Silicon Valley Gets Strict: Apple Tightens Hybrid Work Policy, Enforces Attendance Measures

Silicon Valley giant Apple has implemented a stricter hybrid work policy in an effort to reduce costs and streamline its workforce. Tim Cook’s company is now actively tracking its in-person attendance schedule and warning employees that attempt to shirk the requirement to work in the office several days a week.

MacRumors reports that Apple has recently introduced a number of new measures to its hybrid work policy as it attempts to reduce company costs and streamline the firm’s workforce. The company is now actively tracking in-person attendance and issuing warnings to employees who do not adhere to the requirement of being in the office at least three days per week.

Apple CEO Tim Cook poses for a goofy selfie ( Justin Sullivan/Getty)

A hybrid home/office work policy has been in effect for Apple employees since April 2022 as part of the company’s gradual return strategy following the pandemic. Employees must report to work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays; however, most are permitted to work from home on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Zoe Schiffer of Platformer claimed on Twitter that Apple is now keeping track of in-person attendance using badge records and issuing “escalating warnings” to staff members who don’t adhere to the three-day rule. Although this does not appear to be a company-wide policy, some Apple offices have even warned staff that non-compliance could result in job termination.

NEW: Apple is tracking employee attendance (via badge records) and will give employees escalating warnings if they don't come in 3x per week.

ALSO: Elon Musk sent Twitter employees an email at 2:30am saying the "office is not optional" and noting SF was half empty yesterday.

— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) March 22, 2023

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently reported on several cost-cutting measures being newly enacted by Apple, including managers becoming “as strict as ever” about office attendance. Some employees view this as a sign of the company preparing to fire those who don’t meet the in-person work requirement.

Bloomberg’s report also emphasized a similarity in retail establishments, with Apple paying closer attention to employees’ hours and attendance. Additionally, the company has stopped offering “special sick time” for time missed because of Covid and is requesting that workers use their regular sick days in its place.

The report also mentions Apple’s decision to forego filling open positions when staff members depart. This suggests that the company’s strategy to reduce costs while avoiding mass layoffs, like those that recently affected other tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, is at least partially reflected in the crackdown on employees who fail to meet in-person work requirements.

Apple isn’t the only tech company where management is at odds with workers. Breitbart News recently reported that in an open letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, more than 1,400 Google employees called for better management of the company’s mass layoffs. The letter calls on Pichai and his management team to remember the company’s code of conduct, which reads, “don’t be evil.”

Last year, Breitbart News reported on a woke revolt amongst Apple’s workers against returning to the office. In one case, employees labeled working in the office as racist:

The employees are calling for Apple to introduce a hybrid work schedule allowing employees to return to offices three days a week. The open letter claimed that Tim Cook’s push for in-person working is an attempt to make the company “younger, whiter, and male-dominated.”

Apple’s latest Inclusion and Diversity report stated that the company’s employees are roughly 65 percent male and 35 percent female, with 43 percent being white and nine percent identifying as black. The Apple Together employee group stated that the return to in-person work increased the disparities at the firm and will “lead to privileges deciding who can work for Apple” instead of who’d be the most suitable for the job.

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