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Work and LifeThe pursuit of a better work-life balance is at the root of calls for flexible hours, affordable childcare and paid paternity (父亲身份) leave. More than ever before are we demanding choice in our working lives. Gemma Lavender of the TUC、explores the pressures and challenges.The issueIf you’’re not careful, work can take over your life. People inBritain work longer hours than anywhere else inEurope. Too many workplaces are gripped by a long hours culture where everyone is expected to do hours of unpaid overtime every week.Astonishingly, people inBritain do ￡23 billion worth of unpaid overtime every year—that would be a ￡4,000 wages boost for the average long-hours worker.Hardly surprising, then, that there’’s an epidemic of workplace stress.Contrary to some expectations, according to a recent TUC、poll,Brits do actually enjoy their jobs. 85 per cent told us that they found their work enjoyable and fulfilling, yet slightly more than half said they also found it hard to cope with the pressure. Eight million people complain that pressure of work gives them headaches or migraines (偏头痛), 12 million say they get bad tempered and irritable (易怒的) at home, nearly three million need to take time off work and more than two-and-a-half million say they drink too much.That is why work-life balance is the slogan of the moment. Unions, good employers and the government are all concerned — but much more needs to be done.The pressuresThe core agenda with work-life balance issues is still the family.And despite all the improvements in equality between the sexes, this is still largely perceived as an issue for women rather than men. But times are changing. Mothers still take the greater responsibility for childcare but are also more likely to have paid jobs than ever before. Seven out of ten women of working age now have jobs, and half of mothers with children aged under five are in work. Today’’s women are breadwinners.Men and women are both taking on multiple roles. Men are doing more of the care responsibilities (according to theEqual OpportunitiesCommission, a surprising 36% of couples say that the man is the main carer) and women are working more. Polls show that fathers feel they are missing out on time with their children.With people living longer, more workers are experiencing care demands on elderly relatives as well as children. The fact that women are now having children later in life means that they may end up facing caring responsibilities for both ends of the age spectrum.The attitude of female workers has also change

D、Women are growing more ambitious as they become key players in the world of work, contributing to major company successes. Whether you’’re a Martha Lane Fox or a Marjorie Scardino, the impact of the female boss is considerably more powerful than ever before.The pressure for women to achieve drives them to work harder and for longer, especially when wanting to prove themselves against their male counterparts (对等的人).Technology both helps and hinders.Email and the Internet give people the potential to work flexibly. Some now work for themselves or for their employer entirely from home. This doesn’’t suit everyone — some find it far too isolating to be cut off from office networks, but working from home for part of the week can be a real help.However, technology can also increase work pressure. The overflowing email inbox and the constantly ringing phone can really step up the stress levels.Progress on work-life balance is likely to give individual employees much more choice about how and when they work. Research shows that the more control you have over your own work, the less stress you’’re likely to get.But organisations, as a whole, need to tackle the issue — it can’’t just be the sum of individual responses. And work-life balance issues are not just for carers.Everyone needs their personal space, and policies that only be