Employees at Microsoft in China are in a dilemma as they weigh their options between staying in Beijing or relocating overseas. This comes as the company is reportedly facing severe scrutiny due to the geopolitical tensions between China and the US.
The Silicon Valley headquartered firm has already asked its employees who work on its AI and cloud computing to consider relocating to other countries like US, Australia, Canada, and Ireland.
Microsoft employees face a dilemma
The company reportedly asked about 800 employees to relocate from China and make a fresh start elsewhere as its presence in China is attracting security scrutiny. According to Rest of World, they were asked to move around June and July depending on the specific teams and departments they belong to. Now the employees are in a fix, trying to weigh between their home country or move overseas.
“No matter how comfortable Chinese people could be in Vancouver, it wouldn’t be as comfortable as Beijing,” said Alan (not his real name) who has been offered to relocate to Vancouver. Hundreds of other engineers face that same dilemma as Alan.
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Rest of World spoke to about 10 Microsoft employees and their spouses who requested to remain anonymous as they are not authorized to comment to the media.
They revealed there are numerous factors to consider such as children’s education, immigration policies, and their relationships like dating prospects.
“If we take our children abroad at such young ages, will they still have a strong bond with their motherland?”
Engineer’s spouse.
Others expressed concerns about spouses’ careers, caring for their aging parents, and whether their children will be able to adapt back to the Chinese education system after being overseas.
Some employees indicated that living under a work visa might be unsettling while others discussed the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency, which they fear might lead to more “anti-immigration policies” in the US.
Microsoft provides good incentives
However, some employees gladly accepted the offers for fear of losing their jobs, at a time American firms appear more favorable compared to domestic companies. Some employees revealed that the work-life balance that American companies provide is a huge incentive for working for Microsoft.
According to the employees, they are allowed to work from home and log off at 5 pm, in contrast to Chinese tech firms where employees can work for up to 12 hours, six days a week, and rampant age discrimination with those above 35 considered too old for the tech industry.
Now, things are about to change for many of the engineers and their families. Microsoft’s presence in China is reportedly seen as a national security threat and is facing a lot of pressure from the US government to cut knowledge transfer to China.
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The US has also placed tough embargoes prohibiting the export of chips and other related materials to China to develop AI technologies and threatened bans on Chinese-owned platforms like TikTok.
Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center told Rest of World that the company is now in this dilemma although US-China collaborations have helped Microsoft grow its business.
“Now we’re in a moment where assumptions of globalization are overturned, and national security is seen as paramount.”
Sacks.
Microsoft started its Chinese operation in 1992 and now employs about 9,000 people mostly in research and development.
These have played a critical role in the company’s AI technology and supported its Azure cloud services, especially from the prestigious Microsoft Research Asia Lab in Beijing.
Despite the ‘cutting-edge’ results from such a research lab, there are chances this might be the end of such work for some engineers.
Cryptopolitan reporting by Enacy Mapakame