Apple cracks down on remote working by tracking employee attendance

Apple is monitoring its employees’ presence in the office by keeping track of their badge records to make sure they are physically present at least three times per week. The information was first reported by Zoë Schiffer from Platformer in a Twitter Post.

According to a tweet by Schiffer, Apple is presently using badge records to closely monitor the attendance of its employees at the office. She also posted about Apple giving increasing levels of warnings to employees who are not showing up for work at the office. Employees who fail to adhere to the minimum requirement of being physically present at least three times per week will receive “escalating warnings” from the company.

Starting from April 2022, Apple employees have been following a flexible work policy that involves a combination of working from home and working in the office. The current policy requires its employees to be physically present in the office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, while allowing them to work remotely on Wednesdays and Fridays.

However, the company has been putting a lot attention in monitoring the attendance of its staff as a part of its multiple cost-saving initiatives. These measures include a stricter enforcement of office attendance by managers, leading some employees to speculate that Apple may begin terminating those who fail to meet the attendance requirement, reported Mark Gurman, Bloomberg.

Additionally, the company has discontinued its ‘special sick time’ policy for Covid-related absences and is now asking employees to use their regular sick time instead.
The company is trying to reduce expenses without resorting to large-scale layoffs as other technology giants such as Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have done recently.