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Apple's Director of Machine Learning Resigns Due to Return to Office Work
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I initially quit my job because we were moving to the other side of the country for personal reasons and because my company didn’t want to loose me, they offered me to work from home. It’s great. I love it.
Instead of commuting almost 90 minutes one way pre-Covid, I just jump out of bed or answer emails still in bed and still have plenty of time after work instead of finally coming back home at like 8 pm all exhausted. It’s also nice, not having to witness all the negative chatting in the hallways all the time. Often I came to the office and everyone was already in such a bad negative mood, it also brought me down. No more!
Instead of commuting almost 90 minutes one way pre-Covid, I just jump out of bed or answer emails still in bed and still have plenty of time after work instead of finally coming back home at like 8 pm all exhausted. It’s also nice, not having to witness all the negative chatting in the hallways all the time. Often I came to the office and everyone was already in such a bad negative mood, it also brought me down. No more!
Why are you getting so bent out of shape. You do what’s right for you and your family and he can do the same? Your choice is not his business and vice-versa.
He’s given up a job at Apple ffs because it’s not right for him. A lazy snowflake would keep the job and turn up without putting a shift in, just milking a wage.
Everyone is different and every job is different. It’s also not exclusively just how effectively you think you perform in your job. It’s about how the company performs as a team in the aggregate. There are lots more variables in play than what you can see from your specific and, definitionally, myopic perspective.
Nothing in this guys reply says ANYTHING about:
Being the soul care provider for a dependent,
Mobility/Accessiblity restrictions (my mother at 69 chooses and still goes to work after 4yrs ago having a stroke - battling diabetes for 20yrs, loosing 93% mobility and gaining back 97% after the stroke in 7 months! Takes public transit uses a walker or a cane bro! In 15cm snow!)
No health issues.
Sorry this company like many others and other employees worked in office like everywhere else just 2yrs ago.
This guy is LAZY and being a snowflake and wants not to go back. That’s his choice. I feel no sympathy for laziness especially for 1-day
1 day a week!
And you think Apple is being ridiculous? Seriously?
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!
such bs and dinosaur thinking
Most software jobs are far more efficient done from home, for most of our teams - daily commute time is 2 hrs (1 hr each way). Working from home allowed everyone to work longer, take break when needed. In office, most have to leave by 6, to get home in time for dinner around 730, from home it's very easy to work until 7, or start early at 8am.
In term of collaboration, all the tools are right at your finger tip, discussion / white boards easily arranged via zoom / teams. It is far more easier than going into a physical conference room for 1 hr. The internet speed didn't allow this 10 years ago, now it's capable.
Some jobs cannot be done remote, but what he does, and most software jobs i completely agree is far more efficient done fully remote. If the leaders dont understand this, they will just lose all the good talents, and all you going to be left with is a bunch of mindless drones with subpar work.
In our company we all worked from home for last two years and there was no productivity hit. Also i work remotely with colleagues all over the world with no issue. It's impossible to have 'face to face' meetings with them without boarding transatlantic flights every day.
I was even joking with a colleague, being expected to travel into work to do a teams call with him, after he travelled into work, and another colleague in another location after he travelled into work. We've been doing that for years, the only difference for the past two is that we aren't stressed from commuting and have more overlap because we aren't unavailable for up to 2 hours each day commuting.
I was even joking with a colleague, being expected to travel into work to do a teams call with him, after he travelled into work, and another colleague in another location after he travelled into work. We've been doing that for years, the only difference for the past two is that we aren't stressed from commuting and have more overlap because we aren't unavailable for up to 2 hours each day commuting.
This is a tough thing to navigate. When my company allowed people to work from home the last two years, productivity definitely suffered. Granted, it was something we weren’t prepared to do and didn’t have the mechanisms in place for it to work well. I, personally, hate working from home. I don’t want to be at home that many hours a day, and I also felt my work, if it relied on input or cooperation from others, suffered. It’s a hard balance to strike for departments that can do most or all of their work remotely when they have to interact with those that can’t. Communication has been monumentally worse than it even was before when everyone was in the office.
If you’re TOP talent employee with no physical limitations or depender care limitations (either of which Apple would fully accommodate), then you’d not be super lazy to quite for returning to office for 1-day/wk especially at this potential pay range.
You’d be dedicated fired up to work for a top Fortune 500 company to establish good report and be know. For work ethic before bouncing out.
And you wouldn’t be quitting on such frivolous circumstances. This will be a HUGE negative on is reference source calls for future employers.
I think you’re missing this angle.
apple might reconsider. i recently applied with them and got a feedback survey that was entirely focused on wfh questions.
You friend like myself is productive. I work just as good in either situations.
I feel you with others walking up to interrupt but I know and have learned 15yrs ago to multitask.
After all being in service desk my job IS to take complaints and walk ups all day long lol. But when it’s from a colleague who’s just slow and lazy I’ve started to tune that person out. Not being rude but it’s obvious I’m working and got this to do abs resolve.
At the end of the day if our productivity is tracked and steadily declining it’s either his job or mine. I’m not loosing mine because of someone else’s lack of respect for my work ethic or their constant negativity or focus to watch over my shoulder while they’re the full time employee wasting company money and benefits. Review time is soon. I’m focused.
You’re focused
But statistics for various roles show many slack in work at home environment more than anything else.
You’re amongst the major exceptions. Keep at at man.
What is the problem with him deciding what is best for HIM? Clearly he has enough options to find another remote job in a matter of seconds with the position he is in. All power to him
I’m bent out because this propagates to be the norm.
Lazy people don’t stay at a job. Fearful people maybe. But not lazy people when all their wants don’t suit them.
Tim Cook needs to update his fossil mindset in this regard, or Apple will continue to loose talent like this. COVID showed us that in many situation, work from home works just as well, even better than before. The global company I work for has no intention of imposing a wide-spread return from office and our last fiscal year was the most successful one ever.
There'll always be some roles that you need onsite, and I also think it's good to have a solid option to work in an office if that's your preference or when you need to for certain reasons. But beyond that, as long as you are productive, working from home should be encouraged.
There'll always be some roles that you need onsite, and I also think it's good to have a solid option to work in an office if that's your preference or when you need to for certain reasons. But beyond that, as long as you are productive, working from home should be encouraged.
I feel like it’s the same people who hate universal health care for everyone too
Director of Machine Learning? Is it a coincidence that Siri has taken a nose dive with iOS 15 during WFH? It’s been almost unusable. Just scour the forums, here and elsewhere, on Siri with the HomePod and HomeKit and you’ll see. Absolute disaster.
Good he quit. Should’ve been fired a while ago for the product he oversaw. A lot of frustrated HomePod owners out there.
Good he quit. Should’ve been fired a while ago for the product he oversaw. A lot of frustrated HomePod owners out there.
I manage staff of 5 professionals. Although we are fully remote. That is false. They waste 2x that commute time in the kitchen or grocery store runs.
Minority of groups and small sized companies can be remote.
I find these comments hilarious. My first programming job required me to wear a tie to work every day (btw, 1/2 my team was 'remote' in another office and we only had email/phone communication). I remember the talk about 'slackers' when ties were dropped and we moved to business casual. Eventually, I moved on to a company with jeans a t-shirt. All the while, work got done.
My last company was completely remote. We got together every so often, but also never had a shortage of ideas and creativity over Slack and Video chat. We sold that company during covid, and did the entire process completely remote.
The point is remote can work just as well as in office. People who work at home are not snowflakes or lazy. With that said, Apple can certainly require everyone come in, but they may miss out on quality people.
My last company was completely remote. We got together every so often, but also never had a shortage of ideas and creativity over Slack and Video chat. We sold that company during covid, and did the entire process completely remote.
The point is remote can work just as well as in office. People who work at home are not snowflakes or lazy. With that said, Apple can certainly require everyone come in, but they may miss out on quality people.
The plan is 3 days a week by May 23rd, according to the article. I honestly think one day is silly, but imposing three is just bad.
In other words, the state of Siri is no mystery with people like this at the helm. 
They took jobs that are not remote jobs but the company was forced to accept a lackluster level of productivity to keep people safe. There was never a point where his employer indicated this was not temporary. It is unreasonable and childish in the sense of demanding someone you depend on for support to do things they never agreed to. To write a letter that goes beyond his desire to do what he wants for his life is childish as well. When he took a directorship position he made a commitment to the company to do what’s in the best interest of the company. He had a family before the pandemic and Apple had a need for his services for which they likely paid him handsomely to secure.
Google likely made a play for him to return and poach most of his team. He is providing a cover story to try to gain public support for what may become a public battle.
The truth is Google really doesn’t build many products. Software engineers at Google and Apple have different purposes. Google is meant support their cloud engine of sorts, while much of what Apple does will need to intimately integrate with billions of Apple devices across a number of OS platforms and released and secret new releases that must remain under lock and key.
The former can work from home with lower quality while extended work from home for the latter has the potential to scar the brand for decades if they have too many troublesome product releases.