Half of all staff may leave: Apple braces for exodus of workers as return-to-office order does not fly well
Staff at iPhone and laptop giant Apple are reportedly so unhappy with the company’s return-to-office policy that half of all workers is considering to leave.
In March, Apple informed most of its employees they would be expected to return to the office on 11 April, and the company made clear it expects its staff to be back in the office full-time overtime.
However, there is fierce resistance from many employees within the company, according to the publication Apple Insider.
In fact, a survey by Blind of Apple, a small social network, showed that more than half, or 56 per cent, of all Apple workers are actively looking for another job, outside the company.
The reason most staff want to leave is specifically linked to the requirement to return to the office, Yahoo Finance reported.
Some staff that were surveyed by Blind of Apple indicated a fear of getting Covid is holding them back, while others pointed out a toxic company culture, and a lack of a decent work-life balance.
Another one wrote in a post on the Blind site that Apple’s senior managers are simply “tone deaf, as usual.”
The 56 per cent figure referred to is that of the 652 employees surveyed by Blind. This equates to around365 employees, not half of Apple’s 165,000 employees.
Real test
Some write that the real test for Apple comes on 23 May, when the company’s hybrid work force should be largely back in the office full-time.
An employee wrote: “Apple is going to see attrition like no other come June. 60% of my team doesn’t even live near the office. They are not returning.”
Blind PR director Rick Chen explained to various news outlets that the employees were verified via their corporate email address. He stressed that the people who were surveyed are “overwhelmingly corporate workers in engineering or product roles.”