Home office, a pandemic scar?

Earlier this week, Tim Cook communicated Apple’s plans for a hybrid working environment beginning in September. This plan, which would require that most Apple employees work in person three days a week, is now facing pushback internally from employees who feel the company is not being flexible enough for those who want to work remotely on a more regular basis.

The employees make several specific requests:

• We are formally requesting that Apple considers remote and location-flexible work decisions to be as autonomous for a team to decide as are hiring decisions.
• We are formally requesting a company-wide recurring short survey with a clearly structured and transparent communication / feedback process at the company-wide level, organization-wide level, and team-wide level, covering topics listed below.
• We are formally requesting a question about employee churn due to remote work be added to exit interviews.
• We are formally requesting a transparent, clear plan of action to accommodate disabilities via onsite, offsite, remote, hybrid, or otherwise location-flexible work.
• We are formally requesting insight into the environmental impact of returning to onsite in-person work, and how permanent remote-and-location-flexibility could offset that impact.

What’s happened at Apple and elsewhere is that people notice the pandemic has made even the most luxurious of tech campuses—with free or subsidized meals or climbing walls—less relevant, now that people have proven that they can work productively from home.

Clearly the home office is here to stay. Thus, this brings the advantages of being able to hire employees from all over the world, without the need to be physically in the same place. Is your company planning to grow? Now that home office is the new normal. Did you think about hiring people from other countries? We can make this process much easier, faster and cheaper. Contact Us