Tim Cook's ‘back-to-office’ move upsets some Apple employees: ‘Nonsense…silly’

A group of Apple employees calling themselves ‘Apple Together’ have shared a Twitter petition arguing the staff showed they could do exceptional work from home.

Apple chief executive officer (CEO) Tim Cook's back-to-office drive has upset a section of employees in his company. In March, the Cupertino-based giant in an email had told the employees that action will be taken against those not going to office at least three days in a week.

Tim Cook (AFP)

A group of Apple employees calling themselves ‘Apple Together’ have shared a Twitter petition arguing that the staff had shown they could do exceptional work while staying at home, Tech Insider reported.

The website was told that there is a Slack channel advocating remote work with more than 10,000 employees. An employee said there is no confusion how a large percentage of staffers feel and that the iPhone maker has this information for a couple of years.

Last year, Cook in a memo to the employees had said the revised framework would enhance the employees' ability to work flexibly while preserving the ‘in-person’ collaboration which was essential to the company's culture. In an open letter signed by more than 1,250 people on the ‘Apple Together’ website, the employees have demanded location-flexible work.

According to a person familiar with the development, the company had promoted the ‘return-to-office’ policy to collaborate and generate ‘creative friction’. But this person termed the policy as ‘nonsense’ for most globally distributed terms, the Tech Insider report added.

The employees said the company's explanation that it operated that way is both ‘silly’ and ‘un-Apple’, which is opposite of innovation. The company had mailed a survey to the employees seeking their views on hybrid work which was supposed to close on April 28.