Like Google, Apple will give employees free time to work on pet projects

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Inspired by the workings of rival Google, Apple has decided to award employees free time so they can focus on their very own engineering projects. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal who described the project as being backed up by current CEO Tim Cook.

Apple announced its plans to start the initiative, which it dubbed “Blue Sky” earlier this year, but detailed information about it, just started to emerge. The project will apparently allow small groups (with an accent on small) of Apple workers to take a few weeks off and concentrate on their own creative endeavors.

Google features a similar initiative, as we stated above, one that’s quite generous. It’s called “20% time” and allows talented individuals within the company to invest up to a fifth of their time to other projects that don’t normally show up in their job description. Strangely enough, the idea wasn’t much liked around Apple headquarters, as Cupertino usually organizes research and development teams for focused projects.

Tim Cook’s views seem to be more employee friendly, however. Since he stepped in, the company seems to be more interested in what the employees really need and want. For example, it has been rumored that Apple will soon let workers take sabbaticals, but no official statement has been made so far.

By Radu

Source - Apple Gives In to Employee Perks - WSJ.com