Apple employees will be returning to the office part time, and it’s chum in the water for the corporate tech press
Remote versus in-person work has become a hot-button topic in some quarters in the wake of COVID, and reactions to Apple’s plans have been… interesting.
A few weeks ago it was major news in the corporate tech press when Apple announced that its corporate workers will be required to do in-person work three days per week starting in September. The reason it was such big news is that in response, an internal letter at Apple signed by 2,800 Apple employees was published. This group of employees demanded that Apple reconsider its decision.
It’s important to bear in mind that Apple employs over 130,000 people. While 2,800 is not a small number of people, it’s only around 2% of Apple’s workforce, though we can assume there are at least some number of employees who share the sentiments expressed in the letter, but chose not to sign. Either way, corporate tech publication The Verge wrote up their story in such a way as to imply that at his was an expression of the will of Apple’s workers as seen in this except from their piece:
Apple employees say that embracing remote work is paramount for the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts. “For inclusion and diversity to work, we have to recognize how different we all are, and with those differences, come different needs and different ways to thrive,” they say.
But that’s not an accurate characterization. It would be far more accurate (though less sexy) to say, “these Apple employees say…” The Verge continued this dishonest framing in a new piece this week titled, “Apple isn’t backing down from its hybrid work model, according to internal note.” The “isn’t backing down” language couches the situation in a way that suggests that Apple has done something wrong, but is unwilling to change their minds. It’s true that Apple is sticking to its guns, but “isn’t backing down” is a loaded way of describing the situation.
Here’s a quote The Verge included from Apple:
We believe that in-person collaboration is essential to our culture and our future,” said Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of retail and people, in a video recording viewed by The Verge. “If we take a moment to reflect on our unbelievable product launches this past year, the products and the launch execution were built upon the base of years of work that we did when we were all together in-person.
I personally prefer working in-person at an office, but I respect those who prefer to work from home. However, there’s a portion of the work-from-home camp that acts as if the only reasonable way to conduct work in 2021 is remotely, which is silly. Here’s how one work-from-home advocate blatantly twisted O’Brien’s words on Twitter:
Apple: We believe in-person collaboration is essential
Also Apple: Look how many great things we built in the last year when we were NOT in person!
Me: I’m confusion 🤔
O’Brien clearly credited Apple’s successful product launches during the last year to the in-person work that was put in before COVID. Remember that it’s typically the case that years of prep work go into an Apple product release. You can disagree with O’Brien’s argument, but there’s nothing conflicting or incoherent in what she said. And frankly, given how sparse Apple’s new feature announcements were at this year’s WWDC, my personal take away is that having everyone working from home did negatively impact Apple’s productivity. (I don’t think that was the only thing though. They also spent a lot of effort on developing software features geared toward the specific ways peoples’ activities and behaviors changed in 2020.)
But for the work-from-home-is-the-only-way bros out there, you need to consider that while it can be a great working arrangement for many, it’s not the best one for every person or every organization. Apple clearly sees itself as at its best when people can collaborate in person, and frankly I’m glad to see them taking efforts to return to normal after completely re-arranging their business for a year and a half.
Will it lose Apple some employees? Undoubtedly and I’m sure it already has. But it’ll also help them find the type of people who want to work in person, which is a key area of alignment with Apple’s corporate culture. I think this is a definite win for Apple in the long run.
