Apple has informed corporate employees that they must return to in-office work for three days starting the week of Monday, Sept. 5. According to a report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will expect employees to return to work Tuesdays, Thursdays and a third day that is dependent on individual teams.
Originally, employees began returning to work April 11, after two years of COVID-19 related remote work. Starting May 4, the plan was to have employees return to work in phases. May 4 saw Apple employees returning to work two days a week. Apple has been trying to get employees to return three days a week seemingly to no avail.
Apple Returns to Work Three Days a Week
For Apple, the company seems to have bad luck going beyond a two day work week. While Apple was expecting employees to return to work three days a week starting May 23, however, these plans were quickly thwarted due to the rise of COVID-19 cases.
Now, it seems Apple is trying things again, with the new expectation being Sept. 5 for employees to return to the office three days a week. The new third day is to be determined by team leaders, and will vary from team to team.
Concerning COVID-19, Apple also reinforced its masking policies back in May. Employees were expected to wear face masks in common areas. However, Cupertino lifted the mandatory wearing of face masks at “most locations” at the top of August. Cupertino still encourages employees to wear masks if it makes them feel comfortable.
According to Bloomberg, the US Centers for Disease Control relaxed COVID-19 recommendations last week in Santa Clara County, where Apple’s main offices are located. According to the report, the seven-day averages and new COVID-19 case counts are seeing a decline, though they are still much higher than before the Omicron spikes earlier in 2022.
For Apple, the company has faced some criticism for its return-to-work policy. Back at the start of May, Apple did lose one notable member of their team after Ian Goodfellow left citing return-to-work orders. Goodfellow was Apple’s machine learning director.
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