Apple employees cite white patriarchy to fight return to office

A group of Apple employees are rallying against the company’s proposal to get staff back in the office by claiming it will make the company “younger, whiter and more male-dominated.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook has begun phasing in a “hybrid work” pilot that build toward employees coming into the office three days a week – Monday, Tuesday and Thursday – by May 23.

“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 wrote in an email to employees in March, adding that the plan includes the option to work remotely for up to four weeks a year.

“For others, it may also be an unsettling change. I want you to know that we are deeply committed to giving you the support and flexibility that you need in this next phase.”

The group, “Apple Together,” which comprises some 200 U.S.-based employees of its 165,000 total, released an open letter to Apple’s executives to lay out its arguments against returning to the office.

The letter challenges the value of the “serendipity” of running into colleagues and “in-person” collaboration at the office, saying they understood the value but that “for many of us, this is not something we need every week, often not even every month, definitely not every day.”

The authors continued by the weekly requirement and commute meant the hybrid proposal was not as flexible as claimed.

“Stop treating us like school kids who need to be told when to be where and what homework to do,” they wrote, asking they be able to decide for themselves which approach would work best.

The fifth point on diversity argues the challenges of relocating to and going into the office “will change the makeup of our workforce.”

“It will make Apple younger, whiter, more male-dominated, more neuro-normative, more able-bodied, in short, it will lead to privileges deciding who can work for Apple, not who’d be the best fit,” the letter reads, saying that referral and relocation bonuses were not sufficient to compensate for these challenges.

Apple Together wraps up the letter quoting Steve Jobs: “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

“Here we are, the smart people that you hired, and we are telling you what to do: Please get out of our way,” the letter concludes.

The company spent nearly $5 billion on Apple Park, its new “spaceship” headquarters in Cupertino categories. It also has other offices in other buildings in Cupertino, San Jose and elsewhere.