Apple staff who have been told that they have to return to the office for a minimum of three days are now whinging after getting use to the comfort of working from home.
Apparently, Apple employees are up in arms over the ruling that will kick in from September. The NSW Government has been urging staff to return earlier but that has not gone down well with Apple staff.
The big issue is productivity with management not convinced that working from home is as productive as having staff in a team environment in the office.
Staff members on Friday began circulating a letter addressed to CEO Tim Cook slamming the mandate, which requires them to go back to the office for three days a week.
Many have got use to the comfort of working from home and as one Apple employee told ChannelNews “I have been able to save money on childcare and travel costs” they said.
The letter said that Apple’s so-called “remote/location-flexible work policy,” and how it was communicated to workers, had “already forced some of our colleagues to quit,” according to sources.
“Without the inclusivity that flexibility brings, many of us feel we have to choose between either a combination of our families, our well-being, and being empowered to do our best work, or being a part of Apple,” the note read.
The move comes days after Cook sent out his own note to employees, letting them know that they would have to go back to the office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Most employees would be allowed to continue working remotely twice a week.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Apple discouraged employees from working from home at all.
Forbes claimed recently that 2020 will go down in history for many reasons, not least of which because it’s the year that forced businesses and organizations from large too small to transform their operations to support remote work.
This has led to challenges for businesses such as Apple.
One less obvious but nevertheless critical challenge relates to new security threats as a result of this distributed work environment.
Companies have had to get better at cybersecurity in the digital age, but cybersecurity threats have grown significantly with distributed working as people working from home are also using their PCs for personal use.
Researchers claim that work-from-home employees are at much greater risk than those in offices.
Since home connections are less secure, cybercriminals have an easier entry into the company network.
Furthermore, the explosion of various online tools, solutions, and services for collaboration and productivity tend to have the bare minimum of security default setting, and updates from third-party vendors can change security preferences and be easily overlooked.
