Apple Demands Employees Return to Office At Least Three Days a Week (inc.com) 175
"On Monday, Apple told employees at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, that they would have to return to the office at least three days a week by September 5," according to a columnist for Inc.
First reported by Bloomberg, Tim Cook told employees in an email that they would be expected to be in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with teams choosing a third day that works best for them...
Apple SVP of software Craig Federighi followed up Cook's email with one of his own, saying that he "can't wait to experience the special energy of having all of us back in the office together again!" That's great, but I imagine a lot of the people who work in the software organization are wondering whether that "special energy" actually makes them more productive, or if it's just a thing managers feel as they watch employees be productive at their desks... [T]hat's not the same thing as actual collaboration.
Here's the article's main point: [M]any companies — especially Apple — had their best two years ever when most of their employees were working from home. If anything, it seems as though the evidence pointing to the idea that it was better for the company.... Apple's market cap in March 2020 was $1.1 trillion. Today, it's just shy of three times that....
[I]t's as if Apple hasn't learned anything.
Apple's memo did say that some employees — "depending on your role" — would have the option of working fully remotely "for up to four weeks a year."
Apple SVP of software Craig Federighi followed up Cook's email with one of his own, saying that he "can't wait to experience the special energy of having all of us back in the office together again!" That's great, but I imagine a lot of the people who work in the software organization are wondering whether that "special energy" actually makes them more productive, or if it's just a thing managers feel as they watch employees be productive at their desks... [T]hat's not the same thing as actual collaboration.
Here's the article's main point: [M]any companies — especially Apple — had their best two years ever when most of their employees were working from home. If anything, it seems as though the evidence pointing to the idea that it was better for the company.... Apple's market cap in March 2020 was $1.1 trillion. Today, it's just shy of three times that....
[I]t's as if Apple hasn't learned anything.
Apple's memo did say that some employees — "depending on your role" — would have the option of working fully remotely "for up to four weeks a year."
In related news (Score:5, Funny)
Apple has just launched a hiring spree to fill many open positions.
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Yep, all their best people will jump ship to other companies that will let them work fully remote. Apple, Google, Tesla, and all the other companies that are demanding their people work 100% in the office just don't seem to get that working remote has become another benefit like health insurance and stock options. Just think about the fate of a company that does not offer health benefits to it people. Steve Jobs dies and everyone at Apple forgets how to think. I give it a years before Apple is suffering fro
Re:In related news (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting FP thread, but I think it's an exaggeration to say "all their best people will jump ship". However I do have an old anecdote from my TI days that indicates some of the best people might hate Apple's new policy.
TI had (in a division that was later sold to HP) a dual promotion ladder, and many of the people high on the technical side were rather reclusive and tended to spend lots of time shut up in their private offices. (I was just a low-level flunky in a cubicle out in the bullpen.) Seemed pretty clear that they wanted to avoid distractions, and for such people working at home would be quite attractive. (Though this reminds me of one guru who was in the bullpen with us even though I'm pert' shure he could have had an office if he wanted one. (Which raises the question of exactly when he jumped to Microsoft? After I left, for sure.))
But my main point would be that people differ quite a bit, so the demand for this level of uniformity in behavior is likely to be problematic, especially for a company that may actually need to encourage creativity to remain competitive. I'm giving Apple the benefit of the doubt here, because (based on my experiences I believe that) most large companies are lying when they say they want innovation. True innovations tend to rock the boat, and the CxO managers are prone to thinking that their own big boat is leading "the race" and they don't want to rock it.
However, overlaying this topic is the question of "What makes a company?" How much esprit de corps can you build or sustain via email? And what's it worth?
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How much esprit de corps can you build or sustain via email?
Email? What is this 1999? Are you not video conferencing and interacting on virtual whiteboards or have multiple users editing documents concurrently?
Join us in this century, and the answer is "email" very little, but "email" is not the communication method currently employed for remote work. It's the modern day equivalent of a fax.
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I should have mentioned some of the options beyond email but short of face-to-face in my original comment.
On the fax topic... Yeah, it is 2022, but I accidentally wandered into the fax section of my local electronics store, so they are still selling them, as amazing as it may seem. Sadder anecdote was in The Premonition by Michael Lewis, where many of the doctors had to get the the Covid-19 test results via fax. Fastest option they could support, though in some cases that included having to provide fax ma
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.
However, overlaying this topic is the question of "What makes a company?" How much esprit de corps can you build or sustain via email? And what's it worth?
Agreed here. A side trip that is related. Social media. We get into arguments with others, using statements most of us never use in person. That's because my hypothesis is that when on a computer screen, we tend not to think of the person on the other side as a person.
They are just a sort of computer game where we fight with the computer.
As I've noted, In my latest employ I am 50 percent at home, 50 percent on location. The 50 percent on location is critical. Aside from a need for a physical presence
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demanding their people work 100% in the office just don't seem to get that working remote has become another benefit
Many city budgets are dependent on having workers in the office and spending money at nearby businesses. If employees work from home and spend money in the boonies, cities will have to cut their budget and/or raise taxes to maintain services.
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Many city budgets are dependent on having workers in the office and spending money at nearby businesses. If employees work from home and spend money in the boonies, cities will have to cut their budget and/or raise taxes to maintain services.
I actually work in the corporate network group of my local city government. We have just finalized a framework for employees who are able to continue to work from home permanently, though most people will probably come in for a day or two a week. It is already hard to attract good staff (benefits are great but wages trail the private sector). They don't want to lose the people they have. Some councilors are concerned about the effect on local businesses, but that seems to have taken a backseat to remain
Re:In related news (Score:4, Insightful)
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You forgot to mention why I, or my employer, would give a fuck.
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Yep, all their best people will jump ship to other companies that will let them work fully remote. Apple, Google, Tesla, and all the other companies that are demanding their people work 100% in the office just don't seem to get that working remote has become another benefit like health insurance and stock options.
Taking something away is perceived more negatively than giving something. The question is how negatively will it be perceived. I suspect taht will be across teh spectrum and some will leave, some grumble but stay, and others like being back.
Just think about the fate of a company that does not offer health benefits to it people. Steve Jobs dies and everyone at Apple forgets how to think. I give it a years before Apple is suffering from serious brain drain and reverses course.
I suspect many like the benefits, work environment and colleagues that they stick around. After a while, hybrid will be the new normal. Apple is a good employer, and while some may find 100% remote work elsewhere I suspect as other attractive companies do the same t
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A lot of it will depend on their commute. Companies that want people in the office, or who need people in the office, would do well to provide office space that is easier to get to and in affordable, nice places to live.
Apple's expensive new digs are pretty much the worst case. Expensive area, bad traffic, poor public transport links...
Re:In related news (Score:4, Insightful)
Taking something away is perceived more negatively than giving something.
which is why the R's will be hammered in a few months, in the midterms. many american women just lost control over their own bodies and that right has been around for 50 years - now, suddenly to have it taken away by the american taliban.
we'll find out how this ends, but rights should always be moving forward and never backwards. I do hope the US gets control of itself back; the loonies running the R party have been draining our country's energy - we just can't keep going on, being manipulated for the R's personal gain. everyone is tired of the BS and lies. lock trump up (and his cronies) and lets move on, already.
What a load of hyperbolic bullshit. Women can still get abortions in the United States and no "American Taliban" took it away from them. All the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade did was remand the issue of abortion back to individual states to regulate. That's all. The right to have an abortion is not now, nor has ever been codified in Federal law. I should also point out that your pals on the D side of the isle had fifty years to do just that, yet they failed to do so.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The Federal government is demonstrably and provably terrible at everything it touches. Pick any area the Federal government is supposed to regulate and you'll find loads of inefficiencies, inequality, and injustice from everything ranging from tax code and infrastructure to immigration and healthcare and everything in between. Any SCOTUS decision that reduces or eliminates the Federal government's power and influence should be celebrated as a major win because it's one less thing for them to suck royally at.
Instead of foaming at the mouth with hyperbolic drivel, you could get involved in the process at your state level and raise awareness and work on getting the votes in for candidates that support your ideologies. But, hey, why do real work when you can just vomit out nonsense and fantasize about the day our former Cheetoh in Chief gets locked up? I'm sure that's bound to happen any day now...
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Companies offering benefits is a terrible idea, one the world would be much better off without. Health benefits are the worst of that.
Working conditions are completely different. They are absolutely something that should be negotiable, and employees are wielding unprecedented power right now. You apparently missed that Apple (and the rest of the companies you mentioned) want their employees in the office for less than half the week, not "100% in the office." That was unthinkable three years ago.
I expect the
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Yep, all their best people will jump ship to other companies that will let them work fully remote. Apple, Google, Tesla, and all the other companies that are demanding their people work 100% in the office ...
No, most teams at Google will allow employees to request to be fully remote, with most of the exceptions being obvious, e.g. data center workers, cafeteria staff, facilities, and similar positions whose fundamental nature requires employees to be physically on-site.
I'm pretty sure that among big tech, Apple and Tesla stand alone in this regard, so the revolving door between Apple and Google... it's probably going to become a one-way trapdoor for a lot of folks after this. Apple will continue to be prestigi
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Yep. The stupid is strong with these "leader".
Re:In related news (Score:5, Insightful)
If your only reason is "Behave like a responsible adult", when you actually mean "Behave like the proper wageslave you are", then, well.. Here's some Kool Aid for you.
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You sound like an angry republican from the 1980s.
Re: In related news (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple, and many companies, didn't have their Best Year because their workers were remote, it was because everyone was stuck at home. So they spent a bunch of money Consuming products they could use at home instead o
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And none of that has anything to do with working from home or working in the office.
Re: In related news (Score:2)
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Can't argue with that :D
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So am I. What's your point?
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Maybe it's different where you are, but in the UK there is a great emphasis on teaching kids to work by themselves from home. It starts at school with homework, and by university they are expected to do entire projects by themselves from home (or the local library, but these days with the internet not so much).
I'd guess that most of Apple's engineers have a university education.
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You're not Linus. Most people aren't. Yes, there are a few brilliant but socially awkward people who can sit alone and revolutionize an industry. But most people aren't like that. And most of the ones who fancy themselves to be some brilliant rock star, in reality are not more than above average.
The way I interpret what you're saying is "A comfortable working environment is a privilege for the top tier employees. All you lowly grunts should get back in your open-plan cube farm and be glad you have a job." F**k that attitude.
Apple, and many companies, didn't have their Best Year because their workers were remote, it was because everyone was stuck at home. So they spent a bunch of money Consuming products they could use at home instead of on other activities. Apple's gain was offset by losses for local businesses and services, many of whom closed and aren't going to reopen.
Correct. And now they're having a downturn because all of that excess purchasing created a bubble of people who own the latest computers and don't need new ones. None of their problems now are being caused by workers being remote, either, but naïve upper management will
Re:In related news (Score:4, Funny)
Re:In related news (Score:4, Insightful)
I get it. Working from home is great. No commute .... You don't even have to get dressed ... You can jerk off whenever you want .... It was a fun 2 years but now it's time to go back to work and go back to behaving like a responsible adult.
Found the manager. If my job consists of sitting in front of a screen every day then the physical location of the screen is of little importance. You just don't have the joy of looking over my shoulder.
Re: In related news (Score:2)
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That can't be further from the truth. About the only thing a tech worker does which doesn't involve sitting in front of a screen is have meetings or answer a question. And since it's not the 60s anymore I'm sure you can be part of said meetings via Teams, or Slack or whatever.
In the tech industry, or design industry, or many industries (finance, procurement, logistics), they are all full of people who leave the screen to be told what they should next be doing in front of their screen. And that ... they can
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I sit in front of a screen, sometimes coding, but often talking to people through video chat. Because they're either at the far end of the campus or on another continent. We use the classic brain-dead scheduling system where meetings start and end on the hour. Leaving 0 minutes to walk between buildings. During the pandemic I was suddenly never late for a meeting, imagine that.
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I can't think of anything that I do that I can't do from home. Ok, not true, right now I'm pentesting a system that they refused to deliver to my basement, probably because it would have been too heavy, so I actually had to go there and test it on-prem.
Aside of that, thanks to the wonders of VPN, there is zero reason to even leave the house to do my job.
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There are lots of issues with work from home. One is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to completely secure all remote employees workstations. Someone is going to work from McDonald's using their free wifi, someone is going to leave their computer logged in while they go out to lunch, someone is going to take their computer to JoeBoB discount repair when they spill coffee on it.
Yes, data at rest full disk encryption and foreced VPN usage will mitigate some issues. However if these are software development workstations
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There are lots of issues with work from home. One is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to completely secure all remote employees workstations. Someone is going to work from McDonald's using their free wifi, someone is going to leave their computer logged in while they go out to lunch, someone is going to take their computer to JoeBoB discount repair when they spill coffee on it.
Yes, data at rest full disk encryption and foreced VPN usage will mitigate some issues. However if these are software development workstations then it's much harder to lock them down and corporate espionage is a hell of a lot easier when you have hundreds of soft targets.
How many of those machines that are secured in the workspace are actually left there? In my experience, most of us are using laptops now and are expected to take the machines home for on-call duty.
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One is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to completely secure all remote employees workstations.
It's not.
Someone is going to work from McDonald's using their free wifi
VPN is a thing, so is securing the PC against local attacks.
someone is going to leave their computer logged in while they go out to lunch
Already a reason for reprimanding or termination, so what's the difference now?
someone is going to take their computer to JoeBoB discount repair when they spill coffee on it
Why would anyone want to pay for the repair bill of a company computer?
However if these are software development workstations then it's much harder to lock them down and corporate espionage is a hell of a lot easier when you have hundreds of soft targets.
Harden your targets. Yes, it's possible. We have done it a long, long time ago. If you take security seriously, you have already done that long before working from home even became a faint idea of a possibility.
Another is that many people simply do not "collaborate" well over virtual mediums.
Then force these people into the office and leave me alone.
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You just don't have the joy of looking over my shoulder.
Doesn't he? You never asked what he was jacking off to. Did you cover your webcam?
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9-5 is stupid too. Work when you work best and meet your deadlines.
Also helps cut down on pointless meetings.
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One of the reasons productivity soared during lockdown was that people could actually continue doing meaningful work during meetings. While the narcissist droned on for an hour, you'd tune him out and work, instead of sitting there and mentally undressing the intern.
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... You can jerk off whenever you want ....
Found the manager... You just don't have the joy of looking over my shoulder.
Yeah, thanks, I could have gone without that mental image.
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What I don't see in your email? Any mention of productivity.
"Behaving like an adult" is meaningless. "Does the job get done?" Is the only question you should be asking.
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Found the useless middle manager who fears that the upper echelons notice that he's redundant.
Id like to see the data (Score:5)
I wish there could be similar studies at companies that we could see. Too bad every company will consider that sort of data to be trade secret.
Tim Cook is a data guy though. I would hope these decisions are data-driven, but I have my doubts. If he has proof that employee productivity went down due to remote working, he would probably be shouting that from the rooftops.
Re:Id like to see the data (Score:5, Insightful)
Tim Cook is a data guy though. I would hope these decisions are data-driven, but I have my doubts. If he has proof that employee productivity went down due to remote working, he would probably be shouting that from the rooftops.
The fact that they spent US$ 5 billion on the new doughnut- shaped office campus may also have something to do with it...
Just spoke with the ghost of Steve Jobs... (Score:5, Funny)
... He says to have _everyone_ work from home, tear down the $5 billion doughnut and replace it with a $25 billion rounded-corner rectangle with no doors, windows or wires. Then replace that with a slightly thinner, more fragile one every year.
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In education
Education is not an industry that is done in front of the screen, unlike most other non-service industries. I fully thrived in remote work in engineering, but when I had to give training to new recruits my feedback was "We should never do this remotely again". The wife's a teacher and she absolutely agreed. That said she did embrace some of the work from home activities even now back in the classroom, she still makes explanatory youtube videos for her students which is something that apparently has led to a
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Now try the same with a classroom where everyone is yakking constantly and running around, coming over to you as you're trying to get your essay written and interrupting your work with meaningless bullshit every other minute and let's see again how much learning is going on.
Because that's what the open floor office is vs. work from home.
I'm not a student. My work does not consist of listening to someone. My work consists of having peace and quiet to concentrate.
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Let's be honest here, WFH can be seen as a benefit program that not only doesn't cost the company anything but actually helps them save money. For office space, for power, for utilities. Resistance is mostly from companies that own the offices they use and now see their real estate value plummet due to a lack of demand, and of course C-Levels who thought they're clever by buying the real estates their companies rent and now see the same development.
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If you can work from home you don't have a real job.
People used to tell me if I don't sweat then I don't have a real job. I'm kind of immune to this obvious stupidity.
It's OK, money isn't real either. So I do fake work for a fake job for fake money to pay my fake bills and fake taxes. It has a certain satisfying symmetry to it.
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So... I have to be miserable so you consider what I do work?
Are you Dilbert's boss?
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It would be literally illegal for me to show you the data I’ve seen on students. FERPA laws are pretty tight about individual student performance.
Apple has money to hire (Score:2)
Unless they are indentured servants. Then they can either go to work or return to their country of origin. But that again is their choice
What is interesting if Apple were a union shop, a productive discussion might have been held to allow Apple to maintain in office staff and retain quality employees. As it is, they might lose a critical mass of good people, people expensive t
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Agreed that Apple is mostly free to do as they wish, within legal limits of course.
But most of us are watching like it's the maiden voyage of the world's largest airship filled with hydrogen. Tech disaster porn.
Steve Jobs would be proud (Score:5, Interesting)
Regarless of the jerk he was, Steve Jobs had grand visions which he brought to fruition. None of it came easily and he relied heavily on others to the heavy lifting. However, one thing he stressed was the personal connection and serendipitous encounters. He stated as much to his biographer [zdnet.com]:
"There's a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat — that's crazy," Jobs is quoted as having said. "Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they're doing, you say 'Wow,' and soon you're cooking up all sorts of ideas."
Meeting people face to face, even people you don't know, can have unexpected results. It's why, before he died, he was arm's deep in the design of Apple's headquarters. He wanted people to bump into each other, he wanted interaction between different groups outside of the emails or electronic chats. It's why it's designed the way it is. People are funneled to certain areas and have no choice but to interact with others.
Whine and piss and moan about Apple all you like. You can't beat the results.
Re: Steve Jobs would be proud (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Steve Jobs would be proud (Score:5, Insightful)
The people who scream for full remote work are often the ones who believe they are a "rock star" that doesn't need a team. And sometimes that's true.
I have found the number of people who actually are rock stars, vs those that think they are, differs greatly; and the true rock stars are often the most humble and enjoyable people to work with.
But there's usually more long term benefit to having a good team where the senior people can mentor the junior people, and where ideas can happen spontaneously when people interact in a more random, unstructured fashion. Hybrid work gives you that benefit while still giving you time to really "hunker down" and focus.
Good points. I suspect there'll be hand wring as some people who thoought they were special get told "Sorry, we've eliminated your position..." will ask why and be frustrated when the answer is "You just didn't get the job done..." and say "You never told me..." get "I never saw you..."
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Pity the team that gets stuck with Keith Richards as their rock star.
Re: Steve Jobs would be proud (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the ones who scream for full remote work are the ones like me, completely jaded by the water cooler talk, the way-too-cold AC, the noisy typer next to me in the brighlty lit open-floor plan where everyone shares a long desk (but the manager has a private office), etc.
The "oh but the creativity suffers" is bullshit pushed by the same people who push for open floor plans to "keep the ideas flowing". Bullshit. Open floorplans are cheaper than cubicles, and that's it. And "creativity" is a feel-good term but most people aren't expected to be creative (and if it's not their role to be creative, their ideas are quickly shot down).
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(and if it's not their role to be creative, their ideas are quickly shot down).
At least to their face. If their idea is good, it is placed into the hands of one of the chosen 'creatives' and credit is awarded to that party.
All while the worker-bee gets nothing, and is often unaware that their good idea was given to someone else to work on and receive rewards for (when not summarily dropped).
Not all companies behave like this, but plenty do.
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The CEO's job revolves around directing other people. Of course he wanted to do that in-person. The same cannot be said of engineers.
He wanted people to bump into each other, he wanted interaction between different groups outside of the emails or electronic chats. It's why it's designed the way it is. People are funneled to certain areas and have no choice but to interact with others.
Except you can still be anti-social and just not talk to each other, or only talk to people in your group. Not everyone is interested in hearing about a coworker's kid's birthday party for the Nth time.
It worked better before Steve came along and made it normal to stare at your phone instead of talking to people.
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It worked better before Steve came along and made it normal to stare at your phone instead of talking to people.
So far that's the pithiest comment I've read in this thread. So much so that for me it's a summary rendering further discussion moot. I'm outta here - see you in some other thread!
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Which works well for the creative part of the company. Susan from accounting doesn't need to "come up with ideas". And neither do I, a lowly "developer". I work for Big Corporation and was reminded several times that I get paid to code, and not to propose ideas, especially unsolicited ones.
Pitching an idea to the CEO during elevat
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especially in one where higher ups have a separate elevator.
Exactly. Steve Jobs talked a good game, but I don't see his successor sitting at a table in an open-plan office, "inspiring creativity" with his co-workers and chatting about the Next Big Thing while standing at the urinal.
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[Jobs] stated as much to his biographer:
"There's a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat — that's crazy," Jobs is quoted as having said. "Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they're doing, you say 'Wow,' and soon you're cooking up all sorts of ideas."
Jobs may have underestimated his own role in innovation and overestimated the role of spontaneous meetings and random discussions. After all, there were about eight years between Jobs' death and the pandemic, during which time all employees were expected to be working in-office. Yet during that time AFAICT Apple moved from 'innovation mode' to 'maintenance and tweak' mode, and I don't remember seeing much evidence of the "all sorts of ideas" that characterized Jobs' time at the helm.
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However, one thing he stressed was the personal connection and serendipitous encounters.
Jobs had an infamously short temper, like Balmer except without the chair throwing. I have no doubt the narcissist would have found shouting at his computer screen to be boring.
But jokes aside you can't take anything jobs says and apply it to what is going on. Jobs died in 2011. He was not working actively as the CEO up to a year prior to that. He barely even experienced the "invention" of Facetime, let alone could comprehend how modern day video conferencing like Teams or Slack work. Bloated pieces of shit
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I would tend to think that these demands to return to the office are middle managers trying to show that they have a reason to exist, except for Apple's case under Steve Jobs:
This certainly seems to be the case for Apple, who innovate (and recognize innovations) much better than most everyone else. But what about all of the other companies demanding people return to the office for X days per week? Is the
Just do massive layoffs. (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple needs something significant to shake up their business. Their big cash cows are drying up slowly, regulators are getting testy, and they haven't actually innovated anything in at least 10 years. Everything has been small, forgettable incremental improvements. They are doing stupid. things with R&D like a car, but are unable to make it materialize in the timeline necessary for it to work commercially. They are stagnant.
Even the things that were innovative when conceived like the Apple Fitness p
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Steve Jobs wasn't some magical inventor. He knew how to recognize a good idea when someone else had it, though. Right now, no one at Apple knows how to recognize good ideas.
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Exactly the issue. They don't have a real leader in Tim Cook; he was a great transitional CEO, but... they need to transition towards something else.
Just keep Eddie Cue away from the throne.
Relevance of C level (Score:5, Interesting)
For the same reason that religious institutions build opulent temples and the hierarchy is adorned with status symbols - the people in corporate power reinforce their status with big corner offices and unquestionable loyalty from us underlings.
I see some desperation at higher levels of executive ranks because traditional power has shifted away. Lots of leaders have 0 skills without the opulent conference room.
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That seems to nicely sum it up. The C-levels with actual skill have no isse letting their people work however they like. Like the reference to "opulent temples", it is spot on.
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I see some desperation at higher levels of executive ranks because traditional power has shifted away. Lots of leaders have 0 skills without the opulent conference room.
Haaa. I hope this is true, it would make my decade.
One thing is for sure, the intimidating factor that people used to make of height (please never fall for that trick, but a lot of people do) has completely disappeared on Zoom calls.
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And yet they earn 100 times what you do. But you are the expert.
I guess the question is, if any of them got hit by a bus tomorrow, would the company be any less successful or profitable in the future without them? In most cases that is certainly a "no".
Re: Relevance of C level (Score:5, Informative)
And yet they earn 100 times what you do. But you are the expert.
I guess the question is, if any of them got hit by a bus tomorrow, would the company be any less successful or profitable in the future without them? In most cases that is certainly a "no".
They may observe an increase in efficiency and revenue though. Most "leaders" primarily get in the way.
Re: Relevance of C level (Score:4, Funny)
Someone has to be in between the higher management and the workers.
Unfortunately, often they don't seem to understand that they are meant to go in between, not stand there.
Re: Relevance of C level (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
They may get 100 times what he does. But I seriously question the "earning" part.
"Apple demands employees (Score:2)
Are we ever gonna stop letting these people rule over us? Don't you ever get tired of being told what to do? Why do Americans keep voting in politicians who screw them over? Why do we treat politics like reality TV instead of a means to improve our lives?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do Americans keep voting in politicians who screw them over?
Because otherwise the Republicans will win.
Re: (Score:2)
What did this guy do so he can live rent-free between your ears, I wonder...
I recently read a posting for a job at apple (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
That bad? They will not be getting anybody actually competent with that. The job market for actual IT experts is pretty good, more so if you also understand IT security.
Re: (Score:2)
If you look at the IBM parking lot at 5:00 it's mostly empty.
If you look at the Apple parking lot at 7:00, it's still mostly full. Apple manages to find these kinds of people.
(Note: this data collection is a few years out of date and things might have changed).
Re: (Score:2)
you canâ(TM)t magically pull significant changes out of your hat over night - and nobody has to work himself to death.
Wrong. Anything can be accomplished with a suitable dose of Pervitin.
Somebody is stuck in the past.... (Score:3, Insightful)
There will be a high price to pay for that.
The dumbest thing about this (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It could be worse.
At a company I know very well because I had the displeasure of actually working for them for the worst half year of my life, the first thing they did when the pandemic hit was to reduce the office space to about 60%. As it went back to normal, they decided it would be a good idea to get everyone back to office. Only to notice that there just ain't enough room for everyone anymore.
Glorious idea: They "generously" told people they only have to come in 3 days a week. Genius move. 60% office s
Quick Question... (Score:2)
How many of these people who are refusing to go back to the office... ...happen to be the same people who protested for restaurants, barbershop, nail salons, etc. workers to go back to theirs?
Re: (Score:2)
Not me, I don't eat out, I shave myself and definitely don't need my nails done.
How your question even matters eludes me as well.
What I Would Like To See (Score:5, Insightful)
I would love to see a Fortune 100 CEO spend even a single week a year working at a random site with a desk the same as some newly hired entry level person is given. No private executive entrance, no assistant to manage your schedule, no office that probably has more sqft than most employee's entire homes, no C-Suite that keeps you physically separated from the unwashed masses. You get the same dumpy little desk or cubicle as everyone else and people don't come to your office for meetings, you have to go to one of any number of different rooms scattered around the building. You don't have your own private bathroom, you have to use the communal ones like everyone else.
Let them experience work life like the rest of us and then tell us about how great working in the office is.
Re: (Score:3)
Fully remote, never more connected (Score:3)
I started a new fully remote job in April. I have never felt more included, engaged and delighted by my coworkers than now. I have been in the games industry for 20 years as a programmer and it is such a delight working with these people.
We work hard on communication. Things that can be emails are emails. Slack handles most of our communication. We have several optional 15 minute meetings to take a break and socialize per week, and one long programmer meeting mid-week where we get some deeper topics discussed.
I learn more, teach more, interact more. I hated doing that stuff in an office.
It is possible to engage and be excited to work with your colleagues, even remotely. But communication takes effort. Apple simply doesn't want to put in any effort to change; the status quo feels good to people in their 50s and 60sâ"the executives.
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of managers have no ability to determine the productivity of their developers.
Interestingly, a lot of larger corporations do not reward productivity, either at the developer level or at the manager level. For example, a manager may not receive praise for a team that gets a lot done, but will get praise if the team meets the deadline. The result is managers are incentivized to plan less work, to ensure that the goals are reached. No one mentions that less work was accomplished, sometimes because upper
Re: (Score:2)
Mostly because it's still not legal to just shoot them on sight and they ain't worth a second of jail time so I can't do it without legal backing.