Tim Cook says return to office work plan is 'the mother of all experiments'

AppleInsider

CEO Tim Cook accepts Apple's plans for bringing staff back in to offices needs tweaks, says the company is trialling ways to balance remote working.

Following his remarks about privacy erosion at the Time100 summit, Tim Cook also told the conference that Apple has not decided on its return to work plans.

"We're running the mother of all experiments because we don't know," said Cook. "We're running a pilot and trying to find a place that makes the best of both of these worlds."

Apple's announced plans, although regularly postponed as the coronavirus situation, have proved controversial with staff.

"We could be the first to say the starting point is likely wrong and will take tweaks," continued Cook.

Apple's CEO stressed that his own preference is for in-person working, specifically because of the "serendipity" of workplace meetings. However, he also said that online remote interactions are "not inferior, just different."

Without detailing any plans regarding Apple AR, Cook also said that this technology "stands a chance of enhancing our conversation, of enhancing our connection, instead of replacing it."

Read on AppleInsider

entropys

In my country we are all pretty much just back at work. We are more flexible with WFH, but mostly people want to increase productivity back at the workplace and sick of being at home.  Most of the population is vaccinated, but nearly all getting the couf anyway and they stay home if they do for a week. If they aren’t too sick they can work at home. Unless of course they are retail or manufacturing. They don’t get the same flexibility and just have the time off.

No need to experiment, just look at what the real world is already doing.

mikethemartian

I thought the Large Hadron Collider was the Mother of All Experiments but according to Cook it is really getting people to come back to work.

darkvader

COVID proved what we all really knew anyway:  If you work in an office, your job can be done without leaving the house.  It's time to end commuting for office workers forever.

Hey, here's a thought:  Maybe it's time to mandate commuting pay.  If an employer decides a job can't be done from home, then that employer must pay the employee for time spent commuting.  That way people who really do have to be physically present get paid for ALL the time spent in work-related activities. 

hammeroftruth

I think by having another pre-recorded keynote, Tim isn’t sure it’s safe enough yet either.

dewme

Tim’s “let’s try it and see what works and tweak it as needed” approach seems reasonable compared some other CEOs who are dictating how and when their return-to-office policies will be implemented. 

I totally agree with this being a huge experiment, but I think it is even more impactful and far reaching than what any single company like Apple is anticipating. Moving yet another level of human interaction behind computer screens is only going to further isolate and insulate people from those around them, their immediate community, and open them up to developing online and virtual connections that are even further disconnected from their physical reality and circumstances. I tend to believe that team building is a continuous, slow burn process that evolves when everyone feels as though they’re “all in this together” and if the ship goes down, everyone goes down with it, as opposed to the forced kumbaya “team building” exercises. I guess we will see, not just at Apple but across the whole post-pandemic working landscape.

mike1

Having to work from home all the time is not something I would ever want to do again.

However, being able to work from home when I need to is a awesome.

sdw2001

darkvader said:

COVID proved what we all really knew anyway:  If you work in an office, your job can be done without leaving the house.  It's time to end commuting for office workers forever.

Hey, here's a thought:  Maybe it's time to mandate commuting pay.  If an employer decides a job can't be done from home, then that employer must pay the employee for time spent commuting.  That way people who really do have to be physically present get paid for ALL the time spent in work-related activities. 

1.  The job often cannot be done the same way, depending on the industry and position.  In-person meetings and collaboration are important in many fields.  
2.  Mandate it? Good lord. Is there no end to what nanny state leftists want to mandate? This is a horrendously awful idea. 

sdw2001

It's an experiment to come back to work? There is absolutely no health reason to do it.  Covid is endemic and not the plague we were all told it was.  The interventions clearly did nothing to stop it, from social distancing to masks to stay-at-home orders.  The virus does what it does.  We have vaccines, therapeutics, and strains that are far less deadly than the original.  For 90% of all people, Covid is a cold.  It's 99% or more of working-age people.   The reasons people are pushing for remote work have nothing to do with Covid.  It's about social engineering and remaking our society.  It's about "fighting climate change" and some bizarre Star Trek-like fantasy where money doesn't exist.  

Cesar Battistini Maziero

Just make people go to work Apple! 

Remote work will never beat in person work. The team is way more connected when everyone is there!

jimdreamworx

I thought the last two years was the greatest experiment, in terms of employment: working from home.

And it went well for some, and not so much for others.

chadbag

While most of my co workers actually worked in the office and have started to go back, at least some of the time, the office for me is like 1200 miles away so I’ve been work from home since I started there in 2016.  There is also an office in India and one in Canada that parts of our team are at.  (We are US based).  Those non US places are still mostly WFH.  So we already worked in a distributed fashion to a large extent and we’re used to Zoom meetings and stuff.   (This is a software engineering job). 

Covid was no change for me personally.

Stabitha_Christie

sdw2001 said:

It's an experiment to come back to work? There is absolutely no health reason to do it.  Covid is endemic and not the plague we were all told it was.  The interventions clearly did nothing to stop it, from social distancing to masks to stay-at-home orders.  The virus does what it does.  We have vaccines, therapeutics, and strains that are far less deadly than the original.  For 90% of all people, Covid is a cold.  It's 99% or more of working-age people.   The reasons people are pushing for remote work have nothing to do with Covid.  It's about social engineering and remaking our society.  It's about "fighting climate change" and some bizarre Star Trek-like fantasy where money doesn't exist.  

Every time I read one of your posts on COVID I think "I'm glad we people that were public health experts giving advice rather than this imbecile."  

It is truly remarkable how many times you have insisted something was the case only to contradict yourself later.

ravnorodom

darkvader said:

COVID proved what we all really knew anyway:  If you work in an office, your job can be done without leaving the house.  It's time to end commuting for office workers forever.

Hey, here's a thought:  Maybe it's time to mandate commuting pay.  If an employer decides a job can't be done from home, then that employer must pay the employee for time spent commuting.  That way people who really do have to be physically present get paid for ALL the time spent in work-related activities. 

Totally agree for office workers. Especially with the gas price now, who wants to drive anyway.

dewme

ravnorodom said:

darkvader said:

COVID proved what we all really knew anyway:  If you work in an office, your job can be done without leaving the house.  It's time to end commuting for office workers forever.

Hey, here's a thought:  Maybe it's time to mandate commuting pay.  If an employer decides a job can't be done from home, then that employer must pay the employee for time spent commuting.  That way people who really do have to be physically present get paid for ALL the time spent in work-related activities. 

Totally agree for office workers. Especially with the gas price now, who wants to drive anyway.

I'm definitely not in favor of the mandating part - on many levels, but the concept of companies voluntarily offering employees subsidies/allowances for commuting and even for cost-of-living to adjust for local conditions is something that employers should think about if they want to expand their candidate pool. 

Here's the deal for me ... I've been offered what looked like great jobs jobs in "commuter hell" and "real estate pricing nightmare" locations and quickly turned them down exactly for the reasons I mentioned. Had I accepted any of those positions I would have done so with the full knowledge of what I'd be in for had I accepted those offers. Now if employers want to remove or reduce some of those impediments using subsidies, allowances, or work-from-home deals - or whatever other kinds of deals they want to put together, that's their prerogative and maybe it will bring in talent that they would otherwise not be able to attract. 

I'm not discounting the fact that the pandemic exposed some things about how we've been doing things that may not make as much sense anymore, or at least not make sense universally. But I'd still prefer that companies learn by these experiences and come up with ways to adjust if necessary, or like Apple, treat the next phase of the back-to-the-office transition as somewhat of an experiment and learning exercise. Once they get some run time on the experiment and find out what works and what doesn't, and see how it actually affects the bottom line, maybe then make some informed decisions about how to move forward. Perhaps Apple will find that monetary subsidies and allowances that de-suckify some of the issues getting people to come to work for Apple at Apple's physical locations will be part of the mix. Who knows? But mandates - never.

9secondkox2

ravnorodom said:

darkvader said:

COVID proved what we all really knew anyway:  If you work in an office, your job can be done without leaving the house.  It's time to end commuting for office workers forever.

Hey, here's a thought:  Maybe it's time to mandate commuting pay.  If an employer decides a job can't be done from home, then that employer must pay the employee for time spent commuting.  That way people who really do have to be physically present get paid for ALL the time spent in work-related activities. 

Totally agree for office workers. Especially with the gas price now, who wants to drive anyway.

That's a presidential admin failure. Not a reason to stay home, but a reason for voters to rectify the core of the issue. Let's get someone who knows how to keep native oil going again while building an infrastructure to create a functional renewable energy infrastructure alongside of it. Don't just ruing the lives and careers of Americans in order to take credit for an ideal.. This will take time to do right - without the destruction of our economy in the meantime.

Working from home is not a solution to inflation. It was a TEMPORARY measure to buy time until we. understood what we were dealing with and much of that was government overreach to begin with. Now we know and have measures in place to deal with it. Time to get back to work. Period. 

hexclock

darkvader said:

COVID proved what we all really knew anyway:  If you work in an office, your job can be done without leaving the house.  It's time to end commuting for office workers forever.

Hey, here's a thought:  Maybe it's time to mandate commuting pay.  If an employer decides a job can't be done from home, then that employer must pay the employee for time spent commuting.  That way people who really do have to be physically present get paid for ALL the time spent in work-related activities. 

Then is it ok to pay the line workers the extra 1/5 of your salary you’ll be saving, since they don’t have the option? Seems fair to me. 

anantksundaram

Just tell them to get back to work and stop the whining/commiserating, Apple. 

macxpress

entropys said:

In my country we are all pretty much just back at work. We are more flexible with WFH, but mostly people want to increase productivity back at the workplace and sick of being at home.  Most of the population is vaccinated, but nearly all getting the couf anyway and they stay home if they do for a week. If they aren’t too sick they can work at home. Unless of course they are retail or manufacturing. They don’t get the same flexibility and just have the time off.

No need to experiment, just look at what the real world is already doing.

This is basically what we've done where I work as well. We need in person collaboration that just doesn't work very well remotely. We have the option to work from home 1 or 2 days a week every other week. If you were exposed to someone who has covid you work from home for 5 days, then you can come back into the office and you have to wear a mask for 5 more days when not at your desk or not outside. If you test positive for COVID you work from home for 5 days, and they evaluate you after then to see if you still have symptoms. 

I personally don't opt to work from home. I feel far less productive, and I really enjoy the social aspect of working back in the office versus sitting at home all day every day and not seeing my peers. The 100% working from home thing isn't good for society as a whole going forward nor is it good for people's mental health. Just my opinion. 

macxpress

darkvader said:

COVID proved what we all really knew anyway:  If you work in an office, your job can be done without leaving the house.  It's time to end commuting for office workers forever.

Hey, here's a thought:  Maybe it's time to mandate commuting pay.  If an employer decides a job can't be done from home, then that employer must pay the employee for time spent commuting.  That way people who really do have to be physically present get paid for ALL the time spent in work-related activities. 

They already give you commuting pay...its call your paycheck. This sounds like someone trying to extort their employer for more money. 

anantksundaram

ravnorodom said:

darkvader said:

COVID proved what we all really knew anyway:  If you work in an office, your job can be done without leaving the house.  It's time to end commuting for office workers forever.

Hey, here's a thought:  Maybe it's time to mandate commuting pay.  If an employer decides a job can't be done from home, then that employer must pay the employee for time spent commuting.  That way people who really do have to be physically present get paid for ALL the time spent in work-related activities. 

Totally agree for office workers. Especially with the gas price now, who wants to drive anyway.

Yeah, let those idiot, low-wage grunts, you know, like the retail workers, the custodians, show up. They can afford the gas prices, those plebes. 

Your post is Exhibit A for the casual arrogance, out-of-touchness, and condescension that passes off for elite social discourse today.