Comment by Melting_Harps | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Melting_Harps | Hacker News Reader

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For all this talk about being environmental conscious and looking towards more sustainable lifestyle that they brand themselves as an image, Apple is just as hypocritical as all the other megacorps. They use it to suit their narrative, but fail to live up to it's standards--it still uses slave labour in China.

One needs to only see the 101 or the 5 fwy during rush-hour in either SoCal or NorCal to see the immense amount of mis-allocated and mis-used resources that lead to climate change via GHG emissions. I was on the 405 towards SNA airport at 4pm to get a flight and maybe it's because I've forgotten what it looked like after leaving CA in 2012 that I saw just how absurd this practice is.

Businesses need to accept that COVID proved that their business model didn't prove the ghastly notion that in office = more productive for most of it's jobs: specifically in tech. Moreover, most people don't want to be a part of your quasi-family, they just want to work to acquire money to live their lives and provide for their families.

I hope this myth about Silicon Valley based corps being 'woke' about all other things finally dies and capitulates to this very absurd business practice, these people need to realize that if they keep pushing for their in-office BS they are going be left with empty over-valued real estate and no one wanting to work for them.

Labour is a vital part of their business model (for now) and the fact that most are willing to take lower pay in order to work remotely should really open the exec's eyes as to what is required to retain talent in a Job Market that has been moving towards a remote-first approach in order to attract workers.

> Moreover, most people don't want to be a part of your quasi-family, they just want to to work to acquire money to live their lives and provide for their families.

But without looking at reports in-person, how will self-proclaimed people of "ambition" sit in the proverbial corner office and feed their ego?

A significant number of management is made up of people who dream of a life where they control other people. Zoom life is good for productivity but that is not what rank and file management wants.

> But without looking at reports in-person, how will self-proclaimed people of "ambition" sit in the proverbial corner office and feed their ego?

Honestly, I had really put my faith in Humanity prioritizing it's needs after what we collectively had to endure during COVID. People spent time with their thoughts and deepest feelings and I had felt we had maybe reached a certain critical mass in understanding just how myopic our systems have been.

They are blatantly wasteful, and unfulfilling and leave us with a Society where we are left more empty and hallow the more we climb it's proverbial latter. It appeared to me that people were prepared to challenge the status quo.

Unfortunately, as with most things, it was temporary; I still remain optimistic that we can can turn the tide of business as usual, but it will require an immense amount of short term pain as a result.

> A significant number of management is made up of people who dream of a life where they control other people. Zoom life is good for productivity but that is not what rank and file management wants.

This is perhaps the worst part about the Human condition, had I not witnessed it myself I would probably be in disbelief, but it's true: we really have a problem with sociopaths who desire nothing more than to lord over someone in order to feel superior. Oddly enough, many of those people seek political office and once they attain it will find every possible way to make themselves exempt from the rules they impose on others.

As a species we must see these people for the existential threat that they are, nothing short of that will ever correct this perverse system that benefits them.

Do you think it is better for the environment for all of Apple's tens of thousands of employees to heat or cool each of their homes individually rather than in one large eco-friendly office? How about everybody preparing their own meals for lunch, using natural gas or electricity, instead of using the company cafeteria?

I don't think you can definitively say that remote work is better for the environment given all of the other variables.

> I don't think you can definitively say that remote work is better for the environment given all of the other variables.

If those are your rebuttals, they certainly aren't sufficient: first, people choosing to use X/Y form of energy to make their meals is a personal choice and likely done based on an optimal time preference: most people I know in tech don't even cook, they order out 90% of the time and only have cereal or basic lunch stuff in their homes.

Second, cooling/heating could be done in any number of ways for all I know most Apple workers have solar panels, it's unlikely but it is a possibility, or they might not even use either since the Mountain View has rather temperate weather either way.

If you are relying on me to concede that remote work is better for the environment based on such vapid criteria, you are sadly mistaken: the kitchens in most places have walk-ins and blast freezers that run 24/7, ovens and and ranges that are at full blast etc... in anticipation of cooking those meals for all of those employees.

I can assure from personal experience you their is nothing efficient about running a commercial sized kitchen, and everything is always breaking and requires constant maintenance.

Just offsetting the commutes from all over the NorCal would be reduction in GHG that it's worth keeping, their is no real need for it if efficiency has not been lost.

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