As COVID-19 vaccinations occur around the world, Apple is telling its employees to ready for a return to the office after working from home over the past year or so. However, not all employees are ready and willing to return to the office, with some employees saying they’ll quit the company if it denies their requests for remote work.
The Verge reports that Apple has been turning down even more requests from employees that want to continue working from home instead of participating in the new hybrid model that will see employees returning to the office three days a week.
In a Slack channel with 6,000 members, employees say they will leave the company if it stands firm on requiring a return to the office.
While Apple historically discouraged employees from working from home, there were one-off exceptions to the rule, and some teams were more lenient than others. Now, employees say that even those exceptions are being denied. In a company Slack channel where employees advocate for remote work, roughly 10 people said they were resigning due to the hybrid work policy or knew others who’d been forced to quit.
In a survey on remote work conducted by employees in June, 36.7% of respondents said they were worried they’d have to leave Apple due to the lack of flexibility (1,735 people responded to the question).
One employee said they were currently on an Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation that allowed them to work from home, but were told that accommodation would be denied when the company went back to the office. “I will be out of a job in September,” they wrote in Slack.
The Verge reports that it was told that Apple has been asking for employee medical records to decide if they will be approved to work from home which, “made some people uncomfortable.”