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

[inkswamp]

I wish people would realize some of us are getting more done without driving to some random building.

Yep. My entire department worked from home for most of 2020 and the first part of 2021 and our management confirmed that we were collectively far more productive than when we were in the office the year before. I have to wonder about people equating working from home with slacking off and what they're telling us about themselves. I didn't slow down or reduce my output at all. Maybe some people do. ?‍♂️

 

[citysnaps]

Buh bye! Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[contacos]

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.

how is that a waste of time if they still get their work done at the end of the day? The mentally of „you are only productive if you work exactly 8 hours in one sitting!“ needs to finally go away. We literally have no core working hours or whatever it’s called in English at our office. I work whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I start at 7, sometimes at 10, other times at I decide to pick up my laptop again at 10 pm because whatever my bf is watching on tv is boring me or I answer slack message or team calls when I am out with my dog. I certainly wouldn’t pick up my laptop again in the evening, if i was tied to the desk all day already

 

[mikethemartian]

To quit over this is unreasonable and mildly childish.

Why? He is apparently a high level employee who will have no problem finding high paying work on his own terms. Why should he let some company that he doesn’t need to work for dictate terms? People at the bottom may have to do that, but people at the top don’t need to.

 

[Rafterman]

I fully support work from home, and I think a lot of it is Apple being petty. But high end officers, like directors? They probably should be around the office alot, just from a leadership standpoint, especially for employees that have to be there.

 

[Realityck]

Before we make this a endless argument about working from home, have you even considered what contributions Ian Goodfellow has provided?

When he was hired this was stated.

Apple recently took notice of Goodfellow’s work and hired him to be the iPhone maker’s director of machine learning in the company’s special projects group. He was previously a star senior staff research scientist at Google and researcher at the high-profile nonprofit OpenAI.

So can anyone point us to anything significant he contributed? If not why is this even news?

 

[sorgo †]

Thank God comments are enabled. Watching basement-dwelling redditors get a cold, hard, much-needed reality check is beautiful

 

[TheOldChevy]

Different people have different needs, different companies have different expectations. What I like is that today I can chose. For me hybrid is the most efficient. Others will be more efficient remote or in the office. Select the company that fits you.

 

[Mr. Dee]

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.

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?

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.

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.

We are also much more protective of sensitive data being located at anyone else's home vs only at the companies data center.

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.

I took home the same Dell Optiplex 750 I was using at work. This is Apple, not your employer, they obviously have the resources to work from home.

 

[citysnaps]

Years ago I worked for a fabless semiconductor startup in Silicon Valley with four other engineers; all working out of our homes. As we grew we eventually moved into an office. And with that communications and productivity noticeably improved.

 

[Mcckoe]

It's such a knee-jerk thing to blame the employer if they don't want to accommodate working from home.

None of us commenting here have any idea about the details of the work being done here, and we don't know if discussing or working on these things remotely would present some potential compromise to Apple's business secrets. (And yeah, I'm sure there aren't any corporate spies out there looking for Zoom sessions run by Apple's employees.) Lots of employers are figuring out how to let people work from home but that doesn't mean all jobs are going to work out that way. Sweeping commentary about nobody having to work in the office is definitely oversimplifying and overstating things.

Sometimes people see transitions as a good time to leave. Other times, they don’t like a policy and find a place with one they like.

If we started to see a mass resignation over this… I think we could maybe blame Apple, else this is just one guy quitting, with possibly a million other contributing reasons.

My personal experience with apple has been that they don’t like outside contractors: when Tim took over, one of his biggest changes was the elimination of “out of house” internal developers. In the course of a few months, Apple lost most of their best overseas programmers, anyone who refused to move locally, or disagreed with Tim’s design to supply approach.

Essentially the people that built the roadmap for iOS, iPadOS, ARM Architectures, and eventual Apple custom silicon: had to hand it off to whomever could make the move to California and was willing to deal with Tim’s management.

 

[mikethemartian]

This is the opposite of what I’ve experienced. I lost the connection to my colleagues. Especially in a small office where you know everyone personally, being isolated at home feels depressing.

I also believe productivity is at its best with the entire team present in person in the room, but I guess it depends on you field of work.

I remember that Steve Jobs design the NeXT office in way that people would run in to each other, which he believed is best for creativity.

Nothing stops you, assuming everyone is local, from a team meeting when you need to meet in person.

 

[WiiDSmoker]

To quit over this is unreasonable and mildly childish.

Sounds like you’re upset he can afford to do it.

 

[blazerunner]

Did it ever occur to you that not every job is like yours?
Think of a team developing and troubleshooting a HW product? Yea, try doing that via Teams…

Did it occur to you I was talking about MY situation?

 

[citysnaps]

To quit over this is unreasonable and mildly childish.

Well said. And very unprofessional.

 

[DeepIn2U]

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.

It was 1 day a week, then currently 2 days a week. But you think slowly over the course of 19 days going to 3 days a week is bad?

Check my earlier posts in this thread. I’m in Canada working for a financial corporation and we went strong from 1wk full out of 3 to full M-F for 1.5 months now back to same 1wk/3wk rotation. I’m not complaining. My mom isn’t complaining.

This was the norm - going into work M-F less than 2.1/2.3yrs ago.

This guy had a FULL 2yrs to comtemplate this would happen and it would’ve looked a LOT better if he did this during mid pandemic. He’s waited this long - what did he think for 2yrs that stay at home would be the norm with a global corporation which is publicly traded and a HUGE central (custom) HQ that he’d get to stay at home after a pandemic? Then only now citing generics about family, etc. lol.

Very slow transition. He’s lucky it was like this. Many are lucky to have a slow transition.

I still think its lazy - the whole complaint, implementation and waiting until 2 days/wk just before 3 days per week.

This is becoming more common but not ideal especially for GDP nor for work ethic. He works in AI which is a very highly sensitive and protective field for any corporation building such efforts. Curious what his reason for leaving Google was 4yrs ago. Now leaving Apple. I’d say there is only 2 companies having a better AI team than either … and THAT company had 3 million applications worldwide in 2021 alone, only hiring 1%! Not all obviously in AI btw.

Guess what … that company isn’t pandering to those that want to work at home 5days/week either. Take a guess what that company’s those are: 1 begins with a T the other with an N.

When they see this (if he hasn’t already found something before leaving Apple) it’ll not be so easy. We’ll see or we wont. This will not be the last of this story going around but it’ll be tougher for many to get replacement jobs as easily as it was during the pandemic. No job has security.

 

[project_2501]

"back to the office" is driven by two main drivers

1. Investment in extremely expensive commercial property / rent

2. Middle management being incompetent and insecure.

Apple is behind the curve here.

 

[MacLawyer]

"The graveyard is filled with irreplaceable men." Napoleon.

 

[hagjohn]

A year and a half working away from home because of a pandemic and everybody thinks they can dictate where they work now? GTFOH.

It is called freedom of choice. I understand that not many believe in freedom to choose your own path in this country anymore. We have to do what the millionaires tells us to do, after all. It is surprising so many are like the mindless drone followers in Apple's 1984 commercial.

In the organization I work for, we invested in technology that made us smarter as an organization, no matter what life throws at us and we have a hybrid TW policy now. Being adaptable is a win-win for both employer and employee as it reduces costs in many areas (on both sides) as make work-life situation better for most.

 

[I7guy]

This is going to keep happening. It has nothing to do with Covid, either. People learned they can do their job effectively from home, and many feel downright insulted to have to come back to the office to work after getting into a comfortable work from home routine.

Companies need to adjust and realize that allowing employees who can do their job effectively from home to do so will only benefit everyone. This is especially the case for companies in the Bay Area where housing prices and cost of living are so high, a six figure salary can feel like poverty. I'm sure this particular high level employee didn't have that problem but a lot of lower level ones do, having to live further and further from work to afford a decent home. They also do the real grunt work that makes companies like Apple shine, and losing them will be very detrimental to the company.

Apple needs to rethink this, and let people continue working from home. My guess is they want to justify that insane campus they built.

At will employment is a great thing. People come and go and good people left in the past and will leave in the future.

 

[mikethemartian]

I highly doubt there’s proof to back up your claim about production studios for movies/tv working from home. Literally impossible with the equipment, locations, actors, etc needed to do this. Imagine a Marvel movie being edited in some dudes MacBook ha.

What percentage of Marvel movies are practical effects vs CGI?

 

[DeepIn2U]

"back to the office" is driven by two main drivers

1. Investment in extremely expensive commercial property / rent

2. Middle management being incompetent and insecure.

Apple is behind the curve here.

Lol really? Show me 5 major corporations where the entire team is ok with work at home and allowed to do so now that pandemic is pretty much over and done with and has major expensive commercial property’s. Especially those with major impact on the world and is publicly traded not a small team of 100 or less.

I’ll wait.

 

[danielsutton]

Apple's director of machine learning, Ian Goodfellow, has resigned from his role a little over four years after he joined the company after previously being one of Google's top AI employees, according to The Verge's Zoë Schiffer.

Goodfellow reportedly broke the news to staff in an email, saying his resignation is in part due to Apple's plan to return to in-person work, which required employees to work from the office at least one day per week by April 11, at least two days per week by May 2, and at least three days per week by May 23. "I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team," Goodfellow said in the email.

Apple employees began returning to Apple Park last month, with the three-day in-office work policy being enacted on May 23. Some employees have been unhappy about the plan to return to in-person work.

In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook during the summer, a group of employees said "Without the inclusivity that flexibility brings, many of us feel we have to choose between either a combination of our families, our well-being, and being empowered to do our best work, or being a part of Apple. This is a decision none of us take lightly, and a decision many would prefer not to have to make."

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

If Apple does not start listening to their employees, and making accommodations for the new WFH era, then they will start losing all of their best people. Many employees do not want to return to office work, they enjoy the flexibility and freedom to not have to commute, and to be able to spend time closer to their families and those they love.

Apple should see this as a "teachable moment" and should start offering much more flexibility to their employees and accommodate their wishes of where they want to work.

 

[I7guy]

Your lack of self control does not map to everybody else.

I am more productive and put more work in since WFH than prior. The metrics are also tracked more closely at my company. The key is, I don’t constantly get interrupted by people stopping by for a chat. And I don’t mind putting in the occasional extra half or full hour of work now and then, because previously I was spending two hours EVERY day in my car.

I’m also much more rested and comfortable given I am now able to craft my own physical working environment.

Thank goodness many companies stay agile. Clearly much more productive in the office, there is no comparison. We can do our jobs from home, and we save on commute and gas, but in the office the productivity is greater.

I understand programming of any sort or any branch can be done in isolation best.

 

[ViviUO]

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.

How exactly did you arrive at heart surgeons working from home when the article is about a technology company? You clearly aren't in the technology sector. And based on your antiquated opinion I am exceedingly about that.