More and more people are getting vaccinated for COVID-19. Many argue that vaccines will allow for a gradual return to normality. Many people are wondering when they will finally be able to return to their offices. Among them is Apple CEO Tim Cook, who says he can't wait for employees to return to their jobs. In fact, he said the company has already started taking steps to make that possible.
Last spring, when the pandemic began to spread around the world, technology companies were among the first to announce that their employees would work from home until 2021. Twitter and Facebook ,in fact, had said that teleworking might continue after the pandemic for some employees.
See also: Apple: Shows what working from home really means
Apple's CEO, however, seems to not have the same opinion and now feels optimistic about returning to work.
"For us, physical contact between employees is still very important because collaboration is not always a planned activity," Tim Cook said in an interview with People.
“Innovation is not always a planned activity“.
Cook believes that when people are together in the workplace, it's easier to get inspired by an idea and share and explore it with others. "You have to be with others to do that," he says.
Apple already adopted the open floor plan for its offices when the company moved to Apple Park in 2017. The open floor plan allows employees to be all together in one space, making it easier to collaborate and exchange ideas. But with social distancing measures in place, some companies have begun to change their workspaces.
See also: "Open office" type offices: Will they "endure" after COVID-19?
On the other hand, Cook acknowledges that some projects can be done well remotely. So, this work model may continue for some activities: “We’ve realized that there are some things that are great to do almost entirely via Zoom or WebEx or FaceTime or whatever you have. So I’m going to continue that and I’ll call it a hybrid environment.”
According to the CEO, Apple did not face any major issues and business continued as normal, despite the fact that most employees are working from home.
Cook said that remote work has been implemented for about a year, however, during that time the first iPhone with 5G support and the M1 chip for Mac were released.
See also: Malware discovered running natively on the M1 chip
According to Cook, these are very significant achievements, considering the particular working conditions.
“We did all of this by reinventing the way we work,” Cook says. “We’re a team that relies heavily on collaboration. But we knew that wasn’t possible at this point in time. And so we had to reinvent ourselves. And I really give credit to the whole team for rising to the occasion.”
See also: Apple Intelligence and a better Siri may be coming to iPhones
The company has not announced an official date for the return to work, but Tim Cook is looking forward to that day: “I think we will be able to go back to work and I can’t wait for that to happen. I can’t wait,” he said.
Source: People
