Apple employees won’t return to the office until at least January 2022.
Office workers at the technology giant are currently still working from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has now been reported they won’t be expected to return to working in an office setting until at least January next year.
In a memo sent by Apple’s human resources and retail head Deirdre O’Brien on Thursday (19.08.21), it was claimed the recent rise of cases in the US thanks to the Delta variant of COVID-19 has caused the company to further delay its corporate reopening.
The memo also stated that company does not currently expect to shutter its retail stores, which began reopening in May last year.
Deirdre encouraged staff to get vaccinated against the virus, but Apple does not currently mandate that its employees must have the vaccine.
Apple was initially hoping to open its offices in spring this year, though that was later pushed to September, while another push back set the date to October, before the newest memo was sent out.
By contrast, Facebook has given employees the option to continue working remotely or commit to working in the office around 50 percent of the time, while Google has suggested office workers could work from home indefinitely.
Meanwhile, Microsoft recently announced they will require anyone entering a one of their offices in the US to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination from September.
However, the company do not anticipate opening their offices for work until at least October.
