Business Insider has just reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook will be allowing a select group of corporate employees to take two week breaks from their regular projects to work on special projects within the company. Apple employees will apparently come up with the ideas for these projects on their own. They can then use this two week period of time to build the final product. We’ve yet to hear more information beyond this on the program, which goes under the name “Blue Sky”, but we will report back when and if we do.
Google does something similar to this with their 20 percent time program. Google’s program gives almost all of its employees the chance to use 20 percent of their working time on personal projects. Apple’s introduction of this plan shows that the company’s culture is truly changing under Tim Cook and that they’re attempting to keep their most valuable employees with them for as long as possible.
We wouldn’t be surprised if this pilot project is the stepping stone towards a company wide program. It’s understandable why the company could be reluctant to give its employees that kind of freedom instead of working hard on official projects, but there’s a lot of evidence that suggests that employees are more efficient when they’re allowed this kind of leeway at work.
Of course, Apple would also benefit from this program as the company would gain the rights to any projects created on company time. Who knows, maybe a Spotlight team will pop up at Apple and finally do something about the aging technology. Dare to dream.
