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Apple IT

Apple's Return-to-Office Policy Leaves Many Workers Unhappy, AI Expert Quits (9to5mac.com) 230

Apple's director of machine learning, Ian Goodfellow, "is leaving the company due to its return to work policy," reports a tech reporter for the Verge. "In a note to staff, he said 'I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team.'"

9to5Mac notes that Apple "poached Goodfellow from Google back in 2019 to join its 'Special Projects Group' as the director of machine learning." Apple employees started returning to in-person work on April 11 following a two-year stint of remote work brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic... At first, the company required employees to work in person at least one day per week. On May 4, the company ramped that up to two days per week in the office.

Starting on May 23, employees will need to be in the office three days per week. This is the start of Apple's so-called "hybrid" work plan, which will require employees to work from the office on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday every week....

Goodfellow's former employer Google mandated that some teams return to in-person work starting last month, but many employees are able to permanently work from home.

Discontent with that policy is widespread, reports Fortune: Seventy-six percent of Apple workers surveyed said they were dissatisfied with Apple's return-to-office policy that was implemented after the COVID pandemic started waning. The survey, conducted by anonymous social network Blind, collected answers from 652 Apple employees from April 13 to April 19....

Accustomed to no commute, they're now balking at having to return to the office and say they will seek jobs at other tech companies that offer more flexible work arrangements. A sizable number of workers — 56% — claimed they are looking to leave Apple expressly because of its office requirement. It's unclear how many actually will carry through.... Blind's users are "overwhelmingly corporate workers in engineering or product roles," according to Rick Chen, director of public relations at Blind.

More action might be expected after May 23 when the pilot plan for hybrid work comes into full effect. Another worker stated: "Apple is going to see attrition like no other come June. 60% of my team doesn't even live near the office. They are not returning. "

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Apple's Return-to-Office Policy Leaves Many Workers Unhappy, AI Expert Quits

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  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @03:09PM (#62514752)

    We may even come to an understanding if you can actually provide some sensible explanation why you insist in having us fart into your chairs instead of ours.

    "Because I say so" already didn't work for my dad. It sure as fuck won't work for my boss.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 )
      Because communication over electronic means tends to be more rigidly planned and limited, reducing the kind of spontaneous conversations that often lead to improvement and innovation. A lot of great ideas would seem somewhat ludicrous over an e-mail or chat app -- it's a lot easier to sell management on cool shit if you're standing in front of them.
      • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @03:15PM (#62514778)

        I don't know what your coworkers are like, with mine that "sponaneous conversations" are more likely to be about pointless drivel or having to listen to one side of a loud conversation on the phone. Neither of which leads to improvement or innovation.

      • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @05:31PM (#62515112)

        Because communication over electronic means tends to be more rigidly planned and limited

        I've worked full time at home now and have never found that to be the case.

        The range of options you have for reaching someone has been great. I can just leave a note saying I'd like an answer to something eventually and they can answer whenever. Or I can drop a mention in a more important channel saying I am blocked and they can see it.

        For thorny issues our company has had no problem creating impromptu Zoom sessions, and frankly I will take a shared screen actually working directly with a problem any day of the week over a meeting in a room with a whiteboard.

        Indeed I would go so far as to say, that physically rounding up people for a meeting or a response is WAY harder and more rigid a process than working with a team over Slack.

        I like Apple but they are 100% in the wrong here, and they had better reverse course before all the best people leave - because they easily could, and I can totally understand how anyone who got used to working at home full time and being effective doing so, would feel like they were being betrayed being forced back into the office.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 )
          Notes are easy to ignore or do the minimum to answer and less natural than impromptu conversations.
          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by SuperKendall ( 25149 )

            Notes are easy to ignore or do the minimum to answer and less natural than impromptu conversations.

            Longer term it's easier to ignore or blow off something said in conversation only. I find it really useful to be able to go back and see what was said in short conversations like that (though still you miss out on history of whatever was said in a Zoom call).

            But seriously, imitating a Zoom call with teammates now is WAY less work than going to have a short conversation in an office was. I don't have to prepa

          • Aside of being an argument for, not against, I don't know why it would be easier to ignore notes than a person.

        • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          Indeed I would go so far as to say, that physically rounding up people for a meeting or a response is WAY harder and more rigid a process than working with a team over Slack.

          I think you misspelled "finding an open meeting room". :-)

          • Yes, that too.

            I've seen meeting rooms being booked solidly 24/7 by certain teams or "very self-important people" and being notoriously empty while at the same time you couldn't find any at any time slot. That problem was quite effectively solved with virtual meeting rooms.

            Of course, certain teams and people are now miffed because they are no longer superspecialawesome and important.

      • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @06:17PM (#62515214)

        Because communication over electronic means tends to be more rigidly planned and limited,

        I thought that was a feature, not a bug. Particularly the last bit.

        Now, when I worked in an office and got bored I'd walk down to my colleague's office, he'd shut the door, and we'd have a glass of bourbon and do some of that spontaneous innovating. It turns out it works just as well over zoom.

      • by Steve B ( 42864 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @07:13PM (#62515298)

        spontaneous conversations that often lead to improvement and innovation

        Spill of management-speak refrigerator magnets on Aisle Five!

    • The reason is this big fancy office building costs a lot of money so you better start using it.

    • "Because we spent a ridiculous $1 billion building a showpiece headquarters with every current fucking trendy nonsense, and we will look right asses if it's empty and nobody goes there."

      How's that?

      • I'd pay to see a CEO admit that.

        But since they won't, I guess I won't get to hear a sensible answer and hence continue to ask them this very uncomfortable question. I consider it a job perk.

  • by waspleg ( 316038 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @03:13PM (#62514770) Journal

    filler.

  • by devslash0 ( 4203435 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @03:30PM (#62514820)

    Monday, Tuesday and Thursday is a very dumb selection of days. Firstly, Monday is statistically the busiest commute day. Secondly, leaving Wednesday out means that employees with longer commutes are losing out, having to be around for longer and possibly having to pay for a wasted day at a hotel, and missing out on a day of family life. This kind of a schedule looks like it was designed to force people to move back in into the area and eventually restore a full working week in the office, which would be very much in the spirit of how Google implements change - step by step, little incremental changes designed to give Google exactly what it wants.

    • Apologies. I'm guilty of TLDR on the go and thinking this article was about about Google, haha! I'm guilty all the way. :) Nevertheless, the point about the schule is entirely valid.

    • At least in NYC, transit ridership and toll bridge usage tend to be highest on Tu-Th. Monday seems like a lower commute day than mid-week, probably because some people take a "long weekend" if they can.

      Also, most of them took the job with the expectation that it was an in-person job in California. It's not Apple's problem that they moved permanently due to a temporary situation like COVID. There was always the expectation of going back to work in-person, at least part-time.

      Besides, why wouldn't people wa

  • Maybe that's one more reason to launch your AR glasses ASAP, eh? Going to work IRL won't matter if your AR glasses make working in a team as seamless as in real life, isn't that your end goal?

    Also, making people work in an office means commutes, which means unnecessary pollution.

  • Iâ(TM)ve noticed that with most white collar jobs management donâ(TM)t like working from home because it cuts to close to the fact that most white collar jobs are not needed. Apple having an AI team for instance is laughable, anyone who has ever used Siri will know this.
  • by Guillermito ( 187510 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @04:22PM (#62514968) Homepage
    37% of fully remote workers admit they are juggling a secret second job.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    According to the video, people use different strategies to get away with having multiple jobs. Some of them are detrimental to the employer. For example, people will routinely decline participating in meetings so they can use that time to work on the other job .People doing this also recommend to be mediocre at your job and never exceed expectations so you can handle the double workload without stressing out. There's a website dedicated to sharikng these tips: https://overemployed.com/set-l... [overemployed.com]

    It's obvious companies are realizing WFH means they are paying top dollar to get sub-par results and they rather have you in their offices where it's easier for them to make sure you're not doing side stuff on company's time.

    • I have no idea of the numbers, but I know it does happen. It puts managers in a really tough spot - someone seems to not be being very productive, but for a lot of engineering jobs, that isn't easy to measure. Do you fire them - when maybe they have just run into a tougher than normal problem?

      I think most workers are honest, but the minority who will rob their company create problems for everyone.
      • If the employer can’t tell, does it matter?

        • If someone gets their tasks done, in their allotted hours, I could give fuck-all if they're working 3 jobs under my nose.
        • by joe_frisch ( 1366229 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @05:58PM (#62515176)
          It matters - and here is why: Imagine you have an employee who has been productive in the past, but who isn't making a lot of progress recently. It can be difficult to tell if their project is just more technically challenging than expected - some easy-sounding problems turn out to be hard. I want to be able to interact with them frequently and informally to understand what is going on. I want to give them a fair chance. But if they are not on site, I worry in the back of my mind that they are taking advantage of my desire to help their career, and may be goofing off or working another job.
        • If the employer can’t tell, does it matter?

          Do you want your manager to trust you and not subject you to constant micromanagement?

    • Good. Milk them dry until you get caught. Your employer isn’t your friend.

    • If people are doing that, then the only reason they are getting away with it is because their managers have no idea how to be a manager.

  • Ha Ha (Score:4, Informative)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @04:33PM (#62514998) Journal

    "The survey, conducted by anonymous social network Blind, collected answers from 652 Apple employees from April 13 to April 19...."

    Apple has ~154,000 employees....they ran the survey for 6 days, and got only 652 comments?

    Hmmm.

  • I started a new job during the pandemic and never actually went to the office. So, had to go find the desk they assigned me kind of short-notice one day to make sure I knew where it was. Overheard someone saying to a coworker, "Did you know walking to meetings takes time? When did that start?" Though I have had at least one highly amusing experience since working in the office again even part-time. One day, maybe 10% (if that) of the people on my particular floor were in, and there were literally dozens of

  • Today, the COVID pandemic has weakened control of workers by the managerial class. In the Middle Ages, the plague weakened control [bbc.com] of labor by the nobility.

    While the Black Death resulted in short term economic damage, the longer-term consequences were less obvious. Before the plague erupted, several centuries of population growth had produced a labour surplus, which was abruptly replaced with a labour shortage when many serfs and free peasants died. Historians have argued that this labour shortage allowed those peasants that survived the pandemic to demand better pay or to seek employment elsewhere. Despite government resistance, serfdom and the feudal system itself were ultimately eroded.

    A parasitic ruling class [slashdot.org] sufficiently powerful to perpetuate its own status and benefits can fail to re-establish the exploitive social structure on which it depends after a disruption by an external influence.

    By the way, along with COVID Elon Musk is also on team anti-managerialism [conservativebrief.com]:

    “I strongly believe that all managers in a technical area must be technically excellent. Managers in software must write great software or it’s like being a cavalry captain who can’t ride a horse!”

  • At least they didn't lose someone who makes something useful.
  • "Apple is going to see attrition like no other come June. 60% of my team doesn't even live near the office. They are not returning. "

    It's not like most Apple workers pre-pandemic lived near the office or had easy commutes. There is no difference between the current situation and a few years ago except that there is more frustration after enjoying the perk of being allowed to work from home. The big question is whether workers will actually quit or just think about it or just gripe. After all, in the midst of the pre-pandemic bad commute times, workers at Apple decided that the economic cost of quitting Apple wasn't worth it, that repl

    • I think some people will question if that pay is worth losing practically their entire work day to not just working, but the commute to and front the office. Who wants to get up, drive, work, drive, sleep, with little time for anything else until the weekend?

      Even if they still have to drive into the office, but that drive can be 15 minutes vs. 2-3 hours, suddenly they've half a day of time they gain back.

  • That people don't like to commute, for many this means hours taken out of the week. For a tech job, commuting is unnecessary

  • by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Sunday May 08, 2022 @07:28PM (#62515322)

    Just as I predicted, Work from Home is here to stay. Once people got a taste of ditching the commute and ditching the work clothes and ditching the stupid water cooler conversations the die was cast. Tim Cook might be a very good CEO in every other respect but on this one he really dropped the ball. I get that he has that multi-billion dollar campus to fill up but he completely failed to read the tea leaves.

    Where I work they did all sorts of surveys about return to work and I'm sure they did the same thing at Apple. And if Apple is anything like my place, the overwhelming majority did not want to return to the office full time. A lot of them probably didn't want to go back at all.

    Do you know who really gets screwed with return to work? Single Moms with kids that now have to scramble to find daycare. Lower income people that have to deal with much higher gas prices to get to the office. Middle managers? Not so much as it gives them a reason to remain employed as they can now hover over minions in person rather than remotely. Executives? Well, somebody has to sit in the corner office.

Keep up the good work! But please don't ask me to help.

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