As per the internal survey, 90% of Apple employees (survey respondents) say that  “location-flexible working options are a very important issue to me”. This was defined by staff as the opportunity to work from home forever. Not surprising given the fallout of the pandemic. This comes after CEO Tim Cook’s announcement that Apple would be rolling out a hybrid work model that would require workers to return to the office three days per week starting in September this year. Further on he said that some parts of the working life could simply not be replicated by remote working. 

Employees feel that they will have to choose between either a combination of their families, wellbeing, and being empowered to do their best work, or being a part of Apple at all. More than half (58%) of the respondents said that they think that some of their colleagues will have to leave Apple due to restricted location-flexible work options. To add to it, almost 37% expressed concerns that they would need to quit over perceived lack of options regarding work practices. A theme that stands out in the employee concerns is a “lack of options” and that has many worried. 

The survey was sent out via a Slack channel and only a small portion of Apple’s 147,000-strong workforce likely knew about it. That said, the survey findings have been shared with CEO Cook and Deidre O’Brien, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Retail and People. 

Work from home is the norm post-pandemic. Many tech companies have told staff that they can work from home permanently. Both Twitter and Facebook have a significant portion of their workforce that can indefinitely work from home if they have to. Given that remote working is being largely considered as the future, Apple’s move comes as a direct contrast to the industry backdrop.