Apple’s Tim Cook shares his company’s WFH experience

It still seems a little counter-intuitive that one of the world’s biggest technology firms was also one of the least amenable to remote working, but this, I’ve heard, describes the culture at Apple pre-COVID-19.

Now things have changed there, just as they have elsewhere.

Going back better

Speaking during a more extensive interview conducted at The Atlantic Festival, Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed his company’s experience around remote working, explaining that around 10% to 15% of company staff have been working at the office during the pandemic. The remaining 85% to 90% of Apple employees are currently working from home, he said, admitting that he does so himself, some of the time.

All the same, he confessed to missing the social interactions. “Things like creativity and the serendipity…, these things depend on people kind of running into each other over the course of a day,” he said.

It is widely known that Apple has designed its offices to make such interactions more likely: “You can’t schedule those things,” he said.

Even so, Cook confesses to being, “Incredibly impressed with our teams and their resilience.… We continue on the innovation trail.”

The end result?

Apple has been able to maintain its business, make key contributions to the struggle against the pandemic, introduce new products and prepare for even more launches with more of those “Designed At Home In Cupertino” toys coming down the pipe.

That work is changing is pretty much accepted at this point. Most nations have now seen the consequences of attempting to return to normal working patterns in the absence of solid testing and support mechanisms. In the UK, for example, advice swiftly shifted from “go back to work” to “work from home if you can” in a matter of weeks.