While COVID-19 is impacting virtually every sector of the tech industry, a new report claims that Apple is experiencing some unique setbacks because of its culture of secrecy and lack of access to prototyping tools and test rigs.
Many Apple Park employees have been working from home since early March, before the Bay Area and the state of California implemented shelter-in-place orders.
CEO Tim Cook first began urging employees to work from home whenever possible in early March to help combat the spread of COVID-19. Since then, government stay-at-home orders have mandated that, and Apple has also shuttered all of its retail locations outside of greater China and issued global remote work orders.
Some of the issues that remote Apple employees have faced have been discussed before, including snared network speeds and confusing security guidelines. Now, a recent report from The Information is taking a closer look at some of the difficulties Apple’s employees are facing.
Security restrictions and Apple’s broader secrecy cultures are causing some of the bigger issues. According to insider sources, most hardware prototyping has been brought to a standstill, since Apple’s guidelines require those processes to be done in secure labs. Some staffers have resorted to drawing diagrams in the air, since they’ve had to leave sensitive components back at the office.
Read more at AppleInsider.com