Apple’s back to office drive has reportedly upset some employees who are calling it ‘silly’ and ‘un-Apple’. According to a report by Tech Insider, have shared a petition on Twitter arguing that they can do ‘exceptional work’ from home.
The group has also created a Slack channel with more than 1,000 employees advocating remote work. “I don’t think there’s any confusion about how a large percentage of employees feel, and Apple has had that information for a couple of years now,” one of the members told Tech Insider.
For those unaware, Apple has informed its employees in an email last month that strict actions will be taken against employees not coming to the office at least three times a week. In a memo last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that “this revised framework will enhance our ability to work flexibly, while preserving the in-person collaboration that is so essential to our culture.”
However, the Apple Together group has opposed the decision, demanding “location-flexible work.
As per the Tech Insider report, a person familiar with the matter said although Apple promoted the return-to-office policy as a better way to collaborate and generate “creative friction,” but “this is nonsense for most globally distributed teams.” They say that Apple’s explanation that it had always operated that way to be “both silly and very un-Apple. That’s the opposite of innovation, and that’s how I think most remote work advocates see it.”
“Half the day or more is spent on virtual conferences anyway,” the person added.
Apple had mailed a survey to employees asking for opinion about hybrid work that was supposed to end on April 28.