Work-Life Balance More Important

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 28 percent of workers are on the job more than 40 hours a week, and 8 percent work 60 or more hours a week.

Work hours for parents are way up. Married, middle-income moms added the equivalent of three months of full-time work to their annual schedules in the past 25 years, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, liberal think tank. Married parents' combined work hours are up 18 percent, according to the report.

Because people are so busy, work-life balance is a hot topic. The phrase, coined in the '80s, is used in the popular media thousands of times a year.

"We have the term because we don't have any work-life balance," said Barbara Gutek, a University of Arizona management professor who teaches a class on the subject. "Life becomes what's left over when you get done with work obligations."

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