'There are things videoconferencing simply cannot replicate' - Apple CEO asks staff to return to the office

Staff have been asked to work from the office three days a week starting early September

Apple's CEO Tim Cook has asked staff to return to the office at least three days a week as he claims that videoconferencing simply cannot replicate office-based interactions and culture.

Most staff have been asked to return to the office on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays starting from early September with the option of working remotely on Wednesdays and Fridays.

However, teams that are required to work face-to-face will return either four or five days per week.

In a company-wide memo, seen by The Verge, Cook said: "For all that we've been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other," he said.

"Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate."

"I know I'm not alone in missing the hum of activity, the energy, creativity and collaboration of our in-person meetings and the sense of community we've all built," he added.

The memo goes on to say that employees will be able to ask their managers for approval to work remotely for an additional two weeks per year.

This flexibility will afford staff "to be closer to family and loved ones, find a change of scenery, manage unexpected travel, or a different reason all your own".

Apple's staff have worked remotely during the pandemic, with only 10 to 15 per cent of its employees working in the office during September.

Although the CEO was happy for staff to work remotely during 2020, in an interview with The Atlantic he argued that there was no substitute for face-to-face interaction

"I can't wait for everybody to be able to come back into the office. I don't believe that we'll return to the way we were because we have found that there are some things that actually work really well virtually," he said in the interview.

"But things like creativity and serendipity - for these things you depend on people running into each other over the course of a day. We have designed our entire office [in California] such that there are common areas where people congregate. You can't schedule those things."

Tech giants have seemingly been split on how best to approach remote working. Amazon has committed to returning to an "office-centric" culture while others have taken a more liberal approach to remote working.

Google initially took a hard-line approach to getting staff back in the office, including putting a cap on the number of days staff could work from home, but recently relaxed those plans and is now letting around 20 per cent of its staff work remotely permanently.

Other vendors including VMware and Dropbox are swinging towards remote working and adopting a "remote-first "or "virtual-first" policy.