28, but made it possible for employees to reach their own working arrangements with management. Google wants employees returning to work on April 4, with three days in the office and two remotely.What are other companies doing?Īcross Silicon Valley, most companies seem committed to returning to work, but with varying degrees of flexibility. We don’t yet know what will happen next winter, but vaccines have provably reduced serous infection, and everyone hopes that protection holds.Īpple stopped short of demanding unvaccinated people get vaccinated, and is not going to enforce a mask mandate. ![]() World Health Organization data shows just under 6 million reported deaths globally. There have been more than 950,000 US deaths from COVID-19 so far, according to Johns Hopkins University. Employees will be expected at work in person Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays (not much flexibility there) and will be able to work remotely for up to four weeks a year under the plan.Īpple isn’t alone in thinking the fast-mutating COVID-19 threat is receding. All over the world, governments are reducing their focus on protection as they prioritize getting their economies back in shape. A hybrid compromise, but is it enough?Īpple isn’t going all-in on returning to normal. The company also recently resumed in-person classes at Apple stores for the first time since the pandemic first appeared. “While many of you have been coming in regularly for quite some time, we are now looking forward to welcoming those of you who shifted to working remotely back to our corporate offices,” Cook said. ![]() ![]() And it is set reach three days a week by late May.That number goes to two days a week three weeks later.By April 11 they will be expected to work at least one day a week in the office.Staff will return to work on a staggered basis.It’s also preparing updated Macs and iPads for launch later this year. The company is gearing up for an event in September to announce the iPhone 14 and new watches. Microsoft Corp., Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others have been more open to remote work in recent months. The iPhone maker has been one of the most stringent technology companies when it comes to pushing employees back into the office, irking some staffers, Bloomberg News has reported. Still, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed its COVID-19 recommendations last week. In Santa Clara County, where many of Apple’s main offices are housed, seven-day case averages and daily new COVID case counts have declined from July, but are still much higher than before the Omicron spikes earlier in 2022. That was a first since 2019 and signaled that Apple was inching closer to normal operations. The company also held an in-person gathering at its campus in June to watch a developers conference presentation. ![]() Apple had removed such a requirement at individual desks several months ago. The new policy comes weeks after the company dropped its mask mandate in common areas of offices. The new policy will first take effect in Silicon Valley and then spread to other offices.Īn Apple spokesman declined to comment on the updated deadline.Īpple has been making other COVID-19 adjustments. But virus flare-ups forced the company to push back deadlines, leaving workers on a two-day-a-week schedule. The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant has been working toward getting its employees back in the office since at least June 2021, when it first announced the three-day policy. The company notified employees of the new approach on Monday. That is a shift from Apple’s original plan, which called for in-person work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The company will require employees to work from the office on Tuesdays, Thursdays and a regular third day that will be determined by individual teams.
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