Apple employees have spoken out against the employer's plans to return to the office next month. They claim that they are able to fully fulfill their duties during the remote work format, as it has been for more than two years. The Apple Together Workers' Movement began circulating a petition against returning to the office.

Apple said last week that company employees must be in the office at least three days a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and one more day, which will be determined by the teams. This policy is effective September 5th. Apple's CEO said that "personal collaboration" is important to the culture of the corporation.

Apple Together believes that working outside the office makes employees happier and more productive. Representatives of the movement propose to allow employees to coordinate the schedule and procedures with their immediate supervisors, bypassing high-level approval and complex procedures.

One of the initiators of the petition said that Apple Together intends to collect signatures within a week. The movement will refrain from publishing specific names to avoid taking responsibility for protecting colleagues amid the crackdown on retail unions and reports of retaliation from the company's HR department.

In March 2020, Apple, Meta* (formerly Facebook**) and Google allowed employees to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a number of cases, workers were approved to move to other parts of the country without detriment to wages. The issue of returning to the office has become controversial for companies, and they have begun to promote flexible schedules to attract and retain talent. For example, last year streaming service Spotify announced a "Work from Anywhere" policy, saying the company would maintain a work-life balance for staff.

Elon Musk, head of the Tesla automaker, said that remote work is unacceptable for the company. In June, the businessman threatened employees with dismissal if they did not start working from the office.

Since June 2021, Apple has repeatedly tried to return employees to the office, but these plans were regularly postponed due to new waves of coronavirus.

Since February 2020, Apple's market value has doubled from $1.4 trillion to $2.8 trillion. Some employees of the corporation cited this fact as proof that the absence of a corporate culture does not interfere with their work. Approximately 10,000 Apple employees have joined the Slack remote work group. On Blind's anonymous messaging platform for Apple tech employees, the discussion about returning to work from the office is one of the most popular.

In May, machine learning scientist Ian Goodfellow moved from Apple to DeepMind. He stated that the reason for leaving was Apple's policy of returning to the office.

Apple should encourage, not ban, flexible working in order to create a more diverse and successful company in which everyone can feel comfortable, Apple Together emphasizes.

Meta Platforms* and its social networks Facebook** and Instagram**

* recognized as an extremist organization, its activities are prohibited in Russia *

*banned in Russia

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