Apple’s Director Of Machine Learning Resigns, Due To Return To Office Policy

Due to COVID-19 Work From Home has become a household term and it seems a millions of employees now prefer WFH over going to office.

Well Apple’s director of machine learning, Ian Goodfellow, definitely prefers WFH over going to office as he has resigned from Apple over the return-to-office policy.

The name says it all, Apple’s return-to-office policy requires the staff to work at its various offices starting 11th April. Intially a hybrid work schedule will be followed where staff has to come one day per week in the office and gradually increase the in-office days over time.

Goodfellow joined Apple in March 2019 as the Director of Machine Learning in the Special Projects Group. So he is leaving Apple after almost three years of service.

Before joining Apple, Goodfellow was working for Google as a senior staff research scientist.

In his resignations email, Goodfellow stated that,

“I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team,”

Recently, a group of employees sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook during the summer and stated that,

“Without the inclusivity that flexibility brings, many of us feel we have to choose between either a combination of our families, our well-being, and being empowered to do our best work, or being a part of Apple. This is a decision none of us take lightly, and a decision many would prefer not to have to make.”

In addition to Goodfellow, many other Apple employees are not keen to proceed with the return-to-office policy. As a result, a decent percentage of employees are actively looking for employment elsewhere.