I understand Apple wants everyone under the big tent to ignite the serendipity of bumping into one another and brainstorming ideas. But that was before March 2020. The pandemic has totally turned the idea of the office upside down. I worked from home starting around November 2020 to July 2021. This is a workplace that said our job was impossible to do from home, but guess what, we had to do it and it worked just as well or even better. I could sleep in a little more, discard certain morning rituals. In fact, I think it worked too well and benefitted the employer more than it did me.
It was impossible because most people don't have the ability to work from home. If you did not previously have work from home abilities (VPN/VM, a "work" provided computer to use to connect back to the office. IT staff to support that, plus any an all infrastructure to make that work well enough to support however many people need to do so). During this time we had people in our organization that did work from home. That wasn't the issue. The issue was getting the other 100 or so devices they could use to do the same, in short order during a supply chain shortage. Not to mention, not being in the office to properly setup the devices and then provide it to said users.
Yeah, the asterisk is that we built that 5 billion dollar campus and it’s not being utilized. But that’s how life works sometimes.
Yes, there is that. Let's not let $5 billion get in the way of people coming to work. The place they agreed to go to before the pandemic. Does the building have COVID or something?
Don’t get me wrong, there are some groups that will need to be on campus, specially hardware engineering and software engineers working sensitive stuff. But seriously, if you are working on parts of iOS and macOS, coding from home or anywhere then submitting your changes over a secure Internet connection should be easy.
I'm not disagreeing with this part. But, what does Apple do with the empty space? And not just Apple. All other companies? What happens to the service industry that has to go to work? They can't operate with so many fewer people going to offices. That affects them the most. Less people working in a city, means less cabs, Uber's, fast food, bars, restaurants and so on. A 10% hit in people not coming to work would be a hit to all those other businesses. And they can't work from home.
Let’s not forget folks, Marklar which became OS X on Intel was compiled at home by an Apple employee.
I'm sure that person had a good setup at home to do this. I myself do not. I don't have a dedicated room for an office. I can't separate my home life (all the things going on at home) from work life. I'm personally better suited to going to the office. And I'm sure many others. Even if they have the ability to work from home. It's just not as productive.
Bringing up the entire Intel OS X project itself was done by a guy at home in New Jersey. That was 2006. If complex software could compiled for critical hardware 15 years ago at somebody’s home, I don’t see why not now.
We are also much more protective of sensitive data being located at anyone else's home vs only at the companies data center.
There will be some unfairness to it. But again, that’s life. Either Apple chooses to be a little more flexible or suffer poaching and brain drain.
I think those Apple/Google employees will find that those said companies will not be willing to waste the expense of those buildings for them to just work from home. No one is going to eat that just for this. COVID is going to be around forever in some variant/form etc. We can't all shelter at home, again forever. We can't turn into a society that has people saying "I want to work from home, and you have to let me". While others literally can't do that. Especially in the service industry. Which took the hit to the economy the hardest. People able to work from home kept making money. People working at a restaurant.. Not so much.