The board of directors at Siemens has decided with immediate effect to allow 140,000 of its employees worldwide to work from home for at least a few days per week. This includes around 45,000 of its German employees. During the worst period of the pandemic, when Germany was in lockdown, all employees who could were working remotely, but they have been returning since restrictions loosened. In a newly announced strategy, however, remote work will be treated as a “core element of the new normal”. Deputy CEO and Labor Director Roland Busch said that remote wor had existed before the pandemic, “but now we are going one step further…This means a different management style that is based on results, not on the presence in the office.” It would be up to the employees, however, to work out where they could be most productive. He said employees could end up working in a combination of places, including from home, in co-working centers or in the home office.
