"We must have a good work-life balance," said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech.

He adds, "The government will help to share some of this burden of the employers."

As an example, he cites the maternity leave, which used to be eight weeks.

PM Lee says, "We extended it by four weeks. Now it's 12. And the extra four weeks the government was paying."

Aside from this though, he feels that 12 weeks is not enough.

"I think what we should do is to increase it to 16 weeks. And these last four weeks I think we give some flexibility. Don't make it necessarily all at the beginning. It can be any time in the first year and the government pays for these 4 weeks also."

Employers must also do their part with an attitude that does not make the employer feel that there will be a little black mark recorded in their annual confidential report.

"It makes a big difference. And with a bit of effort & imagination, you can do a lot. You can provide nursing rooms so that mothers who are lactating can express the milk & store the bottles. You can allow telecommuting & be flexible about it, so long as the work is done. In fact, one company I know of actually allowed one employee to go all the way to Australia with her husband & telecommute from Australia & continued to be paid & do the work. And then she came back and she resumed her job."

"You can find ways around having them physically present. So one catering company which has a lot of outdoor catering over weekends, outside catering, supplied their staff with walkie-talkies and with Blackberries so that they don't hv to be physically there. They can be with their family, they can go out, but they can keep an eye on the catering arrangements, make sure things don't go wrong. I think such employers we shud recognise & thank publicly. And MOM and MCYS will make a special effort to do that."

Ultimately however, he says that the individual must make a personal choice and decide on his or her own point of balance.

"Today it's harder to do this. The office hours are longer, the pace is more intense. People call them "office hours". You must put quotes there because it starts in the morning but it doesn't finish after dinner. And at home you are working, on holidays you're working too on e-mail or Blackberry or whatever. But despite this, I think you hv to maintain a balanced, fulfilling life & you have to keep a pace which is sustainable not just for 1, 2 years & you burn out, but for a lifetime & you are in balanced equilibrium, and at the end of your life or when you retire you say I'm satisfied, I had a good career, I've taken care of my family, I've brought up children, this is what life is about."