Apple Inc. has set an April 11 deadline for corporate employees to return to in-person work, marking a key test of whether the tech giant can reestablish office life in the Zoom era.
Employees will be required to work from the office at least one day per week by that date, according to a memo sent by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook on Friday.
By three weeks after April 11, employees will be expected in the office twice per week. And on May 23, employees will need to be in the office at least three days a week — on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
“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.”
The company has been trying to bring employees back to the office since last June, but had postponed the return deadline several times as Covid cases surged during fall and winter. Apple had previously postponed September, October, January and February deadlines before ultimately scrapping its return plans indefinitely in December.
“In the coming weeks and months, we have an opportunity to combine the best of what we have learned about working remotely with the irreplaceable benefits of in-person collaboration,” Cook said in the memo. “It is as important as ever that we support each other through this transition, through the challenges we face as a team and around the world.”
Apple has also told staff that they will get an additional month of work-from-home time for the year as part of a hybrid pilot program.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google recently adopted a similar policy, requiring employees to work from the office three days per week. Other companies, such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Twitter Inc., have been less stringent, saying they’ll let some employees work from home indefinitely despite having corporate offices.
Apple has gradually loosened Covid-19 protocols across the company. It recently began to phase out its mask mandate at retail stores for both shoppers and employees and no longer requires office workers in some regions to wear masks if they are vaccinated.
The Cupertino, California-based company has also doubled its Covid-19 testing to twice per week for all employees.
Masks will become optional at most U.S. sites in the coming weeks, Cook said Friday. “As always, we will continue monitoring local conditions and are prepared to adjust our protocols as necessary for the health of our teams and communities.”
Apple has corporate offices across the world, including in Silicon Valley, London and Japan. In the U.S., it has offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Boulder, New York and Miami.
