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Entitled Employees Are Taking the Bite Out of Apple
Companies trying to get office workers to return to in-person work have their work cut out for them.
“For all that we’ve been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other,” wrote CEO Tim Cook to Apple employees in June. “Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate.”
Apple employees, Cook outlined, starting in September would be required to show up at the office- at least part of the time.
The uproar from the Apple rank and file was immediate, and deafening. It must have become instantly clear to Apple execs like Cook: Many employees don’t want to return to the old corporate culture wholesale takeover of the best years of their lives.
One silver lining of Covid, for some anyway, has been a better work/life balance between office and home. Now that Covid seems to be on the ebb, what will become of this new addiction to flexible schedules and spending more time with family?
Some offices, like Apple, have resisted intense internal employee pressure and insisted on a return to in-person work anyway. Some levels of collaboration and creativity, office-culture enthusiasts like Cook…