The big comeback

Apple’s employees are less and less happy. Last Monday, the entire company returned to the office in the Cupertino complex despite strong discontent. Before the summer sparked the fuse was the announcement by the CEO, Tim Cook, who announced that as of September 5 it would be mandatory to return to the desks at least three days a week (NBC News). Today Bay Area workers must report to the office every Tuesday and Thursday, plus a third day determined by individual teams.

The petition

The reaction was immediate. A group of employees, under the name Apple Together, has circulated an internal petition asking the company for more flexibility, and because they believe they have done an “outstanding job” during the pandemic years. In the petition, wrote the Financial Times, employees claimed to be more “happy and productive” if they can work outside traditional patterns. The requirement to return to the office, the giant’s employees argue, does not take into account the more personal aspects of workers’ lives, sometimes called upon to deal with issues as diverse as disability, family caregiving, health concerns or financial considerations.

How will we work?

Problems about returning to the office, however, are not just affecting Apple. Many companies in the United States and Europe are wondering how to deal with the post-pandemic future and how much flexibility is fair and convenient to provide to their employees, who are increasingly eager to balance work and private life. To give just one example, at the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy – wrote the
Corriere
– one of the largest U.S. and global investors appealed for employees to return to work in corporate offices, as smart working “isolates and makes them more partisan.” In between pandemic waves, employers hoped to get people back in the office immediately. Then plans were derailed due to a new variant of the coronavirus, and so today not everyone is certain of the course to be taken in future years. To explain it in the words of the
New York Times
, what we are about to experience could be the end of an era for desk jockeys, or the beginning of a worker rebellion that will bring enormous changes to the lives of each of us.