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Some employees are rumored to hate the open floor plan at Apple's new $5 billion campus

Tim Cook Apple Campus 2
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Apple employees are moving into Apple Park, the company's new $5 billion headquarters in Cupertino, California.

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Everything about the so-called spaceship campus has been carefully considered, according to a slew of press features on the office building.

Entryways were designed so engineers wouldn't need to slow down while walking, and the campus has custom-designed banisters, tables, and even a four-story glass door.

But there will be one big change to how rank-and-file Apple engineers work at the spaceship: Apple Park has an open floor plan, WSJ Magazine reported last month. That means a lot of engineers will work on long tables with other engineers instead of in cubicles or offices.

Now there are rumors that some teams and executives are not fans of the shiny new office complex's open office plan.

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The latest was shared by John Gruber, an Apple podcaster and blogger who frequently cites Apple insiders as "birdies."

He passed on the rumor in a podcast published on Sunday — the discussion of Apple's new campus starts at about 1:10, and the quoted part starts at about 1:24:

"Here's the story I heard that I cannot confirm because it was thirdhand. I cannot confirm it. It could be totally false. But it sounds true to me. And I think it could be easily checked, because if it's true, people will know about this.

"I heard that when floor plans were announced, that there was some, I don't know, meeting — Johny Srouji's team. He's in charge of Apple's silicon, the A10, the A11, all of their custom silicon. Obviously a very successful group at Apple, and a large and growing one with a lot on their shoulders.

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"When he was shown the floor plans, he was more or less just 'F--- that, f--- you, f--- this, this is bulls---.' And they built his team their own building, off to the side on the campus. So they're not even in — not only are they not going along with the open floor plans, but Srouji's team is in their own building. Maybe internally they're saying it's for security, or that's there's a logical reason for it, but my understanding is that that building was built because Srouji was like, 'F--- this, my team isn't working like this.'"

apple park photo 1 building trees
Apple

This is the second report of a big group inside Apple passing on a spot at Apple Park.

Apple's cloud services teams under Eddy Cue have claimed Apple's old headquarters, Infinite Loop, as employees vacate it to move to Apple Park, according to Bloomberg. That report, from 2016, said that Apple employees used to privacy and a quiet work environment might be upset by the open floor plans.

Apple's top executives, including CEO Tim Cook, will have offices on the fourth floor of Apple Park.

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Plenty of corporate Apple employees won't end up in the spaceship, which will hold 13,000 employees. Apple has about 25,000 employees in Silicon Valley, according to an estimate recently cited by the city of Cupertino.

Do you know anything about the open offices at Apple Park? Email the author at kleswing@businessinsider.com or on Twitter DM. Signal, PGP, and Telegram are available upon request.

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