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Normal is a constantly evolving concept. Whether some people like it or not, the 'normal' for the corporate world is now - and absolutely should always be - the hybrid model. A balance of in-person collaboration and the flexibility to work remotely is truly the ideal scenario for both companies and employees.
It all would have never changed if it was not for covid 19.
 
I'm sure there will be a lot of whining and complaining.
Why wouldn't there be? Many people's lives vastly improved during work from home. Less time spent stuck in commutes in California traffic, less money spent on gas (given how expensive it is in CA right now), more time at home with family, etc. There are many positive aspects of working from home.
 
They should have been returned back to the office long time ago. The retail workers are working on site. No reason to stay home anymore.
Some industries (retail, service, etc) very obviously cannot work from home, the fact that you're even using this logic is astronomically silly. Do better.

Love all the whiners.... some of us never stopped going into the "office" (nurse here). Time to get back to work... tired of being short handed because people are crying about having to actually leave the house to earn a paycheck.
The irony in this comment is hilarious.
 
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We’re moving to a hybrid system (was introduced last summer)
3 days (or more for those who wish) in the office and max 2 days from home.

I can basically do my job in reporting from anywhere but I prefer the interaction with colleagues so I’ll be in the office for 4 days a week and one day at home


This is always a bit of a sensitive topic for some it feels like. A lot of people can work more productively from home. Those who can’t because of the nature of their job obviously can’t enjoy that flexibility but that doesn’t mean you should be resentful of those that do
 
Retail employees cannot perform their work from home. Software developers, HR, Tehnical communications etc. can and therefore will.

Not rocket science..
That's the thing. Apple's software people have been doing shoddy work for the past two years. Personally I don't care how they get things done, but as a customer I want their best work. So if remote is not cutting it, I want to see if they can do better work back at the office. Of course if there are other factors that have so drastically lowered the bar in recent days, this would not fix it, but I will have the satisfaction of knowing that since they are not delivering their best work for me, at least they are being punished for it.
 
I am aware of the perks of working from home, but I am also of the opinion that Apple’s corporate structure is not designed to thrive under such a decentralised structure.

I do think that as time goes on, Apple will have to make concessions and adopt some kind of hybrid structure to avoid losing talent to other companies that offer remote work, but I also think that beyond a certain point, they are better off simply letting those employees go and focusing on grooming the ones who are willing to still commute to work.

The two are not mutually exclusive. You can argue for the merits of an employee not needing to spend 2 hours a day driving to work, and also recognise that the price of embracing remote work may be a slower pace of innovation at Apple (which already seems to be taking root, with iOS 15 offering only focus modes, and universal control taking another half a year to arrive).
 
The problem isn't working for Apple or Google, it's living in Silicon Valley. Traffic is terrible, and there is no transit that takes you nearby. Housing is still astronomically expensive, even with a typical tech worker salary. People were fleeing the area before the pandemic. I don't understand why tech companies insist on building sprawling campuses in areas zone for single family homes, and surrounded by NIMBYs. Austin will be the next on the list, as housing prices and traffic become even worse there.

Google is at least building a new campus in San Jose, close to the train station.
 
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I've been working at home since 2013 - I enjoy the flexibility of home but I miss the social and professional human touch that I get out in the wild. The next generation of workers who grow up entirely on hybrid or full remote is going to be a very different breed.
 
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That's the thing. Apple's software people have been doing shoddy work for the past two years. Personally I don't care how they get things done, but as a customer I want their best work. So if remote is not cutting it, I want to see if they can do better work back at the office. Of course if there are other factors that have so drastically lowered the bar in recent days, this would not fix it, but I will have the satisfaction of knowing that since they are not delivering their best work for me, at least they are being punished for it.
The bar isn't any lower than it's ever been. Plenty of iOS and MacOS updates have been absolute garbage pre-pandemic when employees were in office. In fact, if anything their hardware has improved vastly over the past two years.

The problem isn't working for Apple or Google, it's living in Silicon Valley. Traffic is terrible, and there is no transit that takes you nearby. Housing is still astronomically expensive, even with a typical tech worker salary. People were fleeing the area before the pandemic. I don't understand why tech companies insist on building sprawling campuses in areas zone for single family homes, and surrounded by NIMBYs. Austin will be the next on the list, as housing prices and traffic become even worse there.

Google is at least building a new campus in San Jose, close to the train station.
Most of the people commenting here who live in Podunk, Iowa really will never grasp this kind of stuff. Excellent points.
 
Amen right there~! get back to the office.... life is back to normal now act like it.
There was nothing normal about spending 60 hours a week going to and from an office, sitting at a desk, sitting in your car. It was "normal" because the limitations of communication. There is a new normal now. Why go backwards? There are people who started working at Apple two years ago who have never seen the inside of an Apple office, and they seem to be doing just fine.
 
They should have been returned back to the office long time ago. The retail workers are working on site. No reason to stay home anymore.
Heh, it's not fair, but there are 1000 reasons.

Same as it's unfair that some of those guys are getting up to $180,000 to just not leave... but retail employees are not.

Most unfair (to me at least) that they can just move to the beach or to a ranch in Idaho or wherever they love and keep remaining in high demand.

Sad reality is that we're not all in this together ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
I already worked from home pre pandemic here in the uk and the company I work for has seen a big change in attitude to flexible working to the point of relocating to smaller premises where there is no longer room for everyone to be in the office at the same time even if they wanted to be.

Main change for me is I’m no longer expected to make the 1000 mile round trip to spend a week in the office once every few months that I was in the before times, and it’s definitely not a trip I’ve been missing.

Personally I love working from home - it suits my lifestyle and lets me live in a place that isn’t tied to being within x miles of my job, but it definitely isn’t for everybody… my sister has been working from home during the pandemic and has hated it and can’t wait to get back into the office full time.
 
Love all the whiners.... some of us never stopped going into the "office" (nurse here). Time to get back to work... tired of being short handed because people are crying about having to actually leave the house to earn a paycheck.
Wah, I can’t work at home so you shouldn’t be able to either. Fascinating logic.

Would you be upset if future RNs didn’t have to pay for college just because you did?
 
The key is, mandatory vs optional. Your mileage may vary.

My commute time turns into more meeting time and increased productivity.
Working in the office was 0800 to 1700, plus at least half hour each way.
Working from home now is 0700 to 1800 if not later. In additional to that, meeting during lunch time become a daily occurrence. Perhaps we shall all come back into the office to reduce the work hours.
 
Ok here’s an eye popping statistic I just correlated from two different sources.

Once source says 64.9% of the USA is fully vaccinated, and a completely different source (scientific website) says that 43% of USA population has had Covid (with many many cases never reported).

Soooo

64.9% + 43% = 107.9% of the USA is either vaccinated or has natural anitibodies from prior infection.

Figure that one out.
 
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The problem isn't working for Apple or Google, it's living in Silicon Valley. Traffic is terrible, and there is no transit that takes you nearby. Housing is still astronomically expensive, even with a typical tech worker salary. People were fleeing the area before the pandemic. I don't understand why tech companies insist on building sprawling campuses in areas zone for single family homes, and surrounded by NIMBYs. Austin will be the next on the list, as housing prices and traffic become even worse there.

Google is at least building a new campus in San Jose, close to the train station.
Ahh yes, someone that can see the issue with MEGA CAMPUSES in an area designed with low lying single family homes in mind. The traffic of people coming into the Valley in the morning is insane, people commute from as far as Fresno just to work in these jobs. All the tech firms should just build campuses around the Central Valley and Sac region but hey, what do I know.

The Google campus next to Lightrail and Caltrain isn't going to solve anything, its only going to make things worse. Several areas around SAP center are old and in some cases shared lane roads where you can only park on one side of the street. Let us also ignore that Google Village's onramps from 280 and 87 are extremely small even for regular day to day traffic. Try sending a few tech buses and morons in Teslas and it's going to be a disaster.
 
Ok here’s an eye popping statistic I just correlated from two different sources.

Once source says 64.9% of the USA is fully vaccinated, and a completely different source (scientific website) says that 43% of USA population has had Covid (with many many cases never reported).

Soooo

64.9% + 43% = 107.9% of the USA is either vaccinated or has natural anitibodies from prior infection.

Figure that one out.

... return to work has nothing to do with us being over covid (thank god we are), it's more, we got to save on ****** commutes, we got to do our dishes during boring calls, we got to hang out with our SO all day instead of random coworkers, and we don't wanna give it up, simple as that.
 
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