Home offices can help achieve healthier work-life balance

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.