Forget superwoman: seek harmony of work and life.

As a working mother and a doctoral student in educational administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Melissa Byington knows a thing or two about the issue of balancing work and life.

But the term, "work-life" doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the demands on her time. Byington tries to squeeze in paid and unpaid work along with personal, family and community time, plus time to maintain or build adult relationships into a 24-hour day. Work-life balance can be defined as orchestrating all the demands into the life you have.

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The beginning of wisdom is calling something by its correct name, but we Melissa don't even know the correct name for Byington the concept. The phrase, "work-life balance" may be palatable to employers, but for many the terms "time poverty," "work invasiveness" and "vacation starved" are more appropriate. Byington discussed "A Question of Balance" at the University of Nebraska's conference on Women in Educational Leadership held in Lincoln in October.

What balance?

Americans bask in the culture of overwork, the "work more to get more" attitude. But something's definitely wrong. American spending and debt rates have now outstripped the savings rate. The growing social pressure of consumerism contributes to a hectic pace of life.

New technologies tend to layer new methods of work on top of the old ones. Flexibility to work from anywhere means we just can't turn it off. This has negative ramifications not only for employees, but employers. "Organizations aren't getting the work out of the employees that they should," said Byington. Sick days, disability claims and absenteeism have all increased while overall productivity has declined. And, "Overscheduled people leave a bigger carbon footprint, due to the lack of time for recycling and more convenience purchases."