The work of a project manager is quite stressful. For me, it's much better than being relaxed the whole day or being bored. I even remember when HR said that my test results showed that I would always look for difficulties and challenges.

I have never had stress-related illness; furthermore, I become highly concentrated when under stress. I like this feeling. But I can also suffer burnout because of office politics, lack of management support, effort-reward imbalance and home-work imbalance.

Work-life balance is not an issue of time management only. There is something that makes people want to be workaholics and they think about very little except work. What I would change in my schedule is to be flexible 1 or 2 days a week, by commuting to the office by myself or staying at home on these days. It would allow me to pay more attention to my son or to exercise in the evening. But I would never think of being a homeworker (“working from home” is better) or downshifting. That's not for me. I like independence but I don’t like to feel isolated. I am an extrovert and I like to share my ideas with someone. So I wonder how my friend is downshifting now, as she doesn't have a job, and she just travels around the world with her husband having leased her two flats (In Canadian/American usage, “apartments” is more common), after being an auditor for several years.