I found it quite easy to balance work and life when I didn't have any work. Not a very useful skill, especially when the money runs out. So I went back to work, and I've spent these seven years since struggling with, studying and writing about work—life balance. And I have four observations I'd like to share with you today. The first is: if society's to make any progress on this issue, we need an honest debate. But the trouble is so many people talk so much rubbish about work-life balance. All the discussions about flexitime or dress- down Fridays or paternity leave only serve to mask the core issue, which is that certain job and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day-to-day basis with a young family. Now the first step in solving any problem is acknowledging the reality of the situation you're in. And the reality of the society that we're in is there are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like. It's my contention that going to work on Friday in jeans and T-shirt isn't really getting to the nub of the issue.