Apple 'Tracking Employee Attendance' in Crackdown on Remote Working

[PinkyMacGodess]

I was hired as a remote employee to a company an hour away. They changed the policy to force us to be in the office 3 days a week. My solution was to just count the commute as part of the work day. It is an arbitrary job requirement so it's fair.

I wonder how many people have tried to say that their drive into work is part of the work day. I would be on the phone some mornings on the way to a clients office and would occasionally bill for that time depending on how productive it was. I'm sure an attorney bills for every block of time no matter that is done during it.

 

[Piscestg]

It did look foolish to build such a massive structure in a place where earthquakes are common, and storms too. I was surprised they didn't install a monorail system to transport people around the ring. I think they missed an opportunity to do something truly space-age and unique. Although the ring isn't all that huge, but I'm sure it consumes a bit of time walking the ring...

The ring helps them close their rings. 🤣

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

The ring helps them close their rings. 🤣

Nice... That's actually funny...

 

[spercharged69]

How upset weird boomers get at the concept of remote work in these threads will never cease to amuse me. My last startup raised millions of dollars, built a product, and sold to one of the largest companies in the world with a globally distributed 100% remote work team that met in person one (1) time. These claims that remote work are bad, or somehow limits productivity are truly laughable.

 

[steve09090]

It did look foolish to build such a massive structure in a place where earthquakes are common, and storms too. I was surprised they didn't install a monorail system to transport people around the ring. I think they missed an opportunity to do something truly space-age and unique. Although the ring isn't all that huge, but I'm sure it consumes a bit of time walking the ring...

They thought of that.

"The Ring uses base isolation to protect against earthquakes. The isolation system consists of 692 large steel saucers located two stories underground. This system is a modified version of Japan's and will protect the campus from all but the most severe earthquakes."

I think much of their design is unique.

• Powered by 100% renewable energy
• Houses 12,000 employees
• Worlds largest panels of curved glass
• Largest naturally-ventilated building ever
• 17MW on-site solar power
• 9,000 drought-resistant trees
• 100,000-square-foot fitness center

 

[spartan1967]

I was hired as a remote employee to a company an hour away. They changed the policy to force us to be in the office 3 days a week. My solution was to just count the commute as part of the work day. It is an arbitrary job requirement so it's fair.

It’s unfortunate you could not find a way to get reimbursement for fuel & wear/tear on your vehicle as well.

 

[Ethosik]

How upset weird boomers get at the concept of remote work in these threads will never cease to amuse me. My last startup raised millions of dollars, built a product, and sold to one of the largest companies in the world with a globally distributed 100% remote work team that met in person one (1) time. These claims that remote work are bad, or somehow limits productivity are truly laughable.

Agreed. And Apple supported remote work years ago. I applied as a remote senior dev in 2016.

 

[rforno]

Apple's gotta justify using its shiny new HQ .... kind of hard to pay to maintain it if nobody's there.

I still think most companies are forcing R2O because of real estate/rental/lease issues, not because it actually makes a huge difference in productivity or esprit-de-corps. Sure, f2f meetings/events/job functions can't be TOTALLY eliminated, but we've shown that for a good many things in the white-collar/knowledge-worker industry, an employee's location is not correlated to their level of productivity or teamwork ... in fact, I posit for some people/cases it's even higher than it would be otherwise.

 

[AppliedMicro]

How upset weird boomers get at the concept of remote work in these threads will never cease to amuse me.

It’s not just boomers because boomers.
It‘s probably fanboys because Elon, too.

 

[steve09090]

Apple's gotta justify using its shiny new HQ .... kind of hard to pay to maintain it if nobody's there.

I still think most companies are forcing R2O because of real estate/rental/lease issues, not because it actually makes a huge difference in productivity or esprit-de-corps. Sure, f2f meetings/events/job functions can't be TOTALLY eliminated, but we've shown that for a good many things in the white-collar/knowledge-worker industry, an employee's location is not correlated to their level of productivity or teamwork ... in fact, I posit for some people/cases it's even higher than it would be otherwise.

Yet, the building was designed for collaboration and the company is designed for collaboration. It's the core of the way the company works. People don't have to like it, but that's kind of "tough bikkies". Covid showed that many businesses can maintain their productivity, but the majority did not thrive. The recent massive layoffs from Tech have proven that to be the case.

 

[darkus]

I’ve gotten to see the demise of a few of Americas great industries, those that set this place apart from the rest of the world.

Healthcare was the most recent one. Now it looks like the tech industry is next up at bat. And we have been witnessing that over the last few years and I guess we will watch the process accelerate over the next few years. But make no mistake they are being actively dismantled because we collectively have no foresight to what will happen. Fights over the basics, like having a worker actually work are just a symptom of the larger problem at hand.

After this industry is dismantled and decimated, be sure that another country will fill the gap.

Then a few years after that we will get some politician who will lament the good ole days, and talk about how we need to make Silicon Valley great again and bring techs jobs back to America. Of course, it’s almost impossible to recreate those kinds of flash in a pan.

If you think iOS is buggy now or if you think your phone is spying on you now. Just wait a couple years and come back to this post 😂

 

[chenks]

A decent range. iPhone, iPad, Watch, Apple TVs, Macbook Air, Powerbeats, Homepods, Use Homekit all the time, Services. Siri is my only bug. Why is it important? I have the feeling you are going to criticise me for something, but not sure what yet. I'm logging off anyway. I'll find out later what I have done wrong.

you said "none of my apple products have bugs", hence asking which apple products you have.
but you've since conceded you do have at least 1 bug, with siri, so saying none of your product have bugs was wrong i guess?

your other apple devices certainly do have bugs though, whether you would like to admit it or not.

 

[Pirate!]

Helping out a co worker right away is very productive. Helping them can ignite a whole chain of productivity. Being at home you’ll get to it eventually(after folding laundry) and possibly holding up a nice multiple employee domino effect productivity surge.

What about the co-workers that work at other locations? I personally spend more time on the phone with people that aren’t in the same State or Country as I am. Why would it make me less productive to help them out from home versus the office (where I end up with headphones in a meeting room alone all day). Also, not everyone can’t focus on work at home (folding laundry is the absolute last thing I would do ).

That's not true though is it, when it comes to creativity? I guess when we work in silos or don't know how to collaborate, or not prepared to, that could be true.

Organizations don’t exist in one location. You make it sound like everyone has a perfect work environment that only includes one office and it’s always face-to-face collaboration exclusively. I agree there is some need for in person work (the amount of that greatly depends on each individual and teams’s role in the company).

Also, who’s to say people that couldn’t learn to collaborate in different ways (including over Zoom/phone/etc) aren’t (part of) the problem, being stuck in one way only?

 

[marstan]

Apple should start hosting those melon ball and marimba office parties a la Severance. Who wouldn't want to come in for that?

 

[spercharged69]

Organizations don’t exist in one location. You make it sound like everyone has a perfect work environment that only includes one office and it’s always face-to-face collaboration exclusively. I agree there is some need for in person work (the amount of that greatly depends on each individual and teams’s role in the company).

I've found the people who think these things primarily exited the work force back when every large company existed across multiple floors of a skyscraper and the thought of being able to accomplish something outside of wearing a green visor in a cubicle is completely foreign to them.

 

[McTaste]

would be interested to see productivity stats for when someone is in the office or at home.
i can tell you that i'm way more productive since i've been working from home since March 2020.
less distractions, can focus more, no travel time etc etc.

the reasons why some companies and governments want people back in the office is solely to support the surrounding businesses that benefit from having people in that location - local shops/coffee houses, public transport etc etc

There's a reason most people like working from home so much and it isn't because they are so much more productive...its because they can do their laundry and other chores, go for walks during the day, take care of their kids, etc. You know, the opposite of what they are being paid to do.

 

[thebeans]

Not saying Apple is wrong to do this (after all, their corporate culture relies largely on in-person collaboration), but it's always problematic to force people into something they don't want to do. It creates resistance and resentment that corrode culture from within.

I do wonder if paying a bonus for employees who show up at the office would have had a more desirable effect on overall morale...

Lol. Ok team. We have decided to pay a bonus to those of you who actually show up for work like you are supposed to. What a load of….

 

[Ethosik]

There's a reason most people like working from home so much and it isn't because they are so much more productive...its because they can do their laundry and other chores, go for walks during the day, take care of their kids, etc. You know, the opposite of what they are being paid to do.

On the flip side. Those same people in my experience work until 8 PM instead of 5 PM. It’s more flexibility.

 

[therunningman]

Yeah, think about all the amazing things human beings achieved using slavery. We just threw endless amounts of death and suffering at unfathomably large projects and voila, we had pyramids and railroads. This is the way. [sarcasm]

 

[michael31986]

Wouldn’t they save more money by having people work from home… how is cost saving to have them in office?

 

[spercharged69]

Wouldn’t they save more money by having people work from home… how is cost saving to have them in office?

Apple gets enormous tax breaks from the city of Cupertino because the city of Cupertino expects tons of Apple employees to be coming in and out of the HQ every day, eating lunch at local restaurants, spending money at local businesses, etc. This has absolutely nothing with productivity and everything to do with maintaining those tax breaks.

 

[darkus]

Wouldn’t they save more money by having people work from home… how is cost saving to have them in office?

Cost savings and progress/innovation are directly opposed to each other.

Apple should be commended for at least trying to push with the latter

 

[canyonblue737]

Apple has plenty of data on working from home after multiple years of having the majority of their corporate and engineering workforce do so. Clearly they aren't happy. The message here is clear... want to work for Apple? Time to come to work, in person, at the multi-billion dollar headquarters with fancy cafeteria, massive gym, nature preserve in the middle and more. What suffering!

 

[LeahJoFoxtrot]

With job cuts in the tech industry, I wonder how this will affect the ones that are resisting coming back in. I would say it may not bode well if their job is easily replaceable.

There are plenty of other jobs out there for engineers that will let them work from home, as they should be allowed to for what they do. They'll be fine.

 

[chenks]

The message here is clear... want to work for Apple? Time to come to work, in person, at the multi-billion dollar headquarters with fancy cafeteria, massive gym, nature preserve in the middle and more.

but just for 3 days, the other 2 days we are fine to have you working from home?

so lots of productivity for 3 days and the other 2 days they aren't bothered about?
if WFH is such an issue then clearly they can put everyone on a 3 day working week?