Apple does not cancel its plan for employees to return to their workplace three days a week starting in September, despite protests over the new change.
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Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cooksent an internal letter to employees outlining the company's plan to return to the workplace three days a week starting in September. Apple, due to the global health crisis, had put most of its employees to work remotely for the past year, but the company is now starting to return to normality.
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Following Cook's letter to staff, a group of Apple employees responded to the CEO with their own letter, protesting the change. In their letter, the employees said that without the flexibility to choose between remote and regular work, they feel they have to choose between "combining our families, our well-being, and doing our jobs better, or being part of Apple."
Apple has now responded to the complaints. In a video sent to staff, which was published by The Verge, Apple senior vice president Deirdre O'Briensaid that in-person work is "essential" to Apple's products and company culture, and that it is key to developing and launching new products.
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“We believe that in-person work is essential to our culture and our future,” said Deirdre O’Brien. “If we take a moment to think about the incredible products we launched last year, the products and the execution of the launch were built on the foundation of the hours of work we did when we were all together in person.”
Apple will, however, offer some employees the flexibility of remote work. According to The Verge, employees will be allowed to work remotely, but this approval is being done “on a case-by-case basis for any new remote positions that require executive approval.”
