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Delays, Extra Masks and Obligatory Pictures: Virus Surge Disrupts Workplace-Return Plans

He didn’t respond, but days later Apple posted an internal video showing company executives focusing on getting employees back to the office. In the video, Dr. However, Sumbul Desai, who heads Apple’s digital health division, did not say they were required to get vaccinated, according to a transcript viewed by The Times.

The video did not go down well with some employees.

“OK, you want me to risk my life to get back to the office, which will also reduce my productivity, and you’re not giving me any logic as to why I should?” Said Ashley Gjovik, senior engineering program manager.

When the company postponed the date for returning to the office on Monday, a group of employees drafted a new letter suggesting a year-long pilot program that would allow people to work from home full-time if they wished. The letter said that an informal survey of more than 1,000 Apple employees found that about two-thirds would question their future at the company if they had to return to the office.

In Los Angeles, Endeavor, the parent company of the William Morris Endeavor talent agency, reopened its Beverly Hills headquarters this month. But it decided to close again last week as the county re-imposed its mandate on indoor masks amid rising case numbers. An Endeavor spokesman said the company had decided enforcement was too difficult and would hamper group meetings.

Employment website Indeed had targeted September 7th as the date it would begin bringing back workers on a hybrid basis. Now one has begun to rethink these plans, said Paul Wolfe, senior vice president of human resources of the company, “because of the Delta variant”.

Some companies said the recent surge in cases hadn’t yet affected their return to the office. Facebook still intends to reopen with 50 percent capacity by early September. IBM plans to open its US offices in early September, allowing fully vaccinated workers to walk without masks, and Royal Dutch Shell, the gas company, has been gradually lifting restrictions on its Houston offices, causing more employees to return.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise allowed its employees to return to their offices on Monday, backed by a survey of its California employees that found 94 percent were fully vaccinated.

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