Remote Work Policy and Culture at Apple

While most people in the world today know of Apple and its products, not many are familiar with the Apple remote work policy. So many at-home workers have turned to Apple’s laptops, cellphones, desktops, and software to aid in their remote working.

But how does the company with the best remote working products treat its own remote workers? What is their distance-working policy?

We’ll answer these questions and more in this article. We’ll highlight the notable aspects of the policy and look at employee reviews and the latest news on remote work at Apple.

 

Highlights of Apple’s Remote Work Policy

There has been a lot of dispute in the past couple of months around Apple’s remote working structure. The company announced its desire to have workers switch back to hybrid in-person working hours. This was met with opposition from employees who wished to keep operating remotely.

Internal Apple pro-remote work activists even created a Slack group dedicated to opposing the hybrid proposition. The “remote work advocacy” group has over 7500 of the organization’s staff supporting it. This opposition led to Apple delaying its plan to return to U.S. offices from February 1st.

Despite this, Apple’s remote system has provided exceptional support to employees as they adapted to at-home functionality. Some of the benefits of the policy included:

 

Work-From-Home Office Budget

Apple employees received a stipend dedicated to equipping their homes for remote work. A memo from Apple’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Cook, placed this amount at $1000.

 

Hybrid Work vs Full Remote Choice

Although this has been the major point of conflict for Apple in recent months, some of its employees have already returned to the office.

For years before the pandemic, some Apple engineers already had the option to work from home under specific circumstances. Their technical support staff could also work remotely provided they visited the office occasionally. Other positions like At Home Advisors have always been fully remote.

But, on the whole, Apple is pushing for the return to traditional, in-office work (at least, on a hybrid basis). While some departments allow workers to operate away from Silicon Valley, most positions at the company still require workers to travel into the office.

 

Flexibility & Better Control Over Hours

A major benefit of remote working is the control it gives workers over their hours. Pro-remote advocates at Apple cite this as one of the reasons they wish to keep working from home. Without long commutes and other in-office demands, they can spend more time on their actual work. They can also better plan their time and achieve a work-life balance.

 

Fantastic Pay

Apple employees retain their pay even as they work remotely. As of March 2022, Business Insider marked the income of employees in product development and engineering positions as between $100 000 and over $200 000. In marketing and advertising positions, senior employees can earn up to $325 000. Other standard remote positions also pay fairly, starting and rising from $15 per hour.

 

Employee Reviews Of Remote Work At Apple

GlassDoor reviews praise the tech giant’s work-from-home policy. Employees highlight the following as standout positives for Apple remote workers:

• Above-average pay
• Flexible hours
• Excellent training and development
• A great team to work with
• Potential for improvement and growth
• Paid leave or time off
• Stipend for all or part of your remote office equipment

There are various reasons why employees want to continue working remotely. These include not having to commute daily and spending less or nothing on transport. For former office workers at Apple, remote work has made it possible to move to more affordable areas away from expensive Silicon Valley.

Overall, it is the flexibility and work-life balance that most reviews point to. As Apple hopes to shift to hybrid working conditions, these are some of the benefits employees stand to lose.

 

Apple Remote Work In The News

Since the end of 2021 when Apple first announced its intention to have workers back in the office, the spotlight has been on the workers’ opposition to this. Employees established petitions against the proposed move, gathering over 1000 signatures. In response to the worker discontent, Apple moved the initial return-to-office from the first of February to April 2022.

But, Apple remains intentional about introducing hybrid work structures. These would begin with staff coming to the office once a week and increase to three days a week with four weeks of full remote working per year. Corporate employees were set to begin this hybrid model on April 11th, attending three days a week by late May.

 

Conclusion

Although Apple’s remote work policy provides support and wonderful benefits, it has become an issue of values between the company and its staff. Compared to other tech companies’ remote work policies (like Twitter which is embracing full-time remote work), Apple remains more rigid in its approach. This puts a dent in their otherwise flawless work-from-policy.

The results of this? Well, Apple may find themselves losing valued employees. And job seekers looking for remote positions may skip the digital company entirely.