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Siemens Allows 'Mobile Working' Permanently for Many Workers

The headquarters of Siemens AG is seen before the company's annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder
The headquarters of Siemens AG is seen before the company's annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder
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Siemens Allows 'Mobile Working' Permanently for Many Workers

The headquarters of Siemens AG is seen before the company's annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder
The headquarters of Siemens AG is seen before the company's annual news conference in Munich, Germany, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder

Industrial conglomerate Siemens said Thursday it plans to allow more than 100,000 of its employees to work away from the office for two or three days a week on a permanent basis.

The Munich-based company said the coronavirus crisis has “shown that working independently of a fixed location offers many advantages and is possible on a much wider scale than originally thought.” It said that surveys of Siemens employees worldwide had shown a desire for greater flexibility.

The new arrangement applies to more than 140,000 employees at over 125 locations in 43 countries and takes effect immediately, Siemens added.

The company said its “mobile working” concept doesn't necessarily mean working from home.

It said that employees should, in consultation with supervisors, “choose the work locations where they’re most productive.” That could include coworking spaces, for example.

Siemens said that the new approach will be tailored to local legal requirements, the demands of specific jobs and individual preferences.

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Microsoft Halts China-based Tech Support for Pentagon Systems

FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
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Microsoft Halts China-based Tech Support for Pentagon Systems

FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

Microsoft said Friday it is making sure that personnel based in China are not providing technical support for US Defense Department systems, after investigative news site ProPublica revealed the practice earlier this week.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth confirmed that work on Defense Department cloud services had been outsourced to people in China, insisting that the country will not have "any involvement whatsoever" with the department's systems going forward.

"Microsoft has made changes to our support for US Government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DoD Government cloud and related services," the company's chief communications officer, Frank Shaw, said in a post on X.

ProPublica reported Tuesday that the tech giant was using engineers based in China -- Washington's primary military rival -- to maintain Pentagon computer systems, with only limited supervision by US personnel who often lacked the necessary expertise to do the job effectively.

US Senator Tom Cotton asked Hegseth to look into the matter in a letter dated Thursday, and the Pentagon chief responded that he would do so.

Hegseth then posted a video on X Friday evening in which he said "it turns out that some tech companies have been using cheap Chinese labor to assist with DoD cloud services. This is obviously unacceptable, especially in today's digital threat environment."

"At my direction, the department will... initiate -- as fast as we can -- a two-week review, or faster, to make sure that what we uncovered isn't happening anywhere else across the DoD," AFP quoted him as saying.

"We will continue to monitor and counter all threats to our military infrastructure and online networks," he added, thanking "all those Americans out there in the media and elsewhere who raised this issue to our attention so we could address it."