It will be interesting now that competitors know that all they have to do to appeal to a large segment of the workforce is simply not require a commute.
Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
321–330 of 573 posts
Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's still about four airplanes worth of people crashing daily, to put it into perspective. Not to mention people under immunosuppression or legitimately unable to get vaccinated (e.g. allergies or immunodeficient) - these poor souls are effectively locked into their homes as a permanent jail.
Must we then have vaccinated people join them out of some sense of solidarity? There are people confined to wheelchairs yet we allow others to walk.
Being vaccinated does not prevent the spread or infection, it only reduces the severity of symptoms, so this doesn't work. Having a vaccinated person sit with them is just as unsafe as an unvaccinated person. Testing, with a period of isolation before contact, is the only safe method. This is what I have to do with my mom.
Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
#323I 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?
You mean Sunnyvale? Lots of people live and work there already.
Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is still primarily an on-site company. At some point I would like people to quit vilifying a completely legitimate business setup because it doesn't fit their world view. I want to be in the office, and I prefer it when my coworkers are there too. I respect that not everyone feels the same - but I do think it is up to the employer to decide. So I will be picking companies that suit my preferences.
But there is legitimate reason to villify. I can't speak for Apple specifically, but many companies are no longer matching the CoL increases. Housing prices are steadily increasing, and so is rent. Many have to resort to longer commutes, buying cars, and such. All of these have detrimental effects to the environment, mental health or both. Pushing people back to the office with nothing else is incredibly tonedeaf to…
> I can't speak for Apple specifically, but many companies are no longer matching the CoL increases. Housing prices are steadily increasing, and so is rent.
I can't help but wonder if this is the flip side to the Silicon Valley mantra of "if you want a raise, job hop," where hitting your four-year anniversary with the same company makes you an old-timer and gets people on HN asking you if you're stupid. (Hopefully more politely than that, but that's absolutely the subtext of some recent message threads I've seen.) If the expectation on the company side is that they shouldn't plan on on any engineering staff being there more than a few years, then maybe it tacitly selects for "give employees a big bonus and lots of perks and just don't worry about raises because there ain't nothin' you can do to keep 'em".
And, of course, there's a chicken-or-egg aspect to that: did job-hopping become the norm because companies aren't giving them enough reason to stay, or vice-versa? When I moved out to Silicon Valley close to twenty years ago, I'd have placed the blame for that particular new normal on the companies, but after having read HN for the better part of the last decade, I'm considerably less certain of that.
Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
#325Maybe it's me, but I have yet to experience 'innovation' result from a conversation held over coffee or a chance encounter. I've had better luck creating connections with other parts of the business and exchanging ideas over the infrequent cocktail party where it's a mission of the night. Say all you want about open floorplans and irrelevant quiet encounters. Having said that, every situation is unique.
I feel like not everyone works well remotely. Meanwhile if you can work well remote, you can probably work well at a desk. So the rest of us must suffer especially at these larger firms.
I guess it depends on the desk. These open office plans kill my concentration, to be completely honest. I get at least twice as much done in my home office =/
At the office, all I did was put on headphones with white noise and stare at the screen and hope that no one came and train wrecked my chain of thought, which happened all too often. My main form of communication was Slack anyways... and I'm not embarrassed to say, I wasn't the only one. It was this, plus a Seattle commute, which was an hour+ each way because I'm not going to raise my kid in an apartment downtown (personal preference).
Now, I will totally grant you, there were plenty that could juggle chatting and typing and hopping up to meetings and retaining what happened after Scrum and the flying Nerf darts and the smell of coffee and farts and B.O. and overpowering deodorant and cologne and perfume and hairsprays and hair product and people putting fish in the microwave, etc. etc. Bless the people who can super ultra multitask and keep a train of thought like that. I am so envious... I'm not that guy =[
Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
Deaths this week in California are higher than at any time in 2020, when every office and school was closed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/corona...
I don't understand that trend happening in California since it doesn't match the rest of the country and doesn't line up with a spike in cases a few weeks prior. But what's different between 2020 and now: - We understand covid risk, treatment, etc. better now. There's a box around it. In 2020 we didn't know what would happen, if there would ever be a vaccine, or what variants might do. We don't know what the next var…
> I didn't get my annual cold last winter, which was awesome
The best theory of why some people are asymptomatic with covid is previous coronavirus infections, from the common cold, so maybe this isn't the best approach. ;)
Our immune systems weren't designed with a clean room in mind. There are a few childhood cancers and problems that are possibly caused by not having enough exposure to pathogens, like leukemia, blood cancers, allergies. So, I think it's complicated.
Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
COVID made my situation worse at Apple. I worked in a satellite office (NYC), and while in the office, most folks in California were reluctant to schedule meetings later than ~2pm california time because they didn't want to keep people in the office late. When we went fully remote, suddenly it seems like any compunctions about that vanished; I would have meetings until 9pm 3 nights a week, I guess because the manager…
Put your work hours in your calendar and auto decline everything outside those hours. Refuse that nonsense.
thats how you get PIPed
Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are leaving for FL and TX cause taxes you add in the salt deduction change its considerable. Have lived in FL TX and NY. Add in weather and TX and FL are actually nice places to live for the most part.
Texas weather is awful I have no idea where you are getting this from. I lived in multiple Texas cities and they are bad for their own reasons.
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Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow. Thanks for the insights. > work at a fast-paced startup and still work on average 10/hours a week less than at Apple. I am always floored by statements like this. I work as a principal data analyst and everything above 40 hours/week is overtime. While I have overtime included in my contract I still am able to reduce overtime (it is still being tracked to ensure compliance with local workers protection laws) if t…
> "While I have overtime included in my contract I still am able to reduce overtime (it is still being tracked to ensure compliance with local workers protection laws) if the project situation allows." The people talking about working long hours at Apple are getting paid commensurately. There's a reason why people work at FAANG companies despite the constant complaints.
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Re: Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
COVID made my situation worse at Apple. I worked in a satellite office (NYC), and while in the office, most folks in California were reluctant to schedule meetings later than ~2pm california time because they didn't want to keep people in the office late. When we went fully remote, suddenly it seems like any compunctions about that vanished; I would have meetings until 9pm 3 nights a week, I guess because the manager…
> When we went fully remote, suddenly it seems like any compunctions about that vanished; I would have meetings until 9pm 3 nights a week This is why there is a decline button next to the accept button. An outage or something disastrous, sure I'll stay online till midnight to help in anyway I can; a regular status update type meeting, no way.
This is unhelpful. Nobody gets total control of their time in employment, and some people get a lot less control than others.