Apple signaled the ending of the pandemic era and dawn of a new day. The tech giant, with a global workforce of 137,000 employees, defied the crowd and hasn’t fully embraced remote work with the same gusto as its peers.
In an email to staff, obtained by the Verge, CEO Tim Cook asked his staff to return to the office beginning early September. It’s expected that employees will spend about three days a week at the office and the other two at home or remotely.
Now that one of the largest, most respected companies in the world has declared its return-to-the-office plan, it feels real. A chapter in history has closed and a new one will be written.
In the last few months, we have seen a large number of top corporations issue their plans. The consensus, including the likes of Microsoft and Google, coalesced around a flexible hybrid model of having workers in the office for two or three days a week, similar to what Apple announced.
There are some outliers, like Spotify and Twitter, that will allow their people to work remotely “forever.” On the other side of the spectrum, top-tier investment banks Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, along with Netflix, required all of their workers to return to their respective offices.
According to the email from Cook, people will be asked to come into the office on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. They’ll have the option to work remotely on Wednesdays and Fridays. In case there’s a pressing need that requires being present at the office, an employee would need to return to the pre-pandemic norm of a four or five-day workweek.
Cook’s letter indicated that Apple staff members may operate remotely for up to two weeks a year “to be closer to family and loved ones, find a change of scenery, manage unexpected travel or a different reason all your own.”
The tech giant’s CEO added, “For all that we’ve been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other.” Cook added, “Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate. I look forward to seeing your faces. I know I’m not alone in missing the hum of activity, the energy, creativity and collaboration of our in-person meetings and the sense of community we’ve all built.”
Source: Forbes
