Tim Cook says return to office work plan is 'the mother of all experiments'

CEO Tim Cook accepts Apple's plans for bringing staff back in to offices needs tweaks, says the company is trialling ways to balance remote working.

Following his remarks about privacy erosion at the Time100 summit, Tim Cook also told the conference that Apple has not decided on its return to work plans.

"We're running the mother of all experiments because we don't know," said Cook. "We're running a pilot and trying to find a place that makes the best of both of these worlds."

Apple's announced plans, although regularly postponed as the coronavirus situation, have proved controversial with staff.

"We could be the first to say the starting point is likely wrong and will take tweaks," continued Cook.

Apple's CEO stressed that his own preference is for in-person working, specifically because of the "serendipity" of workplace meetings. However, he also said that online remote interactions are "not inferior, just different."

Without detailing any plans regarding Apple AR, Cook also said that this technology "stands a chance of enhancing our conversation, of enhancing our connection, instead of replacing it."

29 Comments

entropys 13 Years · 4316 comments

About 2 years ago

In my country we are all pretty much just back at work. We are more flexible with WFH, but mostly people want to increase productivity back at the workplace and sick of being at home. Most of the population is vaccinated, but nearly all getting the couf anyway and they stay home if they do for a week. If they aren’t too sick they can work at home. Unless of course they are retail or manufacturing. They don’t get the same flexibility and just have the time off.

No need to experiment, just look at what the real world is already doing.

mikethemartian 18 Years · 1493 comments

I thought the Large Hadron Collider was the Mother of All Experiments but according to Cook it is really getting people to come back to work.

darkvader 15 Years · 1146 comments

COVID proved what we all really knew anyway: If you work in an office, your job can be done without leaving the house. It's time to end commuting for office workers forever.

Hey, here's a thought: Maybe it's time to mandate commuting pay. If an employer decides a job can't be done from home, then that employer must pay the employee for time spent commuting. That way people who really do have to be physically present get paid for ALL the time spent in work-related activities.

hammeroftruth 16 Years · 1356 comments

I think by having another pre-recorded keynote, Tim isn’t sure it’s safe enough yet either.

dewme 10 Years · 5775 comments

Tim’s “let’s try it and see what works and tweak it as needed” approach seems reasonable compared some other CEOs who are dictating how and when their return-to-office policies will be implemented.

I totally agree with this being a huge experiment, but I think it is even more impactful and far reaching than what any single company like Apple is anticipating. Moving yet another level of human interaction behind computer screens is only going to further isolate and insulate people from those around them, their immediate community, and open them up to developing online and virtual connections that are even further disconnected from their physical reality and circumstances. I tend to believe that team building is a continuous, slow burn process that evolves when everyone feels as though they’re “all in this together” and if the ship goes down, everyone goes down with it, as opposed to the forced kumbaya “team building” exercises. I guess we will see, not just at Apple but across the whole post-pandemic working landscape.