[SoftWare] A Single-Mother, Self-Taught Software Developer Living With Mental Illness Raises Concerns Over Apple’s Limited Remote-Work Policy

[Love Pulse]

 

 

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, recently told his global workforce of 137,000 employees that they'd have to return to the office beginning early September. It's expected that employees will spend about three days a week at the office and the other two at home or remotely.

In an open letter to Cook, some employees of Apple voiced their concerns about returning to an in-person office setting stating, “We feel like the current policy is not sufficient in addressing many of our needs.” The letter pointed out that workers delivered “the same quality of products and services that Apple is known for, all while working almost completely remotely.”

Despite protests from workers, Apple is remaining resolute in its position. Remote-work positions will be limited and decisions made “on a case-by-case basis with any new remote positions requiring executive approval.”

 

Software developer Cher Scarlett is one of the Apple employees who wrote the letter to Cook. In an hour-long interview with her, it's clear that Scarlett loves her job at Apple. To her it's a dream role that offers incredible intellectual challenges and the opportunity to pursue, interesting, exciting purposeful work. She's a loyal employee and devoted to her colleagues and company.

Scarlett, like many others living with mental illness, requires accommodations. She is open about her bipolar disorder. One of the positive outcomes of the pandemic was the public discourse surrounding mental and emotional health matters.

 

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As a single mother with a nontraditional Silicon Valley background, she signed up to the company as a remote worker. The decision of Apple to restrict remote work was heartbreaking—and not just for her. Scarlett was concerned about other people who will face challenges with the new policy. She was surprised to learn of the news through the media instead of hearing directly from the company. “I was so distraught. It really upset me. I found out from 9to5Mac,” she said.

Scarlett wanted to find out what the options were for herself and co-workers. “I went through so many channels—employee engagement and my people business partner.” Scarlett was disappointed that she wasn't provided with a “personal response, even in the form of a mass email.” She pointed out that remote work was highly successful for the company. Apple had an amazing year and the stock price hit record highs. "We spent a year working remotely. Look at all these great things we delivered.”

 

There are flaws with the hybrid method for all companies. When people go into the office two or three days a week, what are the odds that the co-workers you need to collaborate with onsite are on the same schedule? After a long commute, you may find out that the folks you need to work with aren't there. You'll end up video conferencing them, making the trek into the office a complete waste of time. There are also office constraints. According to Scarlett, “In Cupertino, there's a lot of fighting over meeting spaces, where people end up on WebEx meetings anyway—either because they can't find space within the office or they're meeting with people who are in different offices, whether it's in China or the United States.”

 

“There are people who work with other teams in different parts of the world, different parts of the United States, even different parts of California. There is nothing really that happens within Apple, that only happens in one place. It's alarming that that is the crux they've decided to set their idea on—that it's all happening being physically onsite,” Scarlett said highlighting the flaws in the system. This is one of the reasons why Gitlab's CEO Sid Sijbrandij said, “Hybrid remote work offers the worst of both worlds.”

 

A requirement to seek a manager's permission for remote work seems reasonable at first. When you dig deeper, there are flaws in that logic. Each manager may have a different perspective, which would result in unfair treatment. For instance, a manager with an "old-school" mindset may automatically default to telling people to return to the office, whereas a progressive forward-thinking supervisor would likely be more sensitive to the individual needs of their staff.

 

Scarlett brings up a conversation she had with a peer. “I had someone reach out to me that doesn't want to go into the office and she's the only woman on her team. I started thinking about the fact that for a lot of women, they're the only women on their teams. Of course, a lot of them are uncomfortable. It's scary. There is a lack of empathy and insight.” This highlights the awkward position some women will be placed in when going to management for remote approval. It's not easy nor comfortable to share personal mental, emotional and physical challenges to a supervisor.

 

Employees will be forced to share highly personal information. There has to be a worry and concern if a manger will now look at the person differently. It would be understandable for an employee to fear that by disclosing personal matters, it may harm the progression of their career. Could this information leak out to others within the organization? “Apple is doing themselves a disservice by not recognizing that people—especially about disabilities—are coming to somebody who they don’t know who is a colleague, but not anywhere near their team, to say, ‘Hey, I trust you with this information. Can you help me navigate this situation?’ But they’re not going to the team literally designed to do that.”

 

Scarlett voices concern for others. “Apple cares so much about your data, so you should think automatically I could go to them and let them know I have a disability, let them know I need to be able to work from home and I am going to be treated with kindness, fairness and privacy, but people don’t feel that way.” 

 

She said, “They need to recognize that people feel that way and go head on in addressing it. A part of the reason people feel that way is when they put out videos like this, pleading with them about their personal life circumstances, whether it’s health related—physical or mental—they’re taking care of sick family members, ones that got sick during the pandemic or have had to move because they were struggling financially because they lost their jobs during the pandemic. Do you think within three months they're supposed to say, ‘Oh, sorry! I can't take care of you anymore.’?”

 

Scarlett added, “Employees feel scared they’ll be retaliated against no matter how many times you tell them there's a non-retaliation policy. You’re protected by the law. You can talk about workplace issues.” 

Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of retail and people said in a company video, “We believe that in-person collaboration is essential to our culture and our future.” She continued, “If we take a moment to reflect on our unbelievable product launches this past year, the products and the launch execution were built upon the base of years of work that we did when we were all together in-person.”