Apple has told its employees they must return to work in September for at least three days a week, with Chief Executive Tim Cook saying the move will preserve the “in-person collaboration that is so essential to our culture”.
In a memo to employees on Monday, Cook said all employees at the company’s headquarters and nearby offices would be required to report in on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as another day to be determined by chiefs of staff. team, starting September 5.
Apple employees in different parts of the world will return on a different schedule depending on local circumstances, Cook said in the memo seen by the Financial Times.
“We are excited to move forward with the pilot and believe this revised framework will enhance our ability to work flexibly, while preserving the in-person collaboration that is so essential to our culture,” he said. declared, according to the memo.
“We also know that we still have a lot to learn. And we are committed to listening, adapting and growing together in the weeks and months ahead.
Cook stressed that the arrangements were a “pilot” and would be adjusted as needed.
This isn’t the first time Apple has announced a return-to-office order. In June 2021, he said he planned to return three days a week in September of that year, only to step down due to rising Covid-19 cases. Some employees were then asked to stay in the offices for one or two days a week.
Apple’s stumbling comeback reflects the difficulty it and other big Silicon Valley groups have had deciding the office’s role post-coronavirus. Companies have come under pressure from many employees to preserve the remote working conditions suddenly imposed on them – or risk losing crucial talent.
Following Apple’s previous announcement of a return-to-office plan, machine learning director Ian Goodfellow left for Alphabet, reportedly saying in a farewell email that he was against the policy . Since then, Google’s parent company began requiring most of its corporate employees to come into the office three days a week.
Mark Zuckerberg told his team at Meta that working remotely was encouraged. Among those taking up the offer are Instagram chief executive Adam Mosseri, who is moving to London, and Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, who will be splitting his time between the UK and California.
Amazon told its employees in October that in-person work policies would be decided at the team leader level, saying it would not implement any mandatory daytime requirements. However, it stipulated that employees should be able to get to their offices within one day.
San Francisco-based travel site Airbnb told its staff in April that it was free to work from anywhere in the country where it was based and, for 90 days a year, from any of the 170 countries in the world.
Additional reporting by Patrick McGee and Richard Waters in San Francisco
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