When the Work-Life Scales Are Unequal

An excellent article in the New York Times this weekend highlights the challenges of work-life balance in an era when more and more companies are embracing flextime as an option for employees.

Kelly Azevedo used to work upward of 70 hours a week.It wasn’t really for the extra money.  It’s just that she doesn’t have children. When colleagues were on kid duty, she had to pick up the slack. “Parents are a special class, and they get special treatment,” says Ms. Azevedo, 27, who left her job at an Internet marketing firm to start She’s Got Systems, a Web site for entrepreneurs based in Sacramento. While she was covering for her former colleagues, she says, she sometimes sacrificed her own obligation to take care of her ailing grandparents.
On this Labor Day weekend, when we celebrate the American worker, or at least the last unofficial days of summer, Ms. Azevedo is giving voice to what many people feel in their bones: the pursuit of “work-life balance,” which sounds so wholesome and reasonable, can be a zero-sum game in the office.