For Apple, September 5 could mark the end of the pandemic and the start of a new period of hybrid work. According to Bloomberg reports, in fact, the company would have set the deadline for the return of employees to the office on the first Monday of next month.
In defense of smartworking
by Riccardo Luna
Attempts
It is not the first time in Cupertino that they have tried to normalize face-to-face work: the first deadline for the return to face-to-face was in June 2021, then in April 2022, but in both cases Apple’s plans have collided with new waves of COVID-19. Some employees have been working from home since the start of the pandemic, others returned to the office at the end of 2020, still others opted for more permanent and flexible remote working arrangements, Stores around the world have been opened in compliance with local regulations , but above all the internal metrics on the progress of the pandemic. An overall strategy was still missing, and comes while in Santa Clara County – where Apple’s headquarters is located – infections are lower than in July, but more numerous than at the beginning of 2022. However, last week the US authorities for the control and prevention of diseases have made the recommendations relating to Covid-19 less stringent.
Work
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by Arcangelo Rociola
Plan
The company will require employees to be in the office on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a third day to be determined by individual teams. Perhaps this is the most important change from the close-ups, which featured face-to-face work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. In practice, the weekend should always be able to work remotely, because on Saturdays and Sundays it will be possible to add a Friday or a Monday. The new calendar will go into effect first in Silicon Valley and then be adopted in other offices around the world.
Once upon a time there was the office
by Riccardo Luna
The reactions
In the hi-tech world, Apple has been one of the most stringent companies on face-to-face work: the opposite of Twitter, which has institutionalized smart working, but also very far from the new rules introduced by giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and others. Such a rigid position can only be found in Tesla, with Elon Musk who has expressed himself blatantly against smart working.
Cupertino’s policies did not go without consequences: In May, director of machine learning Ian Goodfellow left the company at odds with the rules on remote working and switched to Google, which is much more flexible when it comes to smartworking. , and other Apple employees have decided to go the same way.
Agile work
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by Arcangelo Rociola
The future
In Apple offices it is no longer mandatory to wear a mask in the common areas, and already last June, on the occasion of the WWDC, a limited number of people – developers and journalists – had been invited to Cupertino for face-to-face meetings, even if the keynote of Tim Cook had still taken place remotely.
This is a busy time for the company, ahead of the event where the iPhone 14, the new Watches and perhaps the revised and corrected AirPods Pro will be announced (the date could be September 13 or 14, according to the latest rumors. ). Immediately after, perhaps in October, an update of Macs and iPads is planned: so the long weekends of the new plan could arrive later than expected.