A view of the Space Needle from Apple’s Seattle office building at 333 Dexter Ave. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Apple is joining the growing list of tech companies calling workers back to the office, setting April 11 as a deadline for corporate workers to be back in person at least one day per week.
According to a memo sent Friday by CEO Tim Cook, and first reported by Bloomberg, three weeks after April 11, employees will be expected in the office twice per week. By May 23, the requirement rises to at least three days per week.
Apple has a significant presence in the Seattle area, where it has offices at the 333 Dexter Building in South Lake Union. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company announced plans for a major expansion in Seattle in June 2019. The company said at the time that it would grow to 2,000 employees in the city over the next five years, calling Seattle a “key engineering hub.”
Before the Dexter development, Apple had about 500 employees in Seattle, working out of Two Union Square, a 56-story office tower downtown. GeekWire reached out to Apple for latest Seattle employment figures and will update when we hear back.
“In the coming weeks and months, we have an opportunity to combine the best of what we have learned about working remotely with the irreplaceable benefits of in-person collaboration,” Cook said in the memo, according to Bloomberg. “It is as important as ever that we support each other through this transition, through the challenges we face as a team and around the world.”
Apple’s move follows return-to-office announcements from others, including Google, which employs about 7,000 people in Seattle and Kirkland, Wash., and wants employees back in a hybrid work model three days per week starting April 4. Microsoft and Expedia are also bringing workers back.
