Foreign workers in Beijing leaving their families at home to protect them from smog
As Beijing's smog becomes more severe, some foreign executives leave their loved ones at home, costing companies more in travel and benefits
As a thick smog hung over Beijing last year, Stephanie Giambruno and her husband decided it was time for her and their two girls to return to the United States.
Giambruno's husband stayed in China for his job as general manager of a global technology company. He now Skypes with the family twice a day and lives with "constant jet lag" as he travels to Florida once a month to see them, she says.
There are a lot of sick days, and sometimes our office in Beijing sounds like tuberculosis wards
While it's hard to be apart, Giambruno says Beijing's record air pollution left them no choice. She saw friends' children develop asthma. Their own daughters, at age six and 21 months, were often forced to remain indoors.
"It's not a way to live, to keep your baby inside with an air filter running," she said.
As bad air chokes Chinese cities, some expatriate employees are starting to leave families in their home countries, the latest sign of pollution's rising cost to the more than half a million foreigners working in China and the multinationals seeking to retain them. Smog in Beijing was worse than government standards most days last year, and environment ministry statistics show that 71 of 74 Chinese cities failed to meet air-quality standards.
"We are seeing some companies reverting to 1980s and 1990s hardship packages for executive-level candidates in cities that are hard hit with pollution," said Angie Eagan, managing director for China at the recruitment firm MRIC. "These packages are shaped around executives leaving their families in their home country and receiving an allowance for frequent home trips."