Forced to return to the office, allied Apple employees send a ‘heart letter’

Employees form a group called Apple Together, representing their interests to the company. The group is lobbying Apple’s leadership to allow them to work more flexibly. They point out the disconnect between marketing messages for products that allow people to “work from anywhere” and internal messages for employees. “How do we understand the problems of remote working that our product needs to solve if we don’t live with it,” the letter reads.

“We are not asking people to work from home. We ask to decide for ourselves, together with the team and line manager, what type of work is best for each person, whether it’s in the office, working from home or a hybrid.”

Apple’s back-to-office pilot program suffered backlash in June 2021. At that time, Apple also had to postpone the schedule due to the Covid-19 wave in the fall and winter. The company then adopted a phased approach to bring back employees, starting once a week and continuing to twice a week.

Apple Together’s letter calls the program “a step back in flexibility for many on the team.” The final phase of the program will take effect from the end of May, whereby employees must be available three days a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

They cite specific reasons for dissatisfaction with the program, from forcing employees to move unnecessarily to a waste of time and both physical and mental resources to the obvious impact on diversity.

One of the organizers of Apple Together said about 200 Apple employees are participating in the group. Their efforts are remarkable because for a long time, Apple’s internal affairs often take place quietly and secretly. However, things reversed recently when retail workers at at least two US Apple Stores sought to form a union, as well as the “Apple Too” initiative, where Apple Together was born.

Founded in August 2021 by two former Apple employees, Apple Too wants to encourage employees to share stories about racism, sexism and discrimination in the company to promote change. change. One of them was fired by Apple and said he was retaliated against.

According to CNN, Apple Together drafted the letter in recent weeks after several employees tried to raise the issue through internal channels but were unsuccessful. There are also managers who want to work flexibly and sympathize with employees, but the higher they go, the less sympathy they have.

At the end of the letter, the group borrowed a famous quote from the late Apple founder Steve Jobs. “As Steve said: ‘There’s no point in hiring talented people and telling them what to do. We hire talented people to let them tell us what to do’. Here we are, the smart people you’ve recruited, and we’re telling you what to do: Get out of our way, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, let’s go. let us decide how we work best and let us do the best work of our lives.”