Telecommuting is a debate that goes far beyond what Apple does or does not do, that’s clear. But it is inside the Cupertino offices that, contrary to what Steve Jobs believed, working from home is becoming more limited every day. Tim Cook wants teams in the office for as long as possible.
A good sign of this is an email that Apple’s board of directors sent to its employees last spring, no earlier than seven o’clock in the morning. There was a survey to find out the opinion of the staff on teleworking, but the circumstances of the moment raised many fears.
An investigation after the standardization
The questionnaire, as Business Insider commented in April, asked about the benefits of days you worked in offices and the benefits of days you could work from home. It took about 10 or 15 minutes to answer it, it was completely confidential and there was a time limit to do it.
The answers revolved around not having to do the commute from home to the office and vice versa for telework days, favoring these days over those going to Apple Park. But of course: the questionnaire He arrived just after the obligation to come to the offices a minimum of three days a week. So it wasn’t the nicest mail they got that week.
The pandemic changed everything
The pandemic was one of the triggers for the resurgence of working from home, something that also happened at Apple and has scarred workers around the world probably forever. NOW, Any company that offers the possibility of teleworking is valued as a beneficial company.
Apple had no choice but to embrace this teleworking during the strictest months of confinement, but with the easing of sanitary measures, it tried to apply a return to offices that could never end up being what it was before COVID. To this day, those three days at the office and the rest of the week at home are still sought after.
As a teleworker since 2006, I will always defend that working from home has its advantages and disadvantages, even if it is always interesting not to have to travel to carry out your working day. My feeling is that now that the whole world has tasted these benefits, the hybrid system will be something that will be considered the minimum. Whether that will last as the years pass remains to be seen..
Picture | Carles Rabada
In Applesphere | ‘I want 4,000 coffees’: First iPhone call was a Steve Jobs troll he had to apologize for
In Applesphere | Apple spends $26 billion annually on R&D. More than half is paid by Google
