The company said some employees in Cupertino have worked from the office three days a week. Luis shares all the insights!
So now you may be thinking, “OMG, is remote work gone?”. No! Remote work isn’t gone, so stop panicking.
When big companies claim significant changes like this one, people tend to think everything is gone forever. But it’s not!
Well, the thing is, in 2021, several companies will go back to their offices. But, unfortunately, in the process, they’ll probably lose some talent and retain others that will love to stay because they don’t like change.
Watch the video to find out more!
Luis:
Is Apple killing remote work? No, it’s not. Stop that. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Virtual Coffee Chat with Luis. I’m your host, Luis, and this is my coffee. Ouch, it’s warm. Hot, hot, hot. Okay. So Apple says that their people in Cupertino have to work from the office three days a week, severely curtailing their remote work privileges now that the pandemic has gone. And of course, whenever a big company says that they’re bringing people back to the office, people says, Oh no, remote work, remote work was only a temporary thing. It’s going away. Blah, blah, blah.
Listen, some companies will decide on an hybrid model. And then the chips will fall where they may. They’ll lose some talent and they’ll have some other talent that’s going to work grudgingly, because they don’t really feel like taking the chance of looking for a new job. And some people will enjoy working in the office, because that’s what they’ve been doing their whole lives. And some people don’t like change. So, that’s just the way it is. Does this mean that’s remote work will fail? No. Does this mean that Apple will fail? No. Look, the reality is that remote work isn’t for everyone. It’s not for every company and it’s not for every employee.
Now I want to push back against my friends, some people that I hold very dear to my heart in the remote work community, that hybrid is not real remote. Now that’s semantically true, right? Well, not even that. That’s partially true. There is full remote work. If you say that you want to leave the remote lifestyle, that your position is remote, it doesn’t make sense to say that it’s remote some days of the week. A hybrid model is more like companies allowing remote work some of the time, but they can’t really be called fully remote positions. That’s true. But most people in my community take a step further and say that hybrid isn’t good. And that doesn’t make any sense to me.
In essence, what the hybrid company is saying is, we want people in the office, but we recognize that there’s no justification for the five days a week or six days a week, in some cases, eight hours a day on in the office. So, we’ll give you the flexibility. We’ll give you some flexibility and you can design your life around that. And for most people that will be pretty good. That will be, in essence for some people, that will feel, even though hopefully they will work more than that, but that will feel like they a [inaudible 00:03:23] they work quick. And for some people that’s all they want. Some extra time, some extra days so that they don’t have to go crazy doing all of their personal stuff on the weekends. To have some extra days with a bit more increased flexibility, a bit less overseeing, but still, they enjoy working in an office with a group of people together, et cetera. Great. To each its own, right?
Remote work requires a total renewal of systems and processes, that quite frankly, I can see how it is a challenge. I can see that it is a challenge in a corporate environment, in a huge company with dozens, maybe even hundreds, of processes and systems, some unique to some teams, some global to the whole company. It’s probably really hard at a company like Apple. Now, some people, my friend Sharon Koifman, who says that people don’t really need to reinvent themselves to go to remote work. Companies can just adapt, slowly adapt. They change two or three key things, and then they adapt their processes slowly to remote work. I see that working, yes. But ultimately, long-term, I think that in order for a company to untap the full potential all of remote, they need to reinvent themselves from the ground up.
And I can understand some not being willing to do that. That’s fine. Apple employees that enjoy the office, congratulations. You’re working in the office, you can work there and then you have some days where you can take it a bit more easier, go home, handle your personal stuff, et cetera. If you’re an Apple employee and you’re unsatisfied with this, well, I just recorded the show, asking you the three questions that you need to ask yourself if you’re considering quitting your job to find a fully remote one. Give it a watch. And I think this is it for this topic. No, Apple will not kill remote work. And the lack of remote work will not kill Apple. There’s plenty of room in the workplace of the future for everyone and all kinds of approaches and all in between. So stop with the dramatic headlines.
See you tomorrow for another episode of Virtual Coffee Chat with Luis for Think Remote. And if you enjoyed this conversation, please like, subscribe and share. And visit Think Remote for the latest and greatest news and articles about remote work. Again, see you tomorrow.
