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

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

#331

Post by greggman3 »

birken wrote: post #222
calculatte wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PR Firm Impact Research sent a report to the Democrats on Feb 22, 2022 urging them to lift all restrictions & claim victory for political points. Immediately after, restrictions lifted. Do your own assessment of the facts. Leaked memo https://punchbowl.news/impact-covid-positioning-strategy-mem...

So you contend that "the Democrats" (who obviously are a fully united entity who never disagree) should have kept all the restrictions even though the Omicron wave is ending? What should they have done?

I don't care who's in charge. I care if suggestions/mandates fit the data. As of today, daily new cases in California are 2x-4x and deaths around 2x what they were in November. If in a week they are 1x then ok, open. But before then? Further, I guess it remains to be seen but I'd suspect lifting the restrictions will just rebound the numbers. Happy if I'm wrong though. I certainly would like to go to meetups, bars, etc...

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

#332

Post by thatfrenchguy »

BlargMcLarg wrote: post #312
Ntrails wrote: post #287

Earlier 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 think what you mean is that "people who moved outside the bay area got more house for their money", but the reason they got paid so much in the first place is because housing is more expensive.

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

#333

Post by oldstrangers »

just3ws wrote: post #321

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.

Yep, freedom of movement and where (and when) I'm allowed to work is worth probably an additional $20-30k a year to me. So, startups, pay attention.

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

#334

Post by adrianmonk »

nostromo wrote: post #16

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 "…

> makes me wonder "why now?"

Today's episode of the Scientific American's podcast "COVID Quickly" (https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/the-push-...) had an interview with Flu pandemic historian John Barry. (The interview is the second half of the episode.)

They asked him how he'd define when a pandemic is over, and he said there's a science aspect to it, but it's largely when "people stop paying attention to it".

They also said the 1918 flu pandemic had 4 waves, and most of the US put restrictions in for wave 2. For wave 3, some areas did and some didn't. By wave 4, which was approximately as severe, NO cities put restrictions in place. Some histories of the flu pandemic don't even mention the 4th wave.

We seem to be following a very similar pattern now. Maybe 2 years (and/or 4 waves) is roughly society's attention span for a pandemic.

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

#335

Post by mission_failed »

BlargMcLarg wrote: post #312
Ntrails wrote: post #287

Earlier 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…

There is also the argument that a staff of engineers wants real data to back up decisions and policy. "because mangers like to look over your shoulder" isn't a good reason

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

#336

Post by propogandist »

1270018080 wrote: post #124
teeray wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is immune from the Sunk Cost Fallacy

Just look at the butterfly keyboard or removing all the ports but usb-c.

even Thinkpads fell to the chicklet keyboard movement.

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

#339

Post by sjg007 »

birken wrote: post #91
throwaway1777 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politics plain and simple. COVID protocols are very unpopular at this point and not every effective. Florida and Texas are having big inflows, california and New York huge outflows. Whatever your viewpoint this is the fact politicians see. And yes taxes and cost of living are a huge driving force not only COVID, but as long as remote work goes on people will keep moving to low cost of living and low tax states.

You don't think the fact that this country just had the largest ever COVID wave (in terms of cases), which is in the process of ending, is at all related to the decisions? Also of the scant 40 million people remaining in California, who haven't yet moved to Texas or Florida, public support for at least some "COVID protocols" are very high [1]. I'm not sure you are giving an impartial assessment of the facts. 1: https…

Midterms is the reason and California doesn't count. The happy path is that covid recedes over spring and summer as folks spend more time outside. If another variant crops up it may hit the deep south first like Delta did since they will be inside for AC reasons. But then you are close enough to November anyway. We will still have strict test before you fly requirements for international travelers and anyone who wants to fly to the USA has to be vaccinated (except for Americans returning).

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

#340

Post by IHLayman »

Ntrails wrote: post #287
xenadu02 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair warning: my experience has been very different than yours or tombert's in most respects and some things have changed over time (some OSS contributions are now much easier, a very recent change). It is also the first company I've worked for that backed up appreciation for my efforts with compensation to match, and where my management chain cared about burnout and mental health with actions rather than empty words…

> 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.

At some point I would like people to quit vilifying a completely legitimate business setup because it doesn’t fit their world view as well. But as you can guess from my lead up, I look at it from the opposite direction.

If there is no reason for software developers (or other IT professionals who don’t have to have physical access to the servers to do their jobs) to be in the office, and we have been far more productive at home than we have been in an office that requires 2 hours of commute, extra expenditures for food, an increased chance of viral infection, noise cancelling headphones so you don’t have to deal with the stupid gossip a couple aisles over just to focus on the task at hand, then should we be required to come in just because others prefer it when their coworkers are there too?

Can’t we just leave it up the choice of the people who are working how they would prefer to work? Or do we have to enforce a skeuomorphic working arrangement on everyone just because our managers like it better?

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