Facing revolt over work from office directive, Apple makes working hours flexible for some

HIGHLIGHTS

• Apple CEO Tim Cook had asked employees to return to office.
• Apple has put its decision on hold due to rising COVID-19 cases.
• Apple has announced plans making working hours flexible for some workers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook asked employees to return to office but not many liked the idea. In fact, after mandating work from office policy, an Apple engineer with an annual salary of around 6 crore quit to join Google. In a latest update, the Cupertino-based tech giant has announced plans to make working hours flexible for some workers.

Ian Goodfellow, who oversaw machine learning and artificial intelligence at Apple, resigned last month citing the lack of a flexible work environment and policies. Goodfellow has joined Alphabet Inc.’s Deepmind division. He joined Apple in March 2019 as the “Director of Machine Learning in the Special Projects Group.”

Apple CEO earlier asked employees to work from the office for atleast three days a week. The company has now put its decision on hold due to rising COVID-19 cases.

As per the latest report from Bloomberg, Apple has told staff at some stores that scheduling changes will come into effect in the upcoming months. The changes are said to include extending the minimum time period between shifts to 12 hours from 10 hours. The company hasn’t confirmed anything on the matter yet.

A report from the Wall Street Journal also revealed that the company has informed some workers about advancing their annual reviews by three months. The new pay, the company said, will come into effect in early July.

Just last week, the company told Reuters about increasing pay for its US employees to $22 (roughly Rs. 1,700) per hour or more, which is a 45 per cent jump from 2018 levels. In an official statement, an Apple spokesperson said, “this year as part of our annual performance review process, we’re increasing our overall compensation budget.”