Apple has imposed a deadline of April 11th for its U.S. employees to return to office work like in Cupertino and other offices. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple employees have been working largely from home.
According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple has set a deadline of April 11 for the U.S.-based employees to start returning for office work now that COVID-19 cases are starting to decline and local governments loosening restrictions.
This is not the first Apple attempt to bring employees back for office work, as the company tried to do so back in September and October but failed due to surging fall and winter cases.
Gurman reports that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook sent a memo saying that employees will be required to work from the office at least one day per week and that following the deadline, employees are required to work in the office twice per week.
“For many of you, I know that returning to the office represents a long-awaited milestone and a positive sign that we can engage more fully with the colleagues who play such an important role in our lives,” Cook said. “For others, it may also be an unsettling change.”
Additionally, the memo adds that the Cupertino-based giant told staff that they will receive an extra month of work-from-home time for this year as part of a hybrid work system, a similar approach that Google adopted a couple of days ago.
Last August, Gurman noted that Apple’s return-to-office plan was already considered to be delayed to January 2022 “at the latest”. Now, it is likely that this spring is the targeted time for the company.
In other news, most Apple retail stores in the U.S. have dropped the mask requirement as COVID-19 cases decline and changes to local mask mandates. This is a very big step for the company’s return-to-normal-life events.
