The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many lessons. One is that many jobs can be done perfectly remotely, that is, from any corner of the world, and also that in many cases it is not only unnecessary to go to the office, but also this can end up being counterproductive. In this sense, Apple was one of the companies that most opted for teleworking, and now it is one of the ones that is suffering the most to try to get its employees to return to the office.
This is an issue that is affecting numerous companies in many countries, in fact we have already had the opportunity to talk about it in this article, but in the case of Apple the situation is becoming more and more complicated, or at least that indicates recent information confirming a protest initiated by a group of employees in front of a date that marks the return to the office. In this protest, the “Apple Together” group asks for more flexibility in the face of maintaining remote work, and with it they hope to be able to reduce the minimum of three days of work in the office that will come into force as of September 5.
It seems unlikely that these workers will be able to meet their goals of continuing to enjoy an almost complete teleworking regime, in fact Tim Cook himself recently said that in-person collaboration is key to Apple’s success, and in every way. Yet the CEO is also aware that workers are happier and more productive with more flexible arrangements.
We could think that, with everything said in mind, there is still the possibility that said protest will manage to scratch at least one less day of office per week, but I think it is unlikely because, precisely, it was the rigidity of this return order to the office that made Ian Goodfellow, head of Apple’s machine learning team, decide leave the apple company to go to Google.
The abandonment of companies in favor of others that offer more flexible teleworking models it has become a constant, and it does not seem that the situation is going to change. It is perfectly understandable since, in the end, the benefits of teleworking are important at the level of reconciling personal and family life, and in many cases they have a positive impact on the productivity and mood of workers.
