What you need to know
- New details about Apple's work from home drama says employees are divided internally.
- Apparently, some employees wrote a letter advocating for location-based pay cuts, which has made other people unhappy.
- Apple is reportedly cracking down on internal Slack channels not related to work, and long-serving employees are reportedly leaving the company.
A new thread of details about the ongoing internal controversy at Apple over the company's work from home policy says employees are divided over the proposal of location-based pay cuts.
The information comes from The Verge's Zoë Schiffer, who shared a thread of news that has not yet been reported regarding the ongoings saga.
Schiffer states that the most recent letter penned by Apple employees "advocating for remote work" has "sparked a bit of controversy internally", because of proposals that Apple could make some location-based pay cuts for fully remote employees. Whilst this doesn't sound unreasonable at face value (given possible savings in accommodation and travel), some employees voiced concerns that this "could unfairly disadvantage women of color.
Schiffer notes that the employees behind the letter said that Apple already adjusts pay for fully remote workers outside the Bay Area, but that "some felt like advocating for this without fully understanding the consequences was a bad idea."
One theme of the work from home debate internally at Apple has been the use of Slack to organize like-minded employees. A recent report said that one Slack channel advocating remote work at Apple has more than 6,000 members and that several people had stated they were leaving in the channel. Schiffer writes that since Friday a further three employees have resigned "specifically because of the remote work policies", including one who had been at the company nearly 13 years. According to Schiffer, Apple "recently began cracking down on Slack channels that aren't directly related to work".
Schiffer notes that whilst Apple has never allowed channels "for activities and hobbies" beyond things directly related to projects or official employee groups, the company hasn't always enforced this.
According to Schiffer a group of employees in France wrote a letter advocating for remote work in June, and that whilst it did not coordinate with remote work advocates in the U.S. the letter was "strikingly similar" with regard to demands.
Apple has recently told employees the soonest they'll be back in the office is October because of concerns about a recent surge in COVID-19 cases.
On Tuesday Apple posted $81.4 billion in revenue for Q3 of 2021.
