Apple exec quits over working from home row

An Apple executive has quit the company in protest over the tech giant’s demands that staff return to the office for three days a week.

Ian Goodfellow, Apple’s director of machine learning, told staff on leaving that he disagreed with the company’s insistence on staff returning to its Silicon Valley headquarters, according to technology website The Verge.

He is reported to have said: “I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team.”

Apple staff must currently work at least one day in the office and from May 23, they will be required to come into work on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Staff will be able to work from home or in the office on Wednesday and Friday and work remotely for four weeks a year.

The policy is stricter than many of those at Silicon Valley firms such as Meta, Google and Twitter, where staff have been told they can work remotely permanently or have been given more flexibility over when they work in an office.

Apple staff have protested over the company’s demands and said that employees are leaving because of the requirements, but Mr Goodfellow is the most senior reported departure.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has said that video calls cannot replace the experience of working together.

“For all that we’ve been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other,” he said in a note to staff last year.

“Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate.”

The company has repeatedly delayed its full return-to-office plans following a string of spikes in Covid cases.

Mr Goodfellow is one of the world’s best-known artificial intelligence researchers and was poached from Google in 2019.

The opportunity to work remotely permanently has been a major draw for tech companies seeking to hire scarce talent. Last month, Airbnb told employees they will be able to work remotely and would not cut pay if they move to cheaper parts of the world.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.