- Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) employees are opposing the iPhone maker's call for workers to return to the office in September, the Financial Times reports.
- The employees argued being equally productive during two-plus years of flexible arrangements.
- A group of workers formed Apple Together in 2021 as offices started functioning remotely due to the pandemic. The group circulated a petition internally, demanding "location flexible work."
- Recently, CEO Tim Cook urged employees in and around the Cupertino headquarters to return to the office three days a week from September 5. Cook said he wanted to preserve the "in-person collaboration that is so essential to our culture."
- Cook has insisted on returning since June 2021 while the Covid resurgence delayed his plans.
- Apple Together urged Apple to allow employees to work with their "immediate manager" to decide their working arrangements, with immunity from "high-level approvals" and "complex procedures."
- Apple Together looked to collect signatures this week before verifying and sending the results to executives.
- Silicon Valley companies, including Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) Facebook, and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google's engineers worked remotely during the pandemic, including relocation to other parts of the country.
- Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) chief Elon Musk said "remote work is no longer acceptable," threatening workers with termination lest they did not show up.
- In May, a prominent machine learning computer scientist, Ian Goodfellow, quit Apple for Google sibling DeepMind, reportedly due to Apple's return-to-work policy.
- Price Action: AAPL shares traded lower by 1.73% at $168.55 in the premarket on the last check Monday.
- Photo via Shutterstock.
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