The BBC just published an article about how workers pushing back on the return to the office. Here’s the gist of it:

In June, Apple CEO Tim Cook sent out a company-wide memo telling staff they would be required back in the office by early September. Workers would be expected to be present for three days a week, with two days of remote work. Some Apple employees weren’t happy – and pushed back with their own letter. Addressed to upper management, their message expressed frustration about the new policy, saying that it had led some employees to quit. Employees are challenging what they called “a disconnect between how the executive team thinks about remote/location-flexible work and the lived experiences of many of Apple’s employees”. 

Apple staffers aren’t the only ones contesting plans to return to the office. Workers at Washingtonian magazine, a US-based publication, walked off the job when their chief executive Cathy Merrill wrote an op-ed that appeared to threaten employees’ job security if they refused to return to the office five days a week.

As employers start to unveil their post-pandemic visions for work, pushback movements from employees keen to retain their work-from-home privileges are in nascent stages. But localised protests may be indicative of more widespread resistance among workers to revert to pre-pandemic patterns. Employees may well feel they've proved they can be productive at home –  and that the reasons companies say they want them back in-office don't stack up.

Establishing future working patterns that appease all sides will be a complex process. But doing so will reap dividends for companies; if they don't, and workers have better options, they might well vote with their feet.

Apple employees aren’t the only ones. We all got used to saving hours in commuting. We all got used to wearing sweatpants at the office desk we so perfectly set up. We got used to doing laundry in the middle of the day so we had time at night to go on a leisurely stroll at night. We got covid puppies. And, we’re not giving up our new comfort that easily.

If anything changes, it’s got to be that we can move anywhere. We can work anywhere. It is time for a change, but that change isn’t going back to where we were. That change is stepping into where we want to be.