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Work-life balance and work-life integration are prominent buzzwords in today’s management practice and theory, at practitioner and academic conferences, in lifestyle magazines and general media. Corporate websites try to impress with presentations of companies’ work-life balance friendly workplaces and programs. Companies employing “extreme workers”(Hewlett and Luce, 2006), ie, employees in highly demanding work environments are no exception: the websites of virtually all large consulting firms dutifully inform readers and potential applicants about how the companies address the challenge of balancing or integrating work with other life domains.

Key issues in the increasingly extensive discussion of work-life issues are work hours and work intensification, the intensifying competitive pressure on the job market, changed and still changing work and family-related values amongst young executives and the …