WFH?

[paserbyp]

Its latest Apple "innovation" is to track employees and use badge records to ensure they're in the office at least three times a week.

The company has been reluctant to fully embrace the opportunities and efficiencies of hybrid working, but since the pandemic has allowed staff to work remotely two days per week, spending the other three in the office. The application of the policy has always been relatively autocratic, with workers required to be on site Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

Apple is now using badge records to monitor attendance — and has begun to enforce an escalating system of warnings against those who don’t make it in on those three days. It suggests some staff are being warned that failure to comply could cost them their job, though this policy doesn’t seem to be compan-wide.

It's possible Apple is approaching all of these as cost-cutting measures to avoid any mass layoffs across its teams, particularly since that’s not a great look for a company that has continued to set new revenue records during the pandemic.

There are reams of analysis to confirm benefits in productivity, staff retention, and morale. That’s even before considering the extent to which hybrid/remote working is so popular among the cohorts Apple most needs to hire when it does recruit. It’s always cheaper to make employees happier and more productive than to seek new hires — though it speaks volumes that the people who seem to have the toughest time adapting to the hybrid workplace are the middle managers apparently winning the argument at Apple on this.

A recent Microsoft survey(https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62980639) showed the divide between middle management and staff. More than half of managers surveyed said they thought staff worked less remotely, while 80% of staff said they are at least as productive as before(A Dice survey(https://www.dice.com/career-advice/hybrid-remote-work-remain-popular-despite-office-re-openings) showed 85% of US businesses think hybrid work is good for them).

I’m sure Apple’s HR departments have been led by the science, rather than personal opinion. Perhaps somewhere in the company there's evidence that somehow proves remote workers didn’t contribute to its eye-watering record revenues in recent years.

What’s open to question is how appropriate Apple’s core approach seems to be. After all, the company always said it might choose to change or tweak its efforts.

It seems inevitable that some teams might work best on different schedules, and Apple’s approach doesn’t seem to give them that flexibility. That’s a component of the model that really should be reviewed. A Vanson Bourne survey(https://www.computerworld.com/article/3634588/jamf-survey-employees-will-quit-for-platform-choice.html) showed three-quarters of employees are inclined to stay with companies that offer autonomy.