Like most companies in the US, Apple is set to begin its post-pandemic return to office plan for employees in a matter of days. Next week, in fact, the first phase of the iPhone maker’s multi-part RTO scenario gets underway, with the idea being that employees start coming back one day a week.
But what this hybrid schedule of Apple probably didn’t account for was the employees removing themselves from the equation entirely (by resigning), as per a report in Fortune.
“I don’t give a single f--k about ever coming back to work here,” an Apple employee posted on a message board called Blind. Once April 11 comes around and brings this new rule into effect, they added, they will be resigning from their job.
This worker was not alone, the New York Post was first to report on the message board, citing anonymous messages from other employees.
Apple’s plan is to introduce a hybrid schedule, adding days in office after April 11, enforcing two in-office days weekly by May 2, and three days by May 23. What their piecemeal plan didn’t account for was the employees removing themselves from the equation entirely.
A worker reacted to messages about resigning with a laughing emoji and said, “I’m gonna do the same.” Another employee rallied, “Hell YEAH my man let’s do this! F--k RTO.”
One of the employees said they would send in their resignation as soon as they came home. They cited the transit as part of their reason for leaving: “I already know I won’t be able to deal with the commute and sitting around for 8 hours.”
While Apple's return to physical offices may be more gradual than Google's, Gurman notes that Apple's return-to-office policies are stricter than at a lot of other big tech firms. Facebook parent company Meta is allowing indefinite remote work for anyone not engineering hardware, for example. Google, meanwhile, has been reviewing requests to relocate or work remotely individually — and apparently approving 85 percent of those requests.