a trivial and/or non-time-sensitive matter while I'm busy with more important things.
Compared to the millions of big Styrofoam cups from Dunkin, your truckstop and Starbucks?
Thanks for mentioning the open floor-plan office layout at Apple's main campus. When they moved in, it was very much in the tech news about how many workers HATED the place for this very reason (and also the glass walls and doors that were a human hazard). People who need to FOCUS on tasks HATE open floor-plans. Bosses usually have offices with walls and doors, yet many of them want a panopticon for their reports.
Jobs said that Apple should go its own way, not be busy asking "what would Steve do"... And yet we continue to see Jobs' notions adhered to like he was a deity. He was wrong about some things. Citing Jobs for ammo to get people back into an open floor-plan building that many (if not most) workers actually hate is one of the striking examples of why adhering to his ideologies mindlessly is a BAD THING.