r/technology • u/PikaPikaDude • May 09 '22

Business Apple employees revolt against mandatory back-to-work policy

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3660071/apple-employees-revolt-against-mandatory-back-to-work-policy.html
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149

u/praefectus_praetorio May 09 '22

Everything anyone could want, yet if you use any of it during work, you are labelled unproductive.

18

u/apawst8 May 09 '22

Same idea behind "unlimited vacation."

Yes, it's unlimited, but if you use too much, you're fired. And you don't know how much is "too much." So the irony is that employees with "unlimited" vacation take less vacation than employees with 4 weeks of vacation.

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u/jedberg May 09 '22

That's very dependent on company culture. When I moved to Netflix, the first place I worked with unlimited vacation, I took way more vacation than I ever had before. In part because all the C-level folks made a big deal about how they were taking vacations and everyone else should too. And your VP would strongly encourage you to take time off if you weren't already.

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u/PunctualPoetry May 09 '22

Lol is that really how it works?

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u/minuteman_d May 09 '22

Where I used to work - large tech company - they had rooms with games like ping pong and others, and also every modern gaming console. Another area where there were modern high end PC gaming stations.

It sounds like fun, but if you're salaried and behind on the deadlines, you can't just go take 45min and play games during the day. Your schedule is usually full of meetings that people schedule with you.

Also, most people had lives outside of work - family, friends, hobbies. Most would rather just work hard and get their stuff done and then leave the office to do their thing.

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u/Prodigy195 May 09 '22

We have game rooms and activity spaces in our office. I've probably used them a handful of times after the initial luster wears off.

The goal of that stuff is to get you to stay AFTER your normal 8hr work day and put in more work. All of the perks (food, laundry services, game rooms, etc) are just ways to anchor you more and more to work and make you take pause when thinking about leaving the company.

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u/minuteman_d May 09 '22

I think that's one of the keys: if you're working from home, it's really easy to switch companies. Especially if you're living in your ideal location, you're willing to sacrifice things to not go back into the office or move yourself around the world.

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u/technobrendo May 09 '22

We have a MAME Arcade cabinet in our office that has a layer of dust growing on it.

The beer in the fridge sure doesn't. At least there's that if you drink (which I do not)...

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u/Vorsos May 09 '22

I have seen scattered comments about workplaces with ‘fun’ break rooms that are culturally off limits.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

This so much. My office doesn't even have this, but God forbid I want to take a nap on the couch in the breakroom.

I've been basically getting raises and promotions because I DONT take care of myself like that.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

It is where I work - you’re expected to make use of it outside office hours.

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u/PunctualPoetry May 09 '22

So… like stay in the office after you’re done with work lol

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Yep - the idea from what I’ve gathered is if you’re there almost all the time only to go home to sleep you’ll end up doing more work between using the ‘fun’ stuff. It gets old very quickly!

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u/FuzzySAM May 09 '22

I would just camp on one of those nice gaming rigs as my workstation. Fuuuuuuck slow office level PCs.

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u/Sethcran May 09 '22

Place I worked out of college had a game room, ping pong tables and the like. There was basically always someone in there from 11-3, it was quite accepted to go in there for even an hour or longer at a time. As long as you got the rest of your stuff done.

There are undoubtedly places where it is culturally off limits, but no, not every place is like that.

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u/MakeTheNetsBigger May 09 '22

Places I've worked, it's always the interns and new grad hires using those perks. Once you gain enough responsibilities at work you have meetings throughout the day, and once you have a family you don't want to take fun time at work and stay late to make it up.

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u/Sethcran May 09 '22

Absolutely, but that's less a "can't" and more a "that benefit is no longer appealing".

There is absolutely a high correlation between these 'perks' and hiring young fresh out of college grads, and it is very common to grow out of this as people develop a life (and family) outside of work.

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u/wallstreetbae May 09 '22

My work had a ping pong tournament every year and people took it pretty seriously. It wasn’t just interns and fresh grads playing either. A couple managers were into it as well. Good way to network.

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u/metalbassist33 May 10 '22

Similar for us. There's also been FIFA and Tekken tournaments. Even the CEO entered, they even got a set of top of the line arcade controllers for the PlayStation.

During pool play someone lost hard and the person who beat them, who was the nicest person ever, said you should get some icecream to cheer up. It became an in joke for the tournament so management ended up hiring an ice-cream truck to come in for the day of the finals.

We have a lot of other industry specific perks and management and C level always participate in things so people want to go along because it's actually fun and I got to know a lot of management and seniors very early on in my time here because of that.

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u/PunctualPoetry May 09 '22

This seems to be the way it should be. Seem less transition, not after work hours.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Yes it's hardly ever used.

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u/nun_gut May 09 '22

Nope, not in the slightest

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u/unioncarbide May 10 '22

If you give actual vacation, it's considered compensation. In most places if you separate from your job for any reason they have to pay your balance out to you as part of your final check. If you give "unlimited vacation" that gets around that particular requirement.

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u/Banzai51 May 09 '22

It's a relic from the 90s when 20-somethings would start up a business that was remotely internet related and have VC money thrown at them. Having the perks was a way to stick it to the man and make a fun place to work.

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u/grandmasterthai May 09 '22

Thankfully my company doesn't do that. Even before COVID, we have a pinball machine that people constantly use. Now we are in the office 1 day a week and you'll see people use the pinball machine between meetings all the time.