Employees of the tech giant Apple are revolting against a plan to get staff back into the office for three days a week, claiming it will make the company more male-dominated.
Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, has said his proposed hybrid working pilot for US, Europe and UK employees is an attempt to balance the corporate benefits of in-office working with the personal advantages that working from home gives.
A group of US-based Apple employees have formed an organisation called Apple Together, which they claim is only driven by fear.
The staff of the multi-trillion dollar company wrote an open letter to the executives of the company and gave six reasons why they think the plan to get back to the office will fail.
It will negatively impact diversity within the company.
Apple will likely always find people willing to work here, but our current policies requiring everyone to relocate to the office their team happens to be based in will change the make-up of our workforce.
It will make Apple younger, more male-dominated, and more able-bodied. Privileges will decide who can work for Apple, not who would be the best fit.
Being born in the right place, being young and having a stay-at- home spouse are examples of these privileges.
The letter is believed to have gotten around 200 signatures, which is roughly 0.1 percent of the organization's 165,000 employees.
The letter's anti-office stance is indicative of a larger conflict going on around the world as staff and bosses wrestle with finding a new working norm in the wake of the coronaviruses outbreak which saw most people forced to work from home if they could.
Companies are eager for staff to return to the office as they believe it is better for output, productivity and morale, whereas staff are reluctant to give up the new work-life balance gifted to them by repeated lockdowns
Lord Rose, chairman of the supermarket Asda, told the BBC that he thinks people are more productive in the office.
Employers need to be flexible and take into account the needs of employees, according to the retail doyen.
The open letter to Apple's chiefs is a direct response to an email from Tim Cook that revealed employees in the US, as well as those in the UK and Europe, would need to be in the office twice a week.
Though the timing may vary to some degree in different countries, we will follow the same process wherever we are not yet back in the office, Mr Cook wrote.
There will no longer be a requirement to wear a mask at Apple sites due to the decreasing number of Covid cases.
Mr Cook said 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.
It may be an unnerving change for others. I want you to know that we are committed to giving you the support and flexibility that you need in this next phase.
The new option of being able to work remotely for four weeks a year is part of that support and flexibility.
The Apple employees believe that in-person collaboration does have some benefits.
The disgruntled employees say that being in the office for three days a week gives them almost no flexibility at all, despite the fact that they would be working from home 40 per cent of the time.
They say that we should be treated like school kids who need to be told when to be where and what to do.
The commute is a huge waste of time and resources for the employees. They claim that if they have to commute more than an hour and a half, they should be paid for it.
Apple has been contacted.
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