Apple employees do not want to return to the office and write a letter to Tim Cook

June
8, 2021

5 min read

Is the hybrid work model the future of companies? Without a doubt, the pandemic brought many changes and one of them was the acceleration of the arrival of remote work. In this context, Apple employees reacted to the firm’s policies in the face of the situation.

Tim Cook , CEO of the apple company, recently reported that workers had to return to the offices three days a week starting in the fall. Before this communication, the employees expressed themselves through a letter:

“… We would like to take the opportunity to communicate a growing concern among our colleagues. This policy of remote work / flexible location of Apple, and the communication around it, have already forced some of our colleagues to resign ”, they explain in the letter obtained by The Verge .

Likewise, they express that without the inclusion that flexibility provides, they feel that they must choose between a combination of their families, their well-being and being able to do their job better or continue being part of the company.

Feel ignored by executives

Workers commented that there are certain messages surrounding this communication that do not represent them, within them are statements such as: “We know that many of you are eager to reconnect in person with your colleagues at the office.”

^{Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. Image: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images via Engadge}

According to the letter, neither message acknowledges that there are “mixed feelings” regarding returning to work sites. (The messages) “feel derogatory and invalidating,” they explain.

On the other hand, they highlight that many of them are more and better connected now. “We really want to work as we are now, without the daily need to go back to the office. There seems to be a disconnect between the way the executive team thinks about remote / flexible work at the location and the experiences of many of Apple’s employees. “

They also highlight that the company has always had a remote communication modality on its computers, either because not all of them are in the same building or because they are in other countries and even with different time zones.

The employees state that they have achieved large numbers and excellent presentations of new products even with the work-from-home scheme and after expressing the benefits that he himself has brought to the company, they request that each group together with a leader can choose the best way It fits each person.

Among your requests are:

– That the company considers flexible location and remote work decisions to be as autonomous for a team to decide as hiring decisions.

– That a short periodic survey be formally carried out for the entire business community with a clearly structured and transparent communication / feedback process at all levels of the organization and teams that covers the following topics:

• Exit interviews on loss of employees due to remote work.
• Clear and transparent action plan to accommodate disabilities through on-site, off-site, remote, hybrid, or otherwise flexible on-site work.
• Information on the environmental impact of returning to work in person at the site, and how permanent flexibility of location and remote control could offset that impact.

The document that expresses all these requests began to be written on a Slack channel called “advocates of remote work”, which has around 2,800 members. According to The Verge , about 80 people participated in the writing and editing of the letter addressed to Tim Cook.

The workers end the letter by saying that it is not “a request, although it may seem like one. This is a plea: Let’s work together to really welcome everyone.”