Citing the virus resurgence, Apple has stopped its return to workplace policy

Apple today told employees it would delay a plan to return to the office at least three days a week amid an increase in Covid-19 cases.

According to a memo seen by Bloomberg, the company planned to return employees to the office three times a week by May 23. Apple said the requirement was being delayed “for the time being” and did not provide a new implementation date; It still expects employees in the office two days a week.

The company has reintroduced a mask mandate for employees in Apple stores, but customers don’t have to.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple employees have previously threatened to abandon Apple’s policy, which is one of the largest in the world.

Earlier this month, a group calling itself Apple Together released an open letter to Apple executives urging them to change their company’s hybrid work policy.

Twitter

Among other allegations, the letter referred to the company’s office requirements as “almost no flexibility.”

Inside Today is a Twitter postApple Together writes: “Apple’s rigid remote work policy has forced employees to choose between their health, the life they’ve built relentlessly over the last two years, and their jobs. Today’s accommodation is still far from enough. Apple must establish a flexible and modern remote work policy.

Employee surveys show that about 40% of employees leave their jobs if they are not allowed to work remotely. And yet in businesses that employ white collar or knowledge-based staff, between 3 and 60% of them require an office presence in some form, part-time.

Pushbacks against mandatory back-to-work policy are not limited to Apple. In April, a year after JPMorgan said everyone should return to office, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon acknowledged that he now expects about half of his 270,000-person staff to return to full-time office – and 10% to work completely remotely.

Other companies continue to try to finish remote work and hybrid work plans. Among them: Goldman Sachs, who said in March that everyone should be in office.

David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc, an HR consulting firm in Connecticut, said today that firms instruct full-time return to office – or how employees should work remotely, revealing talent and hiring issues.

Currently, there are 11.5 million jobs in the United States and the overall U.S. unemployment rate is 3.6%. But for the technology market, unemployment is only 2%, according to CompTIA, a non-profit organization for the IT industry and the workforce. At the same time, more than 4 million people have lost their jobs in the last six months, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The reality is that employees are at the forefront of corporate policy and this is to create a people-centered work environment where talent feels appreciated and content, Lewis explained.

For most companies, and especially for technology companies, forcing employees to return to office a certain number of days is a clear mistake, but Apple’s move is less risky than others, Lewis said. “They are 800-pound gorillas at home, and they have the ability to set a direction that could be the opposite of what other businesses can do because of their unique position in the market,” he said.

Even with record low unemployment, Apple is considered a more desirable place to work, Lewis explained, so even if employees leave, there will probably be a line that could knock on their door to fill those positions.

“Another company will serve the best by asking their employees what they want,” Lewis explained. That said, there’s an old saying: “Someone in complete control is someone who is in complete control until they are in complete control. Apple can easily find that they have overplayed their hand here, but only when they know they have done something wrong.” “