As the lockdowns and restrictions due to the response to COVID-19 recede, Apple wants its employees to return to work in person. However, some employees do not seem willing to return to the office, with some now threatening to leave the company over denials of requests for remote work by Apple management.
Last month, Apple had reopened all its stores from COVID closures and began to normalize store operations, dropping mask requirement for customers and employees in many parts of America. In eary June, Apple CEO Tim Cook said employees should begin returning to offices after the lengthly COVID-19 disruption in early September for at least three days a week.
Apple employees say it’s harder than ever to get remote work requests approved after the company rolled out a new hybrid model that will require people to return to the office three days a week starting in early September. Some employees say they will quit if Apple doesn’t change its stance.
While Apple historically discouraged employees from working from home, there were one-off exceptions to the rule, and some teams were more lenient than others. Now, employees say that even those exceptions are being denied. In a company Slack channel where employees advocate for remote work, roughly 10 people said they were resigning due to the hybrid work policy or knew others who’d been forced to quit. The Slack channel currently has more than 6,000 members.
The return-to-work plan has already been a flashpoint at Apple, where employees wrote a letter in June asking Apple CEO Tim Cook to reevaluate the hybrid model. Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of retail and people, sent a video in response saying that in-person collaboration was “essential” and noting the company would not be backing away from its current approach.
In the June letter, employees said Apple’s policies had “already forced some of our colleagues to quit… 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 part of Apple.”
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.
As we wrote at the end of last month:
Employees who don’t want to return to work in person should pound sand either of their own volition or via pink slip.
“The inclusivity that flexibility brings?” Bullshit nonsense.
Returning to offices in early September is already ridiculously late.
There are literally millions of qualified, talented, driven people who would gladly work five – gasp! – whole days a week in the office for Apple.
Get back to work or get lost.
Successful companies like Apple don’t run on layabouts who’ve already enjoyed a very lengthy year-plus extended vacation and who are now ruined.
If these employees don’t quickly wake and wise up, cut them loose, Apple. Swing the axe, don’t coddle them.
I do not adopt softness towards others because I want to make them better. — Steve Jobs
Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. — Steve Jobs
“A” players attract “A” players. “B” players attract “C” players. — Steve Jobs
