What you need to know
- Apple employees have again written to CEO Tim Cook and head of people Deirdre O'Brien.
- Employees want Apple to reconsider its hybrid work policy.
The growing unrest between Apple's executive team and the rank and file continues to grab headlines and employees have written a second letter to CEO Tim Cook and VP of people, Deirdre O'Brien asking for more flexibility in terms of working from home.
Apple's current stance is that its new hybrid work model is the one that will stay, with office workers able to work from home two days per week. But employees want more flexibility after working from home for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Apple has historically said — and continues to say — that in-person collaboration is vital to the way it works. Employees will no doubt point to the multiple products that have launched while they have been working from home — and they want that to continue.
According to a new Recode report, employees have now sent a second letter to the executive team, urging a rethink of the current hybrid work model. The gist of the second letter is that employees want the option to work from home for another year — many believing that Apple is forcing people to return to offices too soon.
With COVID-19 numbers rising again around the world, vaccines proving less effective against the Delta variant, and the long-term effects of infection not well understood, it is too early to force those with concerns to come back to the office. Furthermore, allowing some greater flexibility than the current 3/2 schedule would enable us to truly validate whether some people working remotely, not just everyone occasionally working from home, is compatible with Apple's culture of collaboration.
Employees are also concerned that the cost of living in and around Cupertino is problematic, something I've written about previously.
You can read the full Recode , including the full letter sent to Cook and the rest of the executive team, to get a feel for what the Apple folk are asking for.
