Apple is enticing its U.S. employees to return to China by offering a $500 daily bonus and accommodations at luxury hotels. But there’s a small catch called quarantine.
Apple Bribes Staff With $500 Daily Bonus For China Travel
China, at least according to the state media, has largely controlled COVID-19. In fact, the number of daily cases in world’s most populous nation are reported to be about 1/4 of the daily cases in Santa Clara County alone, the site of Apple headquarters.
After a temporary moratorium on travel, Apple resumed in-factory visits over the summer and has ramped up travel this autumn.
But it’s not a vacation. Quick 10-day trips are a thing of the past. Staff must now stay for “at least” six weeks according to Apple Insider. One reason is because every incoming traveler is required to quarantine for 14-days to begin the journey.
And while Apple typically places its staff at Marriott or Park Hyatt hotels, the two-week quarantine is a bit rougher. Upon arrival in Shanghai, staff are screened for COVID-19 then bussed to a quarantine hotel arranged by Chinese authorities, not Apple. These are “budget” accommodations that you might also call prison. Forget restaurant delivery or laundry. Instead, you’ll be eating airline food catered by China Eastern and be forced to wash your laundry in your own bathtub. Don’t even think about VPNs…
But at least you’re making $500/day, which are pretty good prison wages compared to the USA.
CONCLUSION
I’ll admit it…I want to work for Apple. And I want to travel for Apple. Where do I sign up? In all seriousness, money (for better or for worse) makes a lot of problems go away. Apple already seems to take care of employees well and this extra consideration seems like a generous bonus for an all-expense paid work trip.
(H/T: C Boarding Group)
I just got out of quarantine in Shanghai and I can confirm, life is identical to pre-covid times here. It’s taking a bit of adjustment since I’ve been doing nothing but zoom meetings in the US for the past 8 months and now am doing all meetings in person with dinners and bars pretty much every day
I’m actually so happy to hear this.
Did they achieve herd immunity there so quickly or did they handle the pandemic comptently without politicizing everything just so a POS could get reelected?
We need to do a study but sadly i think the cult followers of a certain turd are not too bright to actually handle the findings of the study.
Yeah when you don’t care about human rights you can do a lot of things like China did. Maybe we should have welded people into their apartments, too?
I can see how Apple with families would not want to travel to China (or anywhere abroad) for 6 weeks especially when Thanksgiving and December holidays are coming up.
If anything hopefully Apple will bring back production to the USA someday but highly doubt that would happen.
Also I wonder if Apple increases the incentive to $1000 per day bonus then maybe more employees would take the bait.
Apple is traitorous. The US needs to redevelop its manufacturing supply chain. The CCP must be defeated, not enabled by American corporations.
Of course your orange faced dictator ain’t a traitor. What with holding bank accounts in China and all that. Hope you come out of your cult soon
If you think Trump is a dictator, you have no idea what a real dictator is. Trump endured four years of mockery, hostility and even insurrection. If he really were such a horrible dictator, would you be able to say the things you do about him? Would there even have been an election? Try doing this in China. Quit your hysterics. You insult those who actually have suffered under totalitarian dictators. Why is it that immigrants who left socialist dictatorships overwhelmingly supported Trump? The closest thing we had to a dictator was FDR, not BadOrangeMan. Also, holding a bank account in China is not a crime. Even I have one. Maybe you’re satisfied with a savings account at your local credit union.
Actually, I left some things at the Park Hyatt Shanghai. Would someone be so kind as to pick them up for me?
How about, I don’t know, bringing manufacturing to the US and NOT helping the Chinese Communist Party who brought this disease upon the world through its negligence. One place I will NEVER visit.
Keep wishing for a pony while you’re dreaming sir. Manufacturing aint never comin back to the US. Maybe Mexico or Vietnam, but not the US lol
In the same vein, can we also do something about the Republican Party who seem so intent on letting this disease proliferate through its negligence / malice?
Wow. Getting paid a per diem allowance that is almost as much as a free loader, traitorous, impeached, accused rapist, ugly, fat president paid the treasury for the privilege and protection of being an american.
This was me.
– debit
Matthew, this isn’t always true. While you don’t get to choose the hotel, in Shanghai they usually give you an option for price ranges, and you can choose the higher range to avoid a motel.
Likewise, given the fact that Apple is able to get visas and tickets for the employees (which are near impossible and set you back thousands of dollars + time), they probably have the ability to pull strings and get them into a nice hotel, so it baffles me that they can only get them budget accommodation,
when several mid-range luxury hotels do still take people for quarantine. Most, but not all hotels do allow you to order food too, so you can get your dose of pizza or shake shack.
But the laundry part will suck, and also the testing and risk of being pulled away from your hotel at 3am if you seatmate/neighbor from the flight is positive. Along with bi-daily temperature checks.
$500/day is a very good deal actually. On top of that China is a much safer place than USA now.
Your description on the quarantine hotel situation is misleading though. One does not necessarily end up in a gulag. There are people being assigned to very good hotels with views. Some (but not all) allow delivery and usable Internet. Just do a YouTube search on “China quarantine hotel”. Some even live broadcast from there.
But still, the issue here is uncertainty, and not everybody likes to play Russian roulette.
I’d like to further weigh in that the arrival and quarantine process in Shanghai is constantly changing depending on testing data. For example, a recent “spike” (which would register as a blip in the US) has fueled rumors that returning residents will no longer have the option of quarantining in an empty, self-arranged residence (e.g., a friend’s vacation home). For China, life mostly goes around normally, with an extremely swift reaction when cases are detected.
For those undergoing quarantine, I suppose the characterization of a government contracted hotel as “prison” is appropriate in the sense that there’s a restriction on movement with civil and/or criminal consequences if ignored, but I think a 1:1 comparison is skin deep at best. I should emphasize, the government is attempting to subsidize this as much as possible. Crappy China Eastern-catering isn’t a requirement. They’re the free option, because everyone is entitled to hot meals, even if they’re not allowed to leave to get them.
At hotels, outside food deliveries are coordinated by hotel staff between the lobby and guest room. The internet that’s available isn’t anything worse than what China already provides its netizens, and VPN use isn’t more prohibited within quarantine than outside. The individual “guest/prisoner” experience is a function of the individual hotel than anything else. Unfortunately, there’s a wide range of accommodations depending on the international gateway someone enters into, and their post-quarantine address. There’s not much choice in this matter.
Although lacking in due process by western standards, most of their restrictions are borne out of what they feel are common sense, and they leverage every tool at their disposal. For example, those quarantining at private residences may have contact sensors placed on their entry doors with the understanding that the average person may probably open the door for a maximum of a few times per day, a few minutes each time, in order to receive deliveries of food or supplies. Any “unusual” behavior triggers a human to assess the situation.
Police state? Perhaps. Government overreach? Almost certainly. Done out of any motive other than to help the greatest number of people as quickly and efficiently as possible? Probably not. The most impressive thing to me is the logistical mastery and manpower they have to accomplish this. Can you imagine what it’d take to get a local hospital or CA Department of Public Health employees to even call people once a day here?
I forgot to mention one crucial point. This is done at the government’s expense.
Within the public health framework, if more than one hotel is approved for quarantine for a particular arriving passenger, there’s always the option of paying for something better. Of course, again, it’s all a function of where you are and what capacities are at. There may only be one option.
Admittedly, all this is probably less than fun to navigate for those who don’t speak Chinese.
I wish someone would do a review of one of these quarantine hotels and stays. Would be interesting to see.
If Apple would pay me, I’d hop on the plane tomorrow…even smoky China Eastern!
My company is on Gary Leff’s AA traveling companies list, but I haven’t got an offer like that yet!
I’d do it for $250/day. Sounds like a good deal to me. Apple, HMU.
DEBIT_LIBERAL IDIOT AND A REAL DOUCHE!!!!
Sorry not sorry for your (Trump) loss, looks like you’ve picked up on his habit of all caps ragetweets…lol
APPLE is rotten to the core. They wet their pants with excitement at the prospect of manufacturing in China and the mega bucks it would make for stockholders, couldn’t care 2 hoots about US-based jobs, avoid paying fair tax in most jurisdictions by engaging in legal jiggery-pokery and sleight of hand, treat consumers with contempt.
It’s a loathsome company run by a creepy group-hug type snake-oil merchant .
They can stick their lousy products where the sun don’t shine….
Apple is the world’s most valuable company for a reason. Globalization is the future, you need to modernize or be left behind like the fly-over states
Until the rise of the tech giants, oil companies were the most valuable companies in the world. Saudi Aramco still rivals Apple for the title of most valuable company. Oil companies are valuable for a reason. Apple makes consumer products that one could easily substitute with competitors’ products. You need oil to fly over flyover states or even ship iPhones from the land of the CCP. Cheap energy fueled industrialization and globalization, not closed-system electronics made for morons.
Spoken like a true boomer!
With the pleated khakis and cheap Jos. A. Bank button down to match!
@Hank B
You think I’m a Boomer because I don’t blindly worship the tech giants or use Apple products? That is an insightful analysis.
@UA-TDS
Keep trying, fatty. I don’t wear khakis, pleated or otherwise, and I don’t wear button down shirts. You must love yourself very much. Not sad!