Mikey Campbell
Apple CEO Tim Cook in an email on Wednesday asked employees to return to office work for three days a week starting in September, a sign that the company is slowly easing back toward normal corporate operations.
In an email seen by The Verge, Cook said most staff are expected to come into the office on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, leaving Wednesday and Friday as optional work from home days. Those who are part of teams that require face-to-face time are being asked to come in for four to five days a week, the report said.
"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 said. "Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate."
Employees who have grown accustomed to the work from home lifestyle will be able to remote in for up to two weeks a year, dependent on approval from team managers.
Cook and other senior executives have repeatedly stated in past interviews that remote work is no substitute for in-person attendance. The company has long believed that employee commingling is a vital ingredient to innovation. Late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs was such a proponent of the philosophy that he helped design Apple Park's main building — effectively a large ring — to facilitate serendipitous encounters.
Apple first lobbed the idea of remote work for Cupertino staff in March 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic took hold across the nation. Since then, the company has taken steps to protect its workers, including offering paid time off for vaccinations. Cook again urged employees to get vaccinated in Wednesday's email.
"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," Cook said.
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23 Comments
I think a lot of companies will start phasing employees back into the office. I know mine is going to start doing the same around September'ish when the kids go back to school.
Not surprised.
Today driving down 101, I was surprised to see a full-size corporate commuter coach, the first one I've seen in over 14 months. When I passed it I noted that it belonged to WeDriveU, one of the big shuttle operators. Once it showed up in my rear view mirror, I could see that it was a training bus, not carrying actual passengers. And a few days earlier, I saw a smaller Bauer IT shuttle bus (they were early shuttle service providers for Google), probably also in training.
But it's coming. I'm sure a lot of the other big companies (Google, Facebook, etc.) will be asking their employees for more in-person facetime.
One of the freeway onramps had a sign indicating that metering would start in a few days, presumably because Caltrans expects more traffic when California opens up on June 15th.
Some jobs lend themselves to a remote working environment. But more creative occupations where you are working in a team environment really require face-to-face collaboration. Zoom doesn’t cut it.
The pandemic response has created new opportunities to work from home and some jobs will shift from office to home permanently. But the pendulum has swung too far towards remote work. Many companies have seen significant productivity drops this past year and are in the process of correcting that problem. So while Silicon Valley continues it myopic pursuit of remote work, by virtue of the fact that the majority work on a computer, much of the rest of the country is rapidly returning to normal in-person work. And that’s a very good thing.
Just because you can work from home doesn’t mean you should. Lack of visibility can be career limiting.
Some people continued to thrive working from home. Others did not. Some people need personal contact, interaction, camaraderie, and Zoom/Teams doesn’t do it for them. Working from home isn’t the utopia some say it is.