Apple Inc.’s plan to reopen twice-shuttered Apple Stores is causing thousands of workers to rethink their quarantine plans while providing a model for larger, community-based retailers. Apple’s position in the cultural landscape that will force a restructuring of businesses’ reopening approaches will likely influence how other employers choose to meet the demands of their customers in a post-COVID era.
Apple employees demand more flexibility in company's return to office plan
Employees are also coming up with ways to interact with the public under the circumstances. Some felt they had to leave the company for fear of contracting the highly contagious virus after plans to reopen were laid out in an open letter to the entire company in May.
"I just had to go; I couldn't bear it," said former Apple Store employee Nicole Turner. "I'm around my older family members and my six-year-old niece pretty regularly … it just wasn't something I could risk."
In March, Apple moved thousands of store employees to work from home with online support and sales, but Turner was left out and decided to leave her Texas location. Now that employees are being forced to return to physical stores, she feels she made the right decision.
