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Most Apple Employees in U.S. Won't Return to Offices Until Early 2021

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In an interview ahead of Apple's third quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Bloomberg that Apple employees in the United States won't be returning to their offices until early 2021 as the coronavirus continues to spread in the United States.

apple-park-416-security.jpg

Apple initially had some employees return to its campuses in mid-June, with some key employees returning even earlier in May, but it appears most workers will continue doing their jobs in their homes through the end of the year.
"We've kicked the time period that U.S. employees would come back until early next year," Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "To go beyond that, it would depend on the success with a vaccine, success with therapeutics" and local conditions, he added.

Cook said Apple’s process for re-opening its offices would be similar to how it has handled its retail stores. He likened the process to an “accordion” where the company would open offices and then re-close them as necessary depending on the data.
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Other tech companies like Facebook and Google said in June that employees would be able to work from home for all of 2020, with Twitter and Square allowing employees to work from home permanently if they choose to do so.

Apple was planning a multi-phase approach that would see employees trickling back in throughout the summer months, but told employees at the time that its plans were fluid and could change based on local and state stay-at-home orders.

Apple CFO Luca Maestri during the Q3 2020 earnings call said that Apple is taking a cautious approach with both its corporate facilities and its retail stores, and the company is trying to understand how the virus is evolving over time. Most employees will be working from home through 2020, at which time Apple will re-evaluate.

Maestri said that it's hoping for a vaccine and will make future decisions as it gets more information.

Article Link: Most Apple Employees in U.S. Won't Return to Offices Until Early 2021
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/07/30/apple-employees-work-from-home-early-2021/
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the aapl spaceship looks cool in the photo
waiting for it to launch when employees come back after covid
hopefully sooner than later
 
I don't foresee a vaccine getting to enough of the population before Fall 21 and with how contagious Covid-19, as well as the high % of asymptomatic people, I'm thinking people who work in office settings and can work from home will most likely being doing so till Fall 21 Early Spring 22 at the earliest.
 
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Its nice to see that Twitter and Square are allowing people to work from home permanently. Wish I worked for them right now....
 
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The smart companies and organisations are doing just this and letting their employees choose when they want to return to the office. Others, like where I am, are even saying, "we don't know if we'll ever return to the office" (I'm in UX in financial company), so they're looking up setting up satellite locations across a metro area to reduce 1. travelling on crowded public transport 2. logistics of travelling in lifts and 3. logistics of distancing in a work environment
 
Apple stores are closed in my region and they should be through for the remaining of 2020. And I think when you look at the consideration of safety when you work in close quarters in the ‘tech sector’ , what choice do you have? It’s only necessary to allow these employees to work from home as long as their job Can still accomplish the same task/goals as they would in an office setting. Apple alongside hundreds of other companies in United States are doing exactly what’s necessary, not optional.
 
More seriously (than my previous post, in any case) - I'm an older guy with a diabetic wife; but I'm not as concerned with being at work as I am with getting to work. I have my own office, and it'd be relatively straightforward to control the (relatively few) interactions I have with others during the day.

But I've been a pretty consistent transit user for a lot of years, and I'm not ready to be cheek-by-jowl with hundreds of other people in a inadequately ventilated train right now. But going back to a 90-minute-each-way drive, five days a week, isn't appealing either.
 
Been enjoying working from home at my company, which is not Apple. The bosses don't like it because people slack, but IMHO (I'm no manager) physical presence shouldn't be the driving force in productivity anyway.
 
TrevorR90 said:
Its nice to see that Twitter and Square are allowing people to work from home permanently. Wish I worked for them right now....
Click to expand...

While not every job lends itself well to remote work, many modern jobs do (like mine - I do web, database, and server administration).

A lot of the pre-COVID resistance I've seen against remote work, though, came from middle managers. I'm not sure if they just don't know how to manage people in that situation, or (more likely, in my opinion) they're worried that it'll make it too obvious how unnecessary their own jobs are.
 
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