Apple sets April 11 deadline for corporate return to office

AppleInsider

Apple has reportedly set April 11, 2022, as the date its staff in the US have to return to Apple Park, and other offices.

Like most corporations, Apple has attempted to set return-to-office dates for its staff multiple times over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. Most recently, though, it had delayed this return indefinitely, but it's now said to have chosen April 11, 2022.

Now on @TheTerminal: Apple sets April 11 return to office deadline for U.S. corporate employees.

-- Mark Gurman (@markgurman)

March 4, 2022

According to Mark Gurman on Twitter, and via financial services businessBloomberg Terminal, the April 11 date applies to US corporate employees. There is no indication of whether a date has been set for international staff.

Nor are there any further details. Previously Apple has said at different times that it will allow staff to work remotely either for a two-week, or a one-month period.

Read on AppleInsider

shareef777

Mistake by Apple. After proving that permanent work from home works over the last two years (especially for Apple), what excuse do they have to mandate employees go back to the office? The massive benefits that WFH brings to work/life balance has caught on throughout the country, employers will leverage that perk to lure talent and employees will look to companies that offer that.

Stabitha_Christie

shareef777 said:

Mistake by Apple. After proving that permanent work from home works over the last two years (especially for Apple), what excuse do they have to mandate employees go back to the office? The massive benefits that WFH brings to work/life balance has caught on throughout the country, employers will leverage that perk to lure talent and employees will look to companies that offer that.

I find comments like this curious. How did Apple prove that permanent work from home works? Sure Apple has continued to release products but we don't know what the impact is. Could some products have come out sooner? Were feature delays in latest iOS due to remote work? Would the Apple Silicon transition have happened in one year like the move to Intel rather than the two that Apple committed to? Have unannounced products been delayed? Just because you aren't aware of the impact doesn't mean it didn't happen. I'd assume Tim Cook is making this decision based on some sort of data and not just a whim. 

rcomeau

I agree that from an employee's perspective, WFH has obvious benefits for many (not all though as many of our employees prefer separating home and work). From a business perspective, WFH is not ideal on many fronts (employee retention aside, which will likely lead to at least some WFH just to retain talent). The problem is it is hard to quantify the benefits of having your team in the same place. It is hard to quantify the value of the random interactions that only happen when you bump into someone and exchange some random ideas. In general, WFH reduces creativity, makes it harder to build a cohesive, trusting team and creates stratified relationships. What happens to employees that need to be in a lab to access hardware? They need to be in the office. Do they resent those can work from home? Employees who come in will get more facetime with their boss which will likely lead to quicker advancement than those who only check-in minimally via zoom. Will that cause resentment? Many people get a lot of personal gratification being part of a team and being present is important to nurture those relationships.

WFH is like the old mail order businesses where you just stuff envelopes for pennies/envelope. Your job has to be commodified to be viable as WFH. If you want to create, contribute and be part of something special, WFH might not be the best way to go. I predict companies that adopt permanent WFH will either change their minds, or will be overtaken by more efficient and creative companies. 

M68000

shareef777 said:

Mistake by Apple. After proving that permanent work from home works over the last two years (especially for Apple), what excuse do they have to mandate employees go back to the office? The massive benefits that WFH brings to work/life balance has caught on throughout the country, employers will leverage that perk to lure talent and employees will look to companies that offer that.

Well,  they have a $5 billion dollar building to show that it is being used.   Also,  such a building should be better for keeping company secrets ?   And we all know how secretive Apple is, even refusing to break down sales of it’s iPhone models.

M68000

Why not pick April 1st for return to office?   (Don’t mind my sense of humor, could not resist)

zeus423

Let the whining begin.

macxpress

I'm sure at least 5 people have turned in their resignation as a result... /s

kaiserx

Finally. Get your @$$e$ back to work. The software has suffered. Vacation’s over. 

dewme

Nothing beats face to face human interaction or brainstorming around a whiteboard. It’s hard to read body language and pick up on subtleties, much less go out for lunch together, when interacting with a matrix of talking heads in Zoom boxes. 

I’ve worked on product development projects distributed across 8 different campuses covering the extremities of time zones and we’d always find a way to bring people physically together on a regular basis. This was hybrid by default, not design, and it worked well. 

Personally, I much prefer working in a kickass nice workplace with lots of amenities including a great cafeteria and 10 gig network connectivity over working from home, but I’ve never had to suffer with a grueling commute or babysit rug rats while trying to work. If I worked at the Apple spaceship I’d be counting down the days to get back aboard the ship. 

fred1

I love working from my home office, but based on my experience over many years, discussing any matter remotely doesn’t come close to doing it in person. That’s for planned discussions. Being able to talk in person spontaneously is another huge benefit of being in the same place. 

ronn

"Nor are there any further details."

No, there is specific info about a hybrid schedule:

Apple is planning for a hybrid in-office and at-home work schedule going forward. The report states that Apple employees will be required to work from the office at least one day per week by April 11, at least two days per week by May 2, and at least three days per week by May 23. Those three days would be Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, with most employees having the option to work remotely on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Sounds reasonable and fair, with in-office work starting one day a week. And I'm sure some cases will have individual schedules worked out over the long-term.

waveparticle

One face to face conversation is better than one thousand words on email. lol 

macxpress

waveparticle said:

One face to face conversation is better than one thousand words on email. lol 

Agreed and it's so much easier to collaborate in person versus WFH. You can just turn around to your team and start talking versus spinning up a FaceTime call, MS Teams call, etc, dealing with technical difficulties, kids screaming in the background, dog barking up a storm, etc.  And, I think its just better for a team to be together as a whole versus remote all the time. You can just collaborate so much better in person. 

I strongly believe the people who got used to WFH just got way too used to being able to do other "personal" things along side of "working". Now they can't do it anymore and actually have to put in a full days work. Well boo hoo!

Which begs the question, how much work was actually being done at home? Some people think they were more productive at home, but in what way? 

waveparticle

macxpress said:

waveparticle said:

One face to face conversation is better than one thousand words on email. lol 

Agreed and it's so much easier to collaborate in person versus WFH. You can just turn around to your team and start talking versus spinning up a FaceTime call, MS Teams call, etc, dealing with technical difficulties, kids screaming in the background, dog barking up a storm, etc.  And, I think its just better for a team to be together as a whole versus remote all the time. You can just collaborate so much better in person. 

I strongly believe the people who got used to WFH just got way too used to being able to do other "personal" things along side of "working". Now they can't do it anymore and actually have to put in a full days work. Well boo hoo!

Which begs the question, how much work was actually being done at home? Some people think they were more productive at home, but in what way? 

The only significant saving is the commute. 

beowulfschmidt

shareef777 said:

Mistake by Apple. After proving that permanent work from home works over the last two years (especially for Apple), what excuse do they have to mandate employees go back to the office? The massive benefits that WFH brings to work/life balance has caught on throughout the country, employers will leverage that perk to lure talent and employees will look to companies that offer that.

For me, this is not true.  While it's convenient as hell to walk to my office and start work, it's also far, FAR too easy for me to work longer hours than I should.  I have an alarm on my phone that goes off every weekday at quitting time to remind me to put it away.

For people who already have a problem with working too much, or with organizations that don't recognize something like work/life balance, the lack of separation between work space and home space can be hugely problematic.

Don't get me wrong, working from home part time is a major boon, but if we were allowed to go back into the office a couple days a week, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

dewme

beowulfschmidt said:

shareef777 said:

Mistake by Apple. After proving that permanent work from home works over the last two years (especially for Apple), what excuse do they have to mandate employees go back to the office? The massive benefits that WFH brings to work/life balance has caught on throughout the country, employers will leverage that perk to lure talent and employees will look to companies that offer that.

For me, this is not true.  While it's convenient as hell to walk to my office and start work, it's also far, FAR too easy for me to work longer hours than I should.  I have an alarm on my phone that goes off every weekday at quitting time to remind me to put it away.

For people who already have a problem with working too much, or with organizations that don't recognize something like work/life balance, the lack of separation between work space and home space can be hugely problematic.

Don't get me wrong, working from home part time is a major boon, but if we were allowed to go back into the office a couple days a week, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I totally agree. I’d even go as far to say that a fair number of workers who are part of the “great resignation” associated with the pandemic came to the realization that their current career choice was “unfulfilling” while working from home. Removing some of the physical constraints, like physical separation and commuting, made the mismatch in work-life balance acutely apparent. The age old dichotomy of whether you’re “working to live” or “living to work” gets muddled, for some folks, when you’re stuck in a single indistinguishable space either way. 

I also recognize that it’s not the same situation for everyone. Some individuals, like my spouse, worked happily and productively from home for 20 years and had no trouble flipping the work-life switch over to the life setting at the same time every weekday, and locked in the life position on weekends. Other individuals like myself have a hard time finding that switch and need the physical distancing and commuting ceremony to make it work, even in an imperfect way.