Work-shy Apple employees launch petition after CEO Tim Cook announced workers would have to return to office three days a week

•  Apple staffers have hit back at the company’s call for workers to return to the office at least three days a week next month
• Employees Monday aired a petition that argues the policy is too restrictive and ignores their successful shift to remote work during the pandemic
• The company had previously delayed a similar plan to bring workers back to its Cupertino office in May, due to a surge in COVID cases in California
• Apple currently allows all of its 36,000 staffers to work remotely – a policy that Cook, 61, for the past several months has tried to reverse
• The company revitalized those efforts Monday, telling workers they would be required to show up to work at least three days a week starting September 5
• The notice ruffled some feathers of staff at the Silicon Valley stalwart, with a group of employees calling themselves ‘Apple Together’ launching the petition 
• The petition includes a list of demands including a plan that allows employees to ‘work directly with our immediate manager to figure out’ work arrangements
• The petition drive has so far collected 232 signatures from various anonymous staffers at the California-based tech giant, and puts pressure on the company

Apple staffers have hit back at the company’s call for workers to return to the office at least three days a week next month – with a petition that argues the policy is too restrictive and ignores their successful shift to remote work during the pandemic.

The petition comes in response to an all-employee memo from chief executive Tim Cook, who last week said workers would have to come into the office for at least three days a week starting in early September.

Now employees are attempting to retain their work-from-home flexible arrangements, because it makes them ‘happier and more productive.’ 

The company had previously scrapped a similar plan to bring workers back to its Cupertino office three days a week in May, due to a surge in COVID cases in California.

Apple currently allows all of its 36,000 staffers to work remotely – a policy that Cook, 61, for the past several months has tried to reverse.

The company revitalized those efforts last Monday, notifying workers they would be required to show up to work in person at least three days a week starting September 5, including Tuesdays, Thursdays and a third day to be determined by staff.

Needless to say, that notice ruffled some feathers of staff at the Silicon Valley stalwart, with a group of employees calling themselves ‘Apple Together’ launching the petition Monday, demanding the policy be nixed.

Apple staffers hit back at the company’s call for workers to return to the office at least three days a week next month – with a petition launched Monday that argues the policy is too restrictive and ignores their successful shift to remote work during the pandemic

The petition comes in response to an all-employee memo from the iPhone maker’s chief executive, Tim Cook (middle), who last week said workers would have to come into the office for at least three days a week starting in early September

The company had previously scrapped a similar plan to bring workers back to its Cupertino office (pictured) three days a week in May, due to a surge in COVID cases in California. Last Monday, Cook revitalized those plans

The petition includes a list of demands including a plan that allows employees to ‘work directly with our immediate manager to figure out what kind of flexible work arrangements are best for each of us and for Apple.’

The petition drive has so far collected 232 signatures, and puts pressure on the iPhone maker as the date for the policy’s planned start approaches.

The call to action, which was published overnight, begins: ‘Are you an office-based Apple employee? Are you less than thrilled with the RTO mandate? Sign the petition, lets stand together.’

It continues: ‘For the past 2+ years, Apple’s formerly office-based employees have performed exceptional work, flexibly, both outside and inside traditional office environments.

‘However, Apple leadership recently announced they require a general return to office starting the week of Sept 5 (Labor Day).’

‘This uniform mandate from senior leadership does not consider the unique demands of each job role nor the diversity of individuals,’ the petition asserts. 

Organizers went on to cite ‘many compelling reasons and circumstances’ for continuing on with remote work, citing things such as ‘disabilities (visible or not); family care; safety, health, and environmental concerns; financial considerations; to just plain being happier and more productive.’

It is not immediately clear as of early Monday how many of the signatures the petition has garners belong to verified Apple workers – the only names that would hold any bearing in the group’s efforts to change Cook’s internal policy. 

Apple Together, which identifies itself as a global solidarity union comprised of workers across the company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Apple, meanwhile, has yet to comment on the burgeoning backlash against their newly announced policy. 

The company joins several technology and finance companies that have begun mandating a return to office as COVID cases ease.

Earlier in June, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, asked employees to return to the office or leave the company.

Apples’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, are pictured. The company currently boasts nearly 37,000 employees who will be affected by the policy, which takes effect in two weeks

Cook, 61, the CEO of Apple since 2011, is seen at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino. He haws been adamant that staffers return to work in person for the past several months

Apple began on April 11 mandating one day a week in the office – a requirement that rose to two days on May 2. 

By May 23, all staff were originally intended to be at their desks three days a week – but that policy was shelved in June.

A survey of Apple workers from April 13-19 found 67 percent saying they were dissatisfied with the return-to-office policy, Fortune reported.

Apple’s CEO Cook, who assumed control of the company in 2011 after the death of longtime boss Steve Jobs, has for the better part of a year been adamant about the return to office of his employees, insisting that a hardware-heavy company like Apple needs its employees physically together to design its physical products.

In early March, he wrote to staff saying they needed to prepare to return.

‘In the coming weeks and months, we have an opportunity to combine the best of what we have learned about working remotely with the irreplaceable benefits of in-person collaboration,’ Cook said in the memo, according to Bloomberg.

Apple CEO Cook insists that a hardware company like Apple needs its employees to be in the office to collaborate on the design of its physical products

Many employees however insist that they can do the work just as well remotely, and that they don’t want to lose their work-life balance. 

‘Everything happened with us working from home all day, and now we have to go back to the office, sit in traffic for two hours, and hire people to take care of kids at home,’ says a former Apple employee anonymously told Bloomberg in April, ‘Working from home has so many perks. Why would we want to go back?’

Employees have also been quick to point out that while they spend their days designing products that enable work from home across the world, they are required to return to an office.   

‘We tell all of our customers how great our products are for remote work, yet, we ourselves, cannot use them to work remotely?’ an open letter signed by more than 1,050 Apple employees read.

‘How can we expect our customers to take that seriously? How can we understand what problems of remote work need solving in our products if we don’t live it?’

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