Apple to Start Returning Some Employees to Offices in the Following Weeks

by Kay Lee

According to recent reports, Apple is planning to start returning employees to the offices soon, even though other tech giants are deciding to keep their staff at home for at least the end of the year. As people return to Apple’s offices, the company will make temperature checks as well as implement social distancing, and employees will need to wear face masks.

However, not all employees will get back to the company’s offices at once as Apple has a gradual return planned, and it will happen in several phases over several months.

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The first phase that “has already begun in some regions globally” focuses on employees who are unable to work from home or are “facing challenges” to do their jobs outside the offices. Most likely, these people are those working on hardware products. This stage will continue through May into early June. More employees will return in the second stage, which is set to begin in July. Starting this week, heads of the departments will let staff know whether they are in the first or second stages.

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Apple has not provided any comments regarding this decision yet.

Even though a lot of staff will return in the following months, it does not necessarily mean that everyone will be expected back soon. Those who can perform their tasks at home successfully will get this opportunity. However, the company’s culture around the products it plans to release makes it difficult for some employees to do their job remotely.

Apple’s approach is slightly different from that of other companies, including Google and Facebook that let their employees work from home until at least the end of 2020, and Twitter that allows its workforce to work from home forever if they choose to.

Although most of the employees at Apple will resume their work in the offices, not everything will go as it was previously planned. The company’s traditional WWDC Developer Conference would be held online on June 22 for the first time due to the coronavirus quarantine.

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Also, Apple has begun opening some of the stores that were closed because of the emerging coronavirus pandemic. This week, stores in Alabama, Alaska, South Carolina, and Idaho are re-opening, and stores in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, South Korea, and Australia have been re-opened already.