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Home offices can help achieve healthier work-life balance

Update Date：2016-1-28 15:00:23 Source：BeiJing Tannet Views：875

I am even happier than my son when his fall semester finally ends and the winter vacation begins. I won't be puzzled again by my inability to be with him when the red alert for smog is issued and the school is closed.

During the recent two red smog alerts, on Dec 8-10 and Dec 19-22, I had no option but to send my seven-year-old son to my neighbor's home. Though the red alert raises the possibility of a flexible work option, very few Chinese employers have actually taken this up.

I hope working mothers can be allowed flexible working hours on red alert days. That does not necessarily mean that people stop working and generate no productivity. On the contrary, household chores contribute a great deal to family management and to the country's economic growth. Household chores have for long been a missing element in the country's GDP.

The unpaid economy by British housewives and husbands valued by the Office for National Statistics wows the public, according to a report by The Daily Telegraph. The ONS revealed that household clothing and laundry services were worth 97.2 billion pounds ($138.53 billion) in 2012, the equivalent of 5.9 percent of its GDP. Unpaid childcare was worth 343 billion pounds in 2010, three times the contribution of the country's financial services industry.

Meanwhile, men's share of childcare has kept rising in the past decades, which is also a symbol of social progress. The more developed the economy and the better-educated the people, the higher the acceptance of man's role in childcare.

If the concept of the "home office" could be accepted, it would create a very humane workplace environment, enhancing employee loyalty and attract more talent. More importantly, it could greatly improve the urban traffic situation, alleviating pollution and boosting work efficiency.

The article transsshipment from China Daily

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