Deirdre O’Brien: ‘We Believe That In-Person Collaboration Is Essential to our Culture and our Future’

Zoe Schiffer, writing for The Verge:

“We believe that in-person collaboration is essential to our culture and our future,” said Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of retail and people, in a video recording viewed by The Verge. “If we take a moment to reflect on our unbelievable product launches this past year, the products and the launch execution were built upon the base of years of work that we did when we were all together in-person.”

The Verge presents this as Apple shooting down a popular groundswell campaign within Apple (headline: “Apple Isn’t Backing Down From Its Hybrid Work Model, According to Internal Note”). That’s not the case. In-person collaboration is key to Apple’s culture (and success), and most Apple folks get that. And like I wrote a few weeks ago, it’s not that Apple’s leadership isn’t listening or hasn’t learned much from the last 16 months — they have, and this hybrid model is the result. But the decision was made, so there’s nothing to “back down” from.

★ Wednesday, 30 June 2021