Apple employees disgruntled over return to working in offices

Posted:
in General Discussion
Apple employees are not happy with the iPhone maker's return-to-office policy, with a survey claiming half of workers are looking to leave the company over the issue.




After being warned in March about a return to working at Apple Park on April 11, corporate staffers began spending some of their week within Apple's offices. While Apple is keen to gradually return to full-time office work, there is seemingly some resistance from those who work for the company.

A survey by anonymous social network Blind of Apple employees in the week ending April 19 claims 56% of workers were actively looking for employment elsewhere. Yahoo Finance reports it is said that the reason for leaving is specifically due to the return-to-office policy.

In specific responses collected by Blind, one employee said they were hesitant to ever enter the office at all, and joked about being able to put Apple on their resume after working for the company for just three weeks. Another cited the possibility of COVID infections, a toxic company culture, and a lack of work-life balance as behind their wish to quit.

A third posted about Apple's management being "tone-deaf as usual." That respondent anticipated that many people would quit shorty after April 15, which is a stock-vesting date -- but that does not appear to have been borne out.

A fourth offered that Apple would see issues when its hybrid work plan is fully enforced by May 23. "Apple is going to see attrition like no other come June. 60% of my team doesn't even live near the office. They are not returning," the employee wrote.

At 652 responses, this is a very small proportion of the Apple workforce. Furthermore, a disgruntled employee has historically been more willing to take part in an open poll request that could be unfavorable to their employer.

According to Blind PR director Rick Chen, the employees were verified via their corporate email address. Chen also said the users of Blind are "overwhelmingly corporate workers in engineering or product roles."

In another poll by Harris that ran from April 8 to April 10, surveying 2,121 people from a variety of industries, a third of hybrid and remote workers said they quit or switched jobs during the pandemic to work from home. Approximately 59% were satisfied with their current work status.

About 15% of hybrid and office-working employees in that poll planned a job change to a more virtual position, and 7% of hybrid and remote workers said they wanted to shift to an in-person job.

Not all of the negative sentiment to the return to office work has been via an anonymous survey. On May 2, the Apple Together group published a 1,800-word open letter objecting to the policy, and arguing that Steve Jobs would've agreed with them.

Read on AppleInsider
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 70
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Survey says over half of Apple’s employees leaving over this? Absolute bullshit. One commenter had only been working there three weeks? Gimme a break. Then comes the money shot. The survey predicted everyone would leave after 4/15 when their stock options vested. Didn’t happen.

    Steve Jobs was famous for saying he only wanted A listers working for him, not B and C listers. Well, these buffoons are definitely not A types are they. The B and C types are a dime a dozen and can easily be replaced. They do the paperwork, data entry, run the copy machines, they do not work with Johny Srouji do they.

    Apple has gotten so big they have been forced to hire entitled 
    millennials who want six figure salaries without producing anything.

    Yet another clickbait survey trying to smear large companies. 
    hmurchisondewmemagman1979zeus423danoxpscooter63zonetuke
  • Reply 2 of 70
    beowulfschmidtbeowulfschmidt Posts: 2,132member
    Small sample size and self-selecting participants.  Not sure the results are particularly significant.  That's not to say that some people, maybe even many people, aren't looking for other jobs because of the return to the office requirement, but I doubt it's gonna be anything close to half.

    Edit: And likely a fair bit of confirmation bias.
    edited May 2022 Cesar Battistini MazieroJFC_PAsdw2001dewmemagman1979CluntBaby92pscooter63
  • Reply 3 of 70
    They surveyed 600 people on a forum.

    This should not be an article.
    mike1hmurchisonmagman1979CluntBaby92sbdudepulseimageszeus423pscooter63
  • Reply 4 of 70
    Paul_BPaul_B Posts: 82member
    Do the front and back doors align? Because it is a circle, also are employees allowed to work outdoors, they can run Ethernet cables underneath the ground or get Cat 6 cords which can go for miles to be plugged in.  Perhaps it's the traffic to and from work.  My work is exactly 4.89 KM away, (8) minute drive, I have to be there since we use our hands for landscaping.  Afterwards my team travels to various sites.  Vaccination, masks, and distancing, are frowned upon, and they are immediately terminated on site by myself if they follow those rules. - No Joke. My business, My Way or the Hi-Way.
    caddyman33hexclock
  • Reply 5 of 70
    DAalsethDAalseth Posts: 2,783member
    I question the use of the phrase "Apple employees are not happy with the iPhone maker's return-to-office policy," 
    It implies that all Apple employees are upset. This is a percentage of, a subset, a minority of the whole population. While they try to position themselves as representing all of Apple's staff, they are just

    The Loud Ones
    The Complainers
    The Squeaky Wheels Who Demand To Be Greased.

    By no means are they representative of most Apple employees. The result after April 15 shows that.

    Now I understand the appeal of working at home. I am one of the workers who switched jobs spacifically so I could work from home. That was my choice. I did not try to force my employer to let me work from home. I found a job where I could do what I want. Understand that Covid has changed a lot of industries, and working remotely will remain a much larger portion of the economy from now on. But there are a lot of fields that require that you be present, be there in person. Sure software people can code remotely. But when it comes time to load that software into hardware and start running experiments to see if it works you have to be there. The team has to be there. Sure engineers can design things with CAD remotely. But when you start assembling the system, checking the parts, putting them together, you have to be there. The team has to be there, to see what it looks like, how it fits. That's not even counting the jobs that require you to be present full time, everything from maintenance people, to testing technicians, to people who actually make things, (for prototypes and such that I'm sure they do there).

    Remote working is fine for some things, but it doesn't work for a lot of things. 
    edited May 2022 sdw2001dewmeCluntBaby92mike1pscooter63bloggerblog
  • Reply 6 of 70
    JFC_PAJFC_PA Posts: 932member
    “Over half” of 652 respondents. Giggle. 

    sdw2001CluntBaby92pscooter63
  • Reply 7 of 70
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,016member
    I really think the headline and opening needs to be changed. This is highly misleading. Yes it is a survey but it is not a statistically valid survey in any respect. It is a self selected group. They are more likely to complain. Even the response itself is vague. “Actively looking for other employment” is something most people do (or could be said to do) even when they are relatively satisfied in their positions.  I am doing that now but the reasons are complex and I’m completely fine if I stay in my current role with my current company.  

    The reasons they give are frankly laughable. Some people are simply never going to let go of Covid or the desire to work from home. These are people that wear masks outside in the park or say they are going to wear goggles at the grocery store for the next five years. They’re insane. Don’t let the door hit your mask and face shield on the way out.  
  • Reply 8 of 70
    kurai_kagekurai_kage Posts: 104member
    Poll sample size issues aside, the genie is out of the bottle w.r.t. working remotely there.  Apple has successfully released significant new products, including he whole Apple Silicon lineup, while primarily working from home.  These past couple years have rightfully made a lot of people across all manner of industries realize more can be accomplished alongside the added work-life balance remote work provides.  Gotta work late?  You can still be home for dinner.

    muthuk_vanalingamlkruppelijahgpscooter63
  • Reply 9 of 70
    MadbumMadbum Posts: 536member
    They have a list of names right , of these lazy idiots correct? Steve Jobs would have fired them all yesterday, Tim Cook needs to be strong
    pulseimageslkruppzeus423ravnorodomzonetuke
  • Reply 10 of 70
    magman1979magman1979 Posts: 1,293member
    A ) This survey sample size, where it was conducted, and lack of any methodology, makes this CLICKBAIT at BEST, a smear piece at worst
    B ) To all those self-entitled, self-absorbed millennial snobs, I say SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP and get your asses back to work, otherwise, GTFO
    edited May 2022 zeus423pscooter63zonetuke
  • Reply 11 of 70
    Crybabies!
    lkruppzeus423zonetuke
  • Reply 12 of 70
    oldcastleoldcastle Posts: 23member
    Employees come and go. No offense... but if you're being surveyed you don't really count... Next!
  • Reply 13 of 70
    waveparticlewaveparticle Posts: 1,497member
    This verified my long suspicion that Apple recruitment policy has a bug in recent years. 
    lkrupp
  • Reply 14 of 70
    sbdudesbdude Posts: 259member
    Poll sample size issues aside, the genie is out of the bottle w.r.t. working remotely there.  Apple has successfully released significant new products, including he whole Apple Silicon lineup, while primarily working from home.  These past couple years have rightfully made a lot of people across all manner of industries realize more can be accomplished alongside the added work-life balance remote work provides.  Gotta work late?  You can still be home for dinner.

    Implying Apple doesn't have more than a 1-2 year product cycle (3 years+ for apple silicon), and those products weren't already designed pre-pandemic. The actual proof will be in products released in the next cycle (and the M3).
  • Reply 15 of 70
    pulseimagespulseimages Posts: 601member
    Paul_B said:
    Do the front and back doors align? Because it is a circle, also are employees allowed to work outdoors, they can run Ethernet cables underneath the ground or get Cat 6 cords which can go for miles to be plugged in.  Perhaps it's the traffic to and from work.  My work is exactly 4.89 KM away, (8) minute drive, I have to be there since we use our hands for landscaping.  Afterwards my team travels to various sites.  Vaccination, masks, and distancing, are frowned upon, and they are immediately terminated on site by myself if they follow those rules. - No Joke. My business, My Way or the Hi-Way.
    Am I reading this right, you fire people for being vaccinated? 
    elijahgfastasleepzeus423mike1ravnorodommagman1979zoetmb
  • Reply 16 of 70
    nicholfdnicholfd Posts: 824member
    One of the complainers stated, "60% of my team doesn't even live near the office. They are not returning,"

    So they were stupid & moved away, with no indication that remote work was a permanent thing.  

    Apple should probably be glad to see those go - they're already "part timers".  They should be turning in their resignations, knowing the policy enforcement date is looming (bet none do).
    mike1
  • Reply 17 of 70
    DAalsethDAalseth Posts: 2,783member
    Paul_B said:
    Do the front and back doors align? Because it is a circle, also are employees allowed to work outdoors, they can run Ethernet cables underneath the ground or get Cat 6 cords which can go for miles to be plugged in.  Perhaps it's the traffic to and from work.  My work is exactly 4.89 KM away, (8) minute drive, I have to be there since we use our hands for landscaping.  Afterwards my team travels to various sites.  Vaccination, masks, and distancing, are frowned upon, and they are immediately terminated on site by myself if they follow those rules. - No Joke. My business, My Way or the Hi-Way.
    What landscaping company do you run? I want to know so I NEVER MAKE THE MISTAKE OF HIRING YOU. Anyone that treats their employees that badly does not deserve my business.
    elijahgfastasleepzeus423beowulfschmidtpscooter63magman1979applguyzoetmb
  • Reply 18 of 70
    mikethemartianmikethemartian Posts: 1,320member
    DAalseth said:
    Paul_B said:
    Do the front and back doors align? Because it is a circle, also are employees allowed to work outdoors, they can run Ethernet cables underneath the ground or get Cat 6 cords which can go for miles to be plugged in.  Perhaps it's the traffic to and from work.  My work is exactly 4.89 KM away, (8) minute drive, I have to be there since we use our hands for landscaping.  Afterwards my team travels to various sites.  Vaccination, masks, and distancing, are frowned upon, and they are immediately terminated on site by myself if they follow those rules. - No Joke. My business, My Way or the Hi-Way.
    What landscaping company do you run? I want to know so I NEVER MAKE THE MISTAKE OF HIRING YOU. Anyone that treats their employees that badly does not deserve my business.
    Really almost anyone can start a landscaping business. It is one of the few types of jobs that persons with criminal records can still get hired in.
    elijahgzeus423magman1979asdasd
  • Reply 19 of 70
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Paul_B said:
    Vaccination, masks, and distancing, are frowned upon, and they are immediately terminated on site by myself if they follow those rules. - No Joke. My business, My Way or the Hi-Way.
    I sincerely hope the rules are a damn site clearer for your employees, because that makes no sense.
    elijahgfastasleepravnorodomapplguy
  • Reply 20 of 70
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,198member
    Some of these people made bad investment decisions during the pandemic, like buying a home located too far away. Maybe Apple doesn't want employees that would be so stupid.
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