Let’s begin with the notion of "stability," which conjures up the image of a scale with two pans suspended at both finish of a horizontal beam. For that beam to stay horizontal, we'd like a precise quantity of this (work) on one side and a precise amount of that (life) on the other. Add extra of this or take away a few of that and…no more balance.
This is an exacting experiment, requiring controlled, predictable and static conditions. Even in the most effective of occasions life, she don’t work like that. Previous to the Great Recession we had already entered an era of "excessive jobs" (Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Heart For Work/Life Coverage), requiring us to log an unprecedented number of working hours, sending stress ranges sky high. Combine that with increased household and personal duties and we will see how easy it's for the scale to tip.
Say we're some how in a position to strike a stability between the work pan and the life pan. What occurs, then, when the lab surroundings adjustments? Principally, back to sq. one - the modified environment absolutely disrupts the balance. Once more, exhausting, irritating and finally worrying, as the hunt for stability between the calls for of work and the calls for of what we simplistically name life, becomes an finish in itself.
Clearly, our "lab environment" - our economic reality, our changing social context - has modified profoundly, leaving unevenly weighted pans and the holy grail extra elusive than ever. So, maybe the static scale construct is okay within the lab but actually isn’t up to the job of accommodating not only the complex parts of our actual lives but in addition the volatility of the environment.