Live data from Hacker News

Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

theverge.com

131–140 of 573 posts

Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

#131

More people are dying with Covid now than were dying most of the previous two years, minus 4 peaks of various waves. I'm happy we're returning to normalcy, but it just makes me wonder "why now?" It's like the government and big business just decided overnight to declare "mission accomplished" when nothing substantial has changed. Last summer, for example, could have been the reopening, and we'd have better data and "…

The death rate is a trailing indicator so it's not the right thing to look at when considering what you should do in the future.

Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

#132

I left Apple after years of lack of any flexibility on the remote work process. They wouldn't allow transferring to any alternative office for most teams. From what I understood, VPs could protect a small minority of some of their employees if a senior leader made a case to them. Unfortunately, this just seemed to lead to the most politically connected folks going remote and directors friends and favorite hires getti…

No post body was provided.

Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

#133

Love that all the companies (see also Google, Twitter) are utilizing the WW3-panic to sweep these announcements under the rug. How thoughtful! And props to Apple for adding that Friday PR synergy to the mix! Edit: my best attempt at a good faith argument here is this: it was a move that was supposed to be in sync with Biden's SOFU comments on returning to the office, but other breaking news affected the plan.

You can look at any announcement and say "utilizing mid-term elections to sweep these announcements under the rug... swap out mid-terms with holidays, COVID, hurricanes, natural disasters, oil price swings, etc etc etc.

If you go looking for it, you will find it. Doesn't make it true though.

Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

#134
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If "real estate" were the real reason, that'd just be an example of throwing good money after bad.

Personal investments in Bay Area housing by senior execs.

Bingo!

Wanna bet upper management and board members spend some of their money buying up nearby or distant-but-commute-friendly property just before a new "campus" is announced? Not the actual land the campus will be built on, of course. That would be a conflict of interest.

Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

#135
post #66
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not now? We have to return to normalcy eventually so what do we gain by waiting? Everyone is going to be exposed to the virus occasionally so whether that happens in an office or somewhere else hardly matters.

I refuse to get infected no matter how much political people seem to want me to

I could refuse to get into any car accidents. But refusing to drive or be a passenger or pedestrian near cars isn't a way I can live my life. So, ultimately, I've decided that I don't refuse to get into any car accidents.

Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

#136
post #66
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not now? We have to return to normalcy eventually so what do we gain by waiting? Everyone is going to be exposed to the virus occasionally so whether that happens in an office or somewhere else hardly matters.

I refuse to get infected no matter how much political people seem to want me to

>I refuse to get infected

Avoiding COVID just isn't possible unless you're prepared to curtail social interactions to the point at which you're barely living. I leave my apartment about once a week (yay depression) yet I still got Omicron. You're deluding yourself if you think it's avoidable.

Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't use death rate for supporting closing and I won't use death rate for supporting opening. Covid's main threats for most people are: * Filling up hospitals to the point they stop functioning (that's been true here in Canada). * Putting 10% ~ 20% of workers everywhere, including hospitals, out of commission for weeks at a time while they're acutely sick with Covid or infectious to others. * Disabling some large…

> The death rate for covid is significant but not substantial enough in itself to cause the world to lock down. The points above though, are. For USA the death rate is still higher than times when we were not RTO.

The people dying of COVID and the people working from home are different cohorts. We have a vaccine, anti-virals, and natural immunity. Will the WFH cohort see an increase in deaths due to RTO? Certainly. We’ll also see more car accidents. The world has never been free of risk, and we are now emerging from the pandemic with a newly integrated risk model for this disease. It’s going to be touch and go for a while — years — but it’s important to remember that flattening the curve was always the goal. COVID Zero was never in play.

Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

#139
post #94

I left Apple after years of lack of any flexibility on the remote work process. They wouldn't allow transferring to any alternative office for most teams. From what I understood, VPs could protect a small minority of some of their employees if a senior leader made a case to them. Unfortunately, this just seemed to lead to the most politically connected folks going remote and directors friends and favorite hires getti…

also, isn't their new campus built atop a toxic waste site?

It's an empathy building exercise for the Foxconn employees

Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th

#140
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing that matters is death rate for those that are vaccinated.

What about the death rate for people who can't be vaccinated?

Not everyone survives. That's life. You can't expect society to shut down to protect the tiny percentage of people who can't be vaccinated or are immunocompromised. That's never been an expectation of society before so why would it be one now?
Post reply on HN