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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

#261

Post by closeparen »

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 "…

The difference is now almost everyone dying is unvaccinated, and almost everyone unvaccinated (in the Western industrialized world) is that way by choice.

We cannot force these people to vaccinate for their own good, but neither can we be held hostage by them.

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

#262

Post by mattwad »

windows2020 wrote: post #21

Maybe 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.

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

#263

Post by LAC-Tech »

CSSer wrote: post #107
dnathi493 wrote: post #5

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…

They seem very rooted in the past for lots of ideas, which is ironic given the image and culture they try to project. For example, I've heard at least one story of someone being asked lots of irrelevant CS questions for a front-end role when they interviewed there. He did fine, but he said he felt like the interview somehow felt fifteen years out of date, which really stuck with me.

What CS questions would be irrelevant for front end? I don't quite follow.

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

#264

Post by unsui »

ironman1478 wrote: post #145
angryasian wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested in how you accomplish this. Everything has to be scheduled in a meeting these days, and meeting burn out over zoom is real. Where as in the office it was just walking around and seeing someone in an elevator, the hall, "hey lets catch up" or "you have a minute" or "lets get lunch" these types of interactions just don't happen anymore

> Everything has to be scheduled in a meeting these days, and meeting burn out over zoom is real. At my company, we obviously have to chat over zoom or meet, but it doesn't have to be scheduled. The way we do it is we might be chatting on slack, spitballing ideas, doing stuff in lucidchart or some other charting software, then if it seems good we talk about it over zoom. It doesn't have to be so robotic

Agreed.

Pre-scheduling is ONE way of getting people in sync, but not the only way.

For me and my team, there is a LOT of ad-hoc communication, preferrably in public slack channels, which leads to extremely productive conversations.

Furthermore, these are SEARCHABLE, which is a godsend; if an issue comes up once, it's very likely to come up again.

And, of course, there are times when we just jump on a zoom call quickly to review something that may be quicker than a bunch of slack back-and-forth.

There has never been a time where I felt "damn, it would be easier if I were there in person". If anything, in-person communication has always been hampered by the very need for co-location (including arranging meeting rooms or whiteboard, etc), and it's always been difficult to view someone else's screen unless they connect to a projector or large TV, whereas zoom has made pair-and -group programming almost inevitable.

I understand the social side of people wanting to be co-located, but from a pure productivity perspective, my team has been significantly more productive since WFH.

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

#265

Post by yalogin »

throwaway1777 wrote: post #68
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 "…

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.

I get people are skeptical but let's be objective here. Not everything needs to be a conspiracy and an evil scheme. California and NY followed CDC guidance. We are past the Omicron phase and may be the data shows we are in the clear. If losing out people was the issue then did NY just participate in this "scheme" out of solidarity to California?

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

#266

Post by tinus_hn »

tanseydavid wrote: post #231
tinus_hn wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is, that’s hardly a conspiracy.

No one in the thread (except for you) has used the word 'conspiracy.'

No, the claim was that mandates were being abandoned not because it was scientifically prudent, but because of a nearing election.

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

#267

Post by LAC-Tech »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #258
dpweb wrote: post #218

Earlier 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.

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. Why hasn't the Biden administration fixed this, by the way? Anyone know? Frankly it's astonishing how few Trump-era policies have been reversed by this administration. When the GOP-dominated Congress acted to remove the SALT deduction, I always assumed it was just a bit of petty electoral re…

I think it's helpful to think of elections as not replacing governments entirely, but swapping out a very small publicly facing segment.

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

#268

Post by LAC-Tech »

mdoms wrote: post #188
saturdaysaint wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This line of argument doesn't hold up to the slightest scrutiny. First of all, it's quite pedantic and naive to assume that governments and medical bodies in the richest and most advanced countries haven't worked through similar issues of causality with innumerable other diseases. More to the point, the peaks in COVID deaths magically align with proportionately large spikes in all cause mortality not seen in prior ye…

Here in New Zealand a gang member was shot to death and was recorded as a covid death because he tested positive posthumously. This is apparently in line with international practices. If you don't see the absurdity in that then I don't know what to say.

Covid helping to do the job our police and military can't.

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

#269

Post by voidfunc »

fshbbdssbbgdd wrote: post #220
abledon wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> b) there's no such thing as "my own time" with Apple, since I was salaried and well-compensated. Is there 1 FAANG company that is the most friendly/accomodating to someone who wants to develop their own software/indiegames on the side?

Not FAANG, but GitHub explicitly allows employees to work on side-projects while retaining the IP rights, and you get paid Microsoft stock.

Whats hilarious is that this is definitely not the case for regular MS employees

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

#270

Post by birdyrooster »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #256
tombert wrote: post #97

Earlier 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…

Woz to HP management: "Hey, I know we already sell computers, want to have a look at this one? If not, can I sell it myself?" HP to Woz: "Sure, go for it, good luck." Apple to their own employees: "Uh, let's see here.... how about 'No.' Does 'No' work? Good, then we'll go with 'No.'" Gotta love the Valley. You either flame out early, or you live long enough to become the face on the telescreen.

I don't understand what this is supposed to mean.
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