Apple engineer left his job because he was asked to return to office

A lot of people resigned from their jobs after they were called back to office. The decrease in Covid cases in some parts of the world led to the reopening of offices that were closed for over two years. While a lot of people are excited about working from the office again, the other half have resisted the idea of working from the office as they feel that it hampers productivity, takes away flexibility and too much time is spent on other things including traveling.
Apple’s Director of Machine learning Ian Goodfellow felt the same way. He left his job at Apple after he asked to return to the office.

As per Zoe Schiffer of The Verge, Ian informed his team members about his decision to leave the company. Zoe tweeted, “Ian Goodfellow, Apple’s director of machine learning, is leaving the company due to its return to work policy. In a note to staff, he said “I strongly believe that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team.” He was likely the company’s most cited ML expert.

Ian’s decision to leave the company was influenced by Apple’s hybrid work policy. The new work policy required employees to work from the office at least one day per week by April 11, at least two days per week by May 2, and at least three days per week by May 23. Apple has asked its employees to return to the office atleast three days a week starting May 23. However, some employees are not happy with Apple’s new move.

Apple employees had written a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook citing the downsides of returning to office. In an email to Cook, the employees said, “Without the inclusivity that flexibility brings, many of us feel we have to choose between either a combination of our families, our well-being, and being empowered to do our best work, or being a part of Apple. This is a decision none of us take lightly, and a decision many would prefer not to have to make.”