Apple exec leaves work from home Business

An Apple executive has left the company to protest the tech giant’s demands that staff return to the office three days a week.

Ian Goodfellow, Apple’s director of machine learning, told staff upon his departure that he disagreed with the company’s insistence that staff return to its Silicon headquarters. Valley, according to tech website The Verge.

He reportedly said: “I firmly believe that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team.”

Apple staff are currently required to work at least one day in the office and from May 23, they will be required to come to work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Staff will be able to work from home or in the office on Wednesdays and Fridays and work remotely four weeks a year.

The policy is stricter than many Silicon Valley companies such as Meta, Google and Twitter, where staff were told they could work remotely permanently or given more flexibility on when they work in an office.

Apple staff have protested the company’s demands and said employees are leaving because of the demands, but Mr. Goodfellow is the longest-serving reported departure.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said video calls can’t replace the experience of working together.

“Despite all that we have been able to accomplish while many of us have been separated, the truth is that something essential has been missing over the past year: each other,” said he said in a memo to staff last year.

“Video conferencing has reduced the distance between us, sure, but there are things it just can’t replicate.”

The company has repeatedly delayed its full plans to return to the office following a series of spikes in Covid cases.

Mr Goodfellow is one of the world’s best-known artificial intelligence researchers and was poached from Google in 2019.

The ability to work remotely permanently has been a major draw for tech companies looking to hire scarce talent. Last month, Airbnb told employees they could work remotely and would not take pay cuts if they moved to cheaper parts of the world.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.