Apple monitoring to make sure corporate employees return to the office at least three times per week

According to Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer — as noted by 9to5Mac — Apple is closely monitoring attendance via badge records to ensure employees are coming to the office at least three times per week.

“Apple is tracking employee attendance (via badge records) and will give employees escalating warnings if they don’t come in 3x per week,” Schiffer tweeted. “Also Elon Musk sent Twitter employees an email at 2:30am saying the ‘office is not optional’ and noting SF was half empty yesterday.

On Aug. 16, 2022, Apple announced that corporate employees must return to the office for three days starting the week of Monday, September 5. The tech giant requires employees to work in-person on Tuesday, Thursday, and a third day that will vary by team as part of a hybrid return-to-work plan. The hybrid work plan was initially intended to start in May, but was pushed back due to COVID-19 cases. 

Apple says its hybrid work policy is meant to be “both collaborative and flexible.” However, not everyone wants such a policy, according to a Quartz at Work report.

The Financial Times says the petition says that Apple “should encourage, not prohibit, flexible work” where employees can “feel comfortable to ‘think different’ together.” The group behind the petition want Apple employees to be able to work with their “immediate manager” on their working arrangements, instead of dealing with “high-level approvals” and “complex procedures.”