Apple postpones return to work policy indefinitely

A week after Apple’s chief of machine learning Ian Goodfellow quit his job over the return-to-office policy, the company has decided to delay the plan indefinitely, according to a Bloomberg report. Apple, however, cited the resurgence of Covid-19 cases in the US as the reason for the decision to delay the return-to-work policy.  

In March, Apple had asked its employees to work from the office twice a week from April 11 and from May 23 onwards three days a week. Apple’s original plan was to get workers in office last December, but had to change it after the surge in Omicron cases in the US.  

Google too has asked its employees to start work from the office thrice a week in April. Microsoft had also said in February that it will start urging workers back to office in phases.  

Though hybrid work is the new norm, replacing remote work, many employees are still not comfortable returning even on alternate days.  

Also read: Employees choose resignations over returning to office 

Companies that are asking workers to return have been facing a lot of backlash and even threats of mass resignations. Companies on their part have tried to make the transition easier by implementing the return to work in phases. 

“I strongly believe that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team,” Goodfellow said in a note to his peers, as reported by the Verge’s Zoe Schiffer in a Twitter post.  

Apple was also slammed for its insistence on returning to work by over 3,000 current and former employees in a letter sent to the company’s leadership. In the letter, the employees had called office-bound work a technology from the last century. 

They urged the executive team to show some flexibility and let go of the rigid policies of the hybrid working pilot. “Stop trying to control how often you can see us in the office. The future is about connecting when it makes sense, with people who have relevant input, no matter where they are based,” the letter said.