Wesley Hilliard
Apple reportedly escalates enforcement of its return-to-office policies by tracking badge records to ensure in-person attendance three times a week.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced most companies to embrace work from home, even Apple. Since risks surrounding the virus have decreased, and vaccines are readily available, the corporate world has been pushing for a return to office — but not without some resistance.
According to a tweet from Platformer's Zoe Schiffer, which was first reported by 9to5Mac, Apple is tracking in-person employee attendance via badge records. Those who do not come in three times per week are given escalating warnings.
While it isn't a direct policy from Apple, some organizations within the company say failure to comply could result in termination, reports Schiffer.
This news comes only a week after a report about Apple seeking various cost-cutting measures. While the company isn't targeting mass layoffs similar to Facebook, it is leaving positions open after an employee departs.
That means if an employee is terminated due to failure to comply with the return to office mandate, Apple has one less employee to pay. However, since termination due to a failure of compliance isn't an official Apple policy, the company is unlikely to use this as a serious cost-cutting measure.
NEW: Apple is tracking employee attendance (via badge records) and will give employees escalating warnings if they don't come in 3x per week.
— Zo Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) March 22, 2023
ALSO: Elon Musk sent Twitter employees an email at 2:30am saying the "office is not optional" and noting SF was half empty yesterday.
Employees have been vocal about the return to office policy and Apple's relaxing of COVID-related safety policies. They see these policies as a potential health hazard that lacks understanding of how work from home has improved productivity and morale for some departments.
Malcolm Owen
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Christine McKee
49 Comments
It’s not a reprisal if your employer tells you to work at the office and you refuse.
Yes work abandonment got a fellow employee fired and that was decades ago.
But does a return to the office makes sense from a productivity perspective? For most employees, in the office is nothing more than a proxy for are you working -- and a poor one at that.
So, it's my understanding that the vast majority of offices are less productive, less creative, less collaborative, less spontaneous, less proprietary-knowledge secure, and overall: are stagnating. Our Directors said that public knowledge of declining/ plateauing revenue and increasing remote costs would benefit competitors and demoralize, so most companies will not blatantly call remote work as a failure. Many companies were hoping that employees might work for less due to reduced commute, that they might save money due to re-organizing/reducing office space and leases, and they might realize greater moral from reducing distracting workspaces and inter-office conflicts. Nope. Structure and communal-work presence matter. The stick as well as -or more- than the carrot. Besides, if one's work is so easy that they simply stare at a screen all day without research, delegation, collaboration - basically like a telemarketer, they can be easily outsourced - like say, a telemarketer.