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

[Boris Bronson]

So easy to spot the miserable out of touch old men/women in this thread ?

Or stockholders frightened that Apple Park becoming a white elephant will harm their holding. So many non-declared stock holders post here it should be an SEC violation.

 

[Pezimak]

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

Im pretty sure Siri has been rubbish long before this guy was hired, also where does it state he worked in Siri?

 

[mikethemartian]

IMO, he's a privileged whiner, complaining about actually having to show up a work a couple of days/week.

The vast majority of workers have absolutely ZERO flexibility, and have to be at work 5+ days/week, every week.

If he is privileged it is because he has a skill set that is in high demand.

 

[SSDGUY]

I bet this fellow is happy for all the grocery store clerks, baristas, dentists, auto mechanics, etc. who show up-in person to do their jobs.

 

[alpi123]

His loss.

 

[I7guy]

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.

ApPle will replace their employees with new bests.

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.

These employees should find a company that supports them.

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.

Apples teachable moment is Tim Cook recalling everybody to the office.

 

[HowieIsaacks]

Jeez 🙄 This is lame. Apple is better off without people like this. I was working in the office the whole time. Why should Apple employees be different?

 

[ilikewhey]

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.

is Johny Srouji replaceable too?

 

[sorgo †]

Im pretty sure Siri has been rubbish long before this guy was hired, also where does it state he worked in Siri?

Where did I say that? Read.

 

[M5RahuL]

Refusing to go back to work? They’ve been working the past 2 years.


Lol so people wanting to continue to work, just in an environment that people fine more flexible, are considered “lazy freeloaders.” I can tell this wasn’t written in good faith.

If they’re doing effective work at home, why does it matter where they do it? Why are you implying that hardworkers are only in the office?

Yeah these ' get back to the your physical office ' posts are hilarious. Of course, there will always be jobs that need one to be present onsite, but a lot of us have been very efficient / productive working remote and require literally no physical interaction aka facetime.

If you're getting depressed working from home ( which, in essence implies your socializing is limited to work.. ), then there are other issues at hand!

Sounds more like resentment because they are not afforded this privilege.

 

[Pezimak]

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.

Thats not a successful policy that leads to long standing success. It could also generate a high churn rate.

 

[darkpaw]

I've been working as a software tester at a company since June last year. I went to the office on the first day to pick up my laptop. I hadn't needed to go back into the office until last week when the battery in the laptop needed servicing.

I can do my work from home. It means I can go for a run or do some strength workouts in the morning before work, because I'm saving the 1hr 45m commute each way. That's 3.5h per day saved. I feel way more productive doing meetings on Zoom or Teams, or via a Slack huddle. Our team's work hasn't suffered.

Also, since our team comprises three people in the UK (incl. me), one in France, one in Portugal, one in Germany and two in Italy, there would only ever be three of us in the same office at the same time. It doesn't make sense to force us into an office when we're doing so well as we are.

 

[I7guy]

is Johny Srouji replaceable too?

Jony Ive you see is replaceable. Everybody is replaceable, don’t fall into that trap.

 

[sorgo †]

I bet this fellow is happy for all the grocery store clerks, baristas, dentists, auto mechanics, etc. show up in person to their jobs.

These (and many others) represent the humbly heroic blue-collar foundation of American society, without which ******s like Ian in cushy “knowledge” jobs couldn’t survive. Thank you for your recognition and thank you for this comment.

 

[Pezimak]

Where did I say that? Read.

Erm? In the comment you posted. You claimed Siri is in a mess due to this guy running it.

 

[Pezimak]

Jony Ive you see is replaceable. Everybody is replaceable, don’t fall into that trap.

Yeap, Tim Cook is easily replaceable should the share holders or board deem it necessary.

 

[trip1ex]

EVeryone working from home after previously working together in an office is different from nobody ever working together before and working from home.

I think a lot of mentorship/training would be lost in a work only from home environment.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

He calls for “more flexibility”, and yet Apple is only requiring up to 3 days per week in office — flexibility should come from both sides, not just one.

 

[2540497]

Hilarious! Easily replaced.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Apple didn’t spend $5 billion on a new headquarters campus to have everyone working from home.

 

[Lostanddamned]

I worked in offices all of my professional life, I actively avoided taking even a single day WfH, because I was convinced that it would be a poor fit for my ability to maintain focus and deliver work. In March 2020 I went WfH and stayed there for two years. Since March I’ve been back in the office 3 days out of 5 and it’s terrible.

The thing that stands out to me is there’s so much nonsense:

• Meetings and conversations that last for hours beyond their useful run times and cover literally nothing,
• People wanting to make small talk and breaking focus or flow,
• Instead of making one coffee I’m making 6 or more every time,
  The food options are more expensive and less good than I can make myself at home,
• The temperature isn’t what I’d set at home and I keep getting aircon static shocks,
• The ergonomics of my office desk and chair are painful compared to what I have at home,
• Sometimes the CEO brings their dog to the office which is loud and distracting

There’s no one major thing that makes it worse, but everything is “a little bit worse”. Things I’d grown used to and hadn’t realised were frustrating, distracting or irritating, and having them taken away was a huge relief.

I regularly come home from work and realise that I’ve sat down and down maybe two hours of actual work in a 9-5:30. At home, I had to set myself alarms reminding myself to take a lunch break, and to stop working at the end of the day. I love my job, and I’m measurably worse at it when I’m in an office.

Given that my team does most of it’s work in collaboration with another team 300 miles away, it’s not like we didn’t already spend most of the day in Slack Calls or Huddles anyway.

 

[sorgo †]

Erm? In the comment you posted. You claimed Siri in in a mess due to this guy running it.

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

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Apple didn’t spend $5 billion on a new headquarters campus to have everyone working from home.

Apple didn’t know COVID was going to hit and people will be working from home. But you have a good point there

 

[mikethemartian]

Some would argue the best productivity comes from collaboration. Especially when the person is right there, or very close by to bounce an idea or question off of. It's rather disconnected when you working from home unless you keep the camera and mic on all the time?

People working from home also have to deal with things at home while at work. Dogs barking on conference calls, kids running around screaming/playing/yelling. It's not a "work" environment for many. For some sure. They don't have kids, animals or other distractions. Maybe even a dedicated room in their home for an office. But, not having coworkers around is a negative. I worked from home during covid. So did many others in my department. It was horrible. Again, this isn't for everyone.

And yes, Apple built that crazy office building. Should they just abandon it? What good is it if people aren't in it? Same goes for all the other office buildings. What do we do with them?

There are jobs that work well from at home. Jobs that are not reliant on having a co-worker. Say billing, or other data entry type stuff. Jobs that don't require any interaction with others. But, if you have to collaborate. Zoom isn't cutting it. Doesn't work for Students, doesn't work for every work environment on a full time basis. How can we have people go to work at a Starbucks in a downtown area where people are working from home? Or any other restaurant, fast food place, etc.. This starts to get messy pretty quickly. We know, as the last 2 years showed us exactly how this will work out.

If people are concerned about their health in this post COVID world. It's not like we don't understand that. No one wants to get sick or worse. But, we do have to live our lives too no? Can't shelter in place forever.
If this now former Apple employee wants to resign because he does not want to go back to the office. He's free to do so. I'm sure he can find a job that will let him do that. Or maybe he can start up his own.

I'm not saying you can't do what you stated above. Nor am I saying it can't work for others. But, the majority of people out there can't do what your suggesting. And no big enough business can operate with too many people not in the office. They will have to consider downsizing. Or replacing said employee with someone who will come to the office.

With regards to their office buildings there is an old business adage that states “sunk costs are sunk”.

 

[abowlby]

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 many AI teams at Apple’s scale have you been director of? None? Interesting that you find yourself an authority on the subject.