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Recent COVID-19 surge causes Apple to delay return to work plan

The plan for Apple employees to return to office life in September has been temporarily postponed.

Ozzie Mejia

July 20, 2021 11:50 AM

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The COVID-19 pandemic appeared to be subsiding in many parts of the United States to the point that much of the country looked to be ready to venture back into normalcy. Unfortunately, the Delta variant of the disease seems to be taking progress in the other direction. Apple is among the companies closely watching the ongoing situation and has determined that with rising COVID cases, the team is not ready to return to office life.

According to a Bloomberg report, Apple's return to office deadline has been pushed back by a month to at least October. CEO Tim Cook had originally suggested in June that Apple employees should gradually begin their return to their offices in early September for at least three days a week, citing the availability of COVID-19 vaccines. However, with sections of the population refusing vaccinations, the number of COVID cases has begun to rise again, especially among those who are unvaccinated. The plan is for employees to remain working from home with Apple giving them at least one month's notice before it's time to return to mandated office work.

As noted by Apple Insider, this latest move comes weeks after Apple employees initially issued a plea to retain the company's remote work policy. Apple's workers cited the benefits of remote work, especially as the pandemic has not fully subsided. The employees' request was initially denied by Apple's higher-ups.

Apple is not the only tech company currently monitoring the deteriorating COVID situation. According to Bloomberg, Facebook will increase its number of remote employees while Google is exercising a more flexible return-to-office plan that allows for some of its employees to remain working from home.

With Apple being one of the world's biggest tech giants, their work situation is one worth keeping an eye on. Stay on the Apple tag for the latest updates and keep it on Shacknews for the latest in gaming and tech.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?