Blowback Over Apple’s Back-to-Work Agenda

Head of Machine Learning Leaves Over Physical Return to Work Policies

09 MAY 2022 - While Quanta workers rebel over having to stay at work, one Apple exec has decided to not go back to it. Apple Insider says Ian Goodfellow, the Cupertino-company’s director of machine learning, has ended his time with Apple after a three-year run. Among his reason’s - Apple’s plans to bring people back to the office. 

Apple workers at the corporate level are meant to be back at their offices two-days a week currently. Plans are for that to ramp up to three-days a week by Monday 23 May. And Mr. Goodfellow is not down with it. The piece on his departure cites a Twitter post from Zoe Schiffer of The Verge. According to that:

Ian Goodfellow, Apple’s director of machine learning, is leaving the company due to its return to work policy. In a note to staff, he said “I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team.” He was likely the company’s most cited ML (Machine Learning) expert.

Open Letter Calls Apple Out Over Back-to-Office Hybrid

While he may be the highest profile Apple employee displeased with Apple’s back-to-work-at-work plan, the jolly Googfellow is far from the only one. Engadget ran a report last week on an open letter published by Apple office workers. Like Goodfellow, they too cite inflexibility in Apple’s plans as a sticking point. Quoting the letter to Apple corporate:

You have characterized the decision for the Hybrid Working Pilot as being about combining the “need to commune in-person” and the value of flexible work… But in reality, it does not recognize flexible work and is only driven by fear. Fear of the future of work, fear of worker autonomy, fear of losing control.

This is followed by accusations of hypocrisy. Quoting the letter again:

We tell all of our customers how great our products are for remote work, yet, we ourselves, cannot use them to work remotely? How can we expect our customers to take that seriously? How can we understand what problems of remote work need solving in our products if we don't live it?

Perhaps the most stinging rebuke - the employees seem to argue that the physical return to work is potentially discriminatory. The letter argues that the move will lead to a “younger, whiter, more male-dominated, more neuro-normative, more able-bodied” workforce.

No word on a response from Apple.