When Tim Cook sent his workforce home in March 2020, calling coronavirus a “challenging moment”, it is unlikely the Apple chief executive anticipated that he would have a battle on his hands to get those workers back to the office two and a half years later.

It took just a few days for Apple’s employees to hit out against the tech giant’s demand for staff to return three days a week from September. A group calling itself AppleTogether warned on Monday there should be no “uniform mandate from senior leadership”, while a Slack channel advocating for remote work at Apple has grown to 10,000 members.

The move by Apple, a bellwether of Silicon Valley, has led to growing disquiet across tech workers on whether their company will follow. While Big Tech companies were quick to send their workers home at the onset of the pandemic, the sector has been markedly less decisive in calling everybody back over concerns it could trigger an exodus of top talent.