Apple delays return to office indefinitely amid Omicron spike

In response to the fast-spreading Omicron variant, Apple has decided to delay its timeline for return-to-office indefinitely, CEO Tim Cook informed the employees through a memo, reported Bloomberg.  

The iPhone maker will also provide its employees with a bonus of $1,000 to equip their home offices as they like.  

Apple had earlier asked its employees to return to the office from February 1, with an option to work remotely for four weeks.  

Read more: Apple wants employees to work from offices twice a week from February 2022

"We are delaying the start of our hybrid work pilot to a date yet to be determined due to rising cases in many parts of the world and the emergence of a new strain of the virus," Cook said. 

The surge in Omicron cases has led several companies to delay their return-to-office plans.  

Early this month, Google also pushed its previous plan of returning to the office on January 10 to an indefinite period.  

Microsoft had indefinitely postponed its plans to return to offices in the US in September after the surge in cases of Delta variant in the US.  

Microsoft employees were expected to return to the office in October 2021.  

Early this week, Apple had to shut down three of its retail stores in the US and Canada after detection of several Covid-19 infection among its employees.  

According to news reports, companies in India such as Wipro, HCL and Infosys are in no rush to get back to the office on a full-time basis and will stick to the hybrid work model in 2022. Many of them have also put all business travels on hold for now.  

Also read: Facebook parent to allow staff till June to return to office

As of December 17, 83 cases of Omicron variant have been reported across India, reported Mint. In the US, Omicron now accounts for 3% of all Covid-19 cases, according to CDC.