Apple's "new" CEO Tim Cook is continuing to leave his mark on Apple by beefing up employee perks. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Cook has begun expanding corporate benefits offered to employees, such as the ability to take sabbaticals and the freedom to work on personal projects. Though Apple still appears to offer fewer perks than other large companies (such as Google), Cook's more humanitarian approach continues to be one of the major differentiating factors between him and Jobs.
The WSJ's main focus is on a newer program called "Blue Sky" that allows certain staffers to spend "a few weeks on a pet engineering project." This is apparently Apple's version of Google's "20 percent time," where employees are allowed to use a fifth of their paid time at work to focus on their own projects. The WSJ claims now-ousted iOS head Scott Forstall was involved with Blue Sky, though there's no indication that the initiative is going to be cut now that Forstall is out.
Blue Sky is only one part of Cook's attempts to keep employees happy. Apple has apparently become more aggressive in making counteroffers to employees thinking of leaving the company, and it has been more open to allowing employees to take extended time off when needed.
When we spoke to a number of Apple engineers last month, they had good things to say about Cook's treatment of employees. They described Cook as being more approachable than Jobs, more willing to eat with "low level" employees in the cafeteria, and more willing to publicly recognize employees' work. Cook also started a charitable matching program at Apple last year, adding to his reputation of being a more personable, humanitarian CEO than his predecessor.
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