“Are you an office-based Apple employee? Are you less than thrilled with the RTO mandate? Sign the petition, lets stand together.”
So reads a petition launched to give Apple employees a voice if they disagree with the company’s plans to return to in-office work, a plan that is expected to take effect in less than two weeks.
The announcement came from a memo issued by Apple CEO Tim Cook and stated workers in the San Francisco Bay Area will be expected to report back the office for work three days a week, beginning September 5.
In addition, Tuesday and Thursday will be mandatory in-office days with the third day for each worker determined by their individual teams. The memo’s contents were reported by The Verge.
That announcement led to the creation of the petition, printed in full below:
Are you an office-based Apple employee? Are you less than thrilled with the RTO mandate? Sign the petition, lets stand together," says the call to action, which was published overnight.
For the past 2+ years, Apple’s formerly office-based employees have performed exceptional work, flexibly, both outside and inside traditional office environments," the petition says. "However, Apple leadership recently announced they require a general return to office starting the week of Sept 5 (Labor Day).
This uniform mandate from senior leadership does not consider the unique demands of each job role nor the diversity of individuals," the petition argues.
"Those asking for more flexible arrangements have many compelling reasons and circumstances: from disabilities (visible or not); family care; safety, health, and environmental concerns; financial considerations; to just plain being happier and more productive.
We believe that Apple should encourage, not prohibit, flexible work to build a more diverse and successful company where we can feel comfortable to 'think different' together.
So far, Apple has yet to comment publicly on the petition, which appears to be in line with the growing movement for workers’ rights across the company that has seen unionization efforts at the local branches of large corporations like Amazon and Starbucks.
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