Apple employee petition demands flexibility against return-to-office policy
Apple employees are continuing to object to Apple's order to return to working from its offices, with a petition demanding the iPhone maker continues to offer "location flexible work" to its staff.
Like other companies that put in place work-from-home schemes during the pandemic, Apple is struggling to get employees to agree to return to working from within its offices. The latest salvo in the battle of wills between employees and employer is a new petition, demanding Apple continues to be flexible in its working practices.
The worker group Apple Together started to internally circulate a petition on Sunday, reports the Financial Times. The petition has a series of demands to keep allowing employees to work from home, or wherever they want.
The petition is allegedly in response to an Apple management order from August 15 increasing the number of in-office days from two to three by September 5, as part of its hybrid work program.
According to the petition, Apple Together believes the "uniform mandate from senior leadership" doesn't respect the many "compelling reasons" for why employees are "happier and more productive" under the WFH measures.
In its demands, the group wants Apple employees to be able to work with their "immediate manager" on their working arrangements, instead of dealing with "high-level approvals" and "complex procedures."
The petition will reportedly be collecting signatures for a week before verification and delivery to executives. An employee involved with organizing the effort doesn't plan to release individual names publicly nor to executives "in light of retail union busting and recent reports of allegations of retaliation from HR."
While it is unclear how the petition will affect the decisions of executives, it seems that workers generally would prefer to maintain the flexibility. In one survey of Apple employees from April, 56% were actively seeking employment outside of Apple, with the return-to-office policy being the biggest driving force.
There's also been a high-profile departure, as director of machine learning Ian Goodfellow resigned in May after three years on the job. Goodfellow cited the return-to-office policy as one of the reasons for leaving.
Read on AppleInsider
Like other companies that put in place work-from-home schemes during the pandemic, Apple is struggling to get employees to agree to return to working from within its offices. The latest salvo in the battle of wills between employees and employer is a new petition, demanding Apple continues to be flexible in its working practices.
The worker group Apple Together started to internally circulate a petition on Sunday, reports the Financial Times. The petition has a series of demands to keep allowing employees to work from home, or wherever they want.
The petition is allegedly in response to an Apple management order from August 15 increasing the number of in-office days from two to three by September 5, as part of its hybrid work program.
According to the petition, Apple Together believes the "uniform mandate from senior leadership" doesn't respect the many "compelling reasons" for why employees are "happier and more productive" under the WFH measures.
In its demands, the group wants Apple employees to be able to work with their "immediate manager" on their working arrangements, instead of dealing with "high-level approvals" and "complex procedures."
The petition will reportedly be collecting signatures for a week before verification and delivery to executives. An employee involved with organizing the effort doesn't plan to release individual names publicly nor to executives "in light of retail union busting and recent reports of allegations of retaliation from HR."
While it is unclear how the petition will affect the decisions of executives, it seems that workers generally would prefer to maintain the flexibility. In one survey of Apple employees from April, 56% were actively seeking employment outside of Apple, with the return-to-office policy being the biggest driving force.
There's also been a high-profile departure, as director of machine learning Ian Goodfellow resigned in May after three years on the job. Goodfellow cited the return-to-office policy as one of the reasons for leaving.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Yes, definitely. That's the only possible explanation. /s
I suspect only a small number are included. Apple remains a company that many would like to work for.
Just my opinion, of course.
Wonder how it will fly if Apple says OK, but your salary is decreasing by $X
Ultimately, Ventura and iPad OS 14 are likely the most lackluster updates ever for the respective platforms. The laziness lack of group cohesion caused by WFH is on full display. Apple couldn't even be bothered finding a picture of Monterrey or Ventura for the wallpaper. That's called calling it in and its emblematic of the whole Ventura release.
Then put everyone on a contract that mandates on site work unless approved individually.
Yet another reason I count my blessings for starting out in the late 80's/early 90's and not picking up bad habits that are so easy today.
It's about the quality of code. And considering there have been numerous employees speaking out about how Apple's open plan glass offices are distracting, WFH could well be much more productive for those people who are coding - no incessant distractions. Hell, I get much better code written WFH than at work where there's an unnecessary distraction every 10 minutes.
And then the idea of graduates spending substantial time working at home does not fill me with confidence, in fact it is appalling. I observe it takes three years of heavy hand holding before they can be trusted to do the job on their own. I would feel I have failed them.
I would also note that I recently shed a couple of staff as there was a reduction in work in one team. The ones that had to be asked to leave were among those who work at home full time. I was a lot less confident of their work rate.