Bloomberg: Apple decides to postpone return to office by at least a month

Following multiple discussions about Apple employees returning to the company’s offices, Bloomberg has now reported that Apple has decided to delay the return to in-person work for at least a month. According to people familiar with the matter, the decision is related to the COVID-19 variants that have been spreading across several countries.

As the COVID-19 vaccination accelerates around the world, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced in June that Apple employees would return to the office in September. In a memo sent to employees, Cook mentioned that employees would have to work in person three days a week until at least 2022.

However, even with vaccination, COVID-19 variants are still driving up virus cases in multiple countries where the number of deaths is still alarmingly high. This has resulted in companies having to rethink their in-person work strategies for 2021.

While companies like Facebook and Google have been more flexible when it comes to working from home, Apple has opted for a hybrid model in which employees would have to work from the office three days a week. Some Apple employees have already been working in the offices on certain days, but this would become mandatory starting in September.

Now according to Bloomberg, Apple does not expect to return to the office until October.

In the meantime, a group of employees have been expressing discontent with Apple’s strict policy of not allowing people to work from home permanently. Apple says that “in-person collaboration is essential” to the culture of the company, and despite this delay, it doesn’t mean for now that the company will change its decision based on these complaints.

Read also:

• Tim Cook announces hybrid work plan for Apple employees, three days per week in-person
• Apple says in-person work is ‘essential’ and will not go back from its hybrid work plan
• Apple employees say they will leave the company as it denies remote work requests
• Some Apple employees continue to push for more flexible WFH policies, citing rising COVID-19 cases and future uncertainty
• Comment: Apple’s inflexibility on flexible working seems likely to backfire

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