Erin Callan, ex-CFO of Lehman Brothers, has a smart take on the work-life balance in The New York Times:

Like everyone, though, I did have relationships — a spouse, friends and family — and none of them got the best version of me. They got what was left over.

Sometimes young women tell me they admire what I’ve done. As they see it, I worked hard for 20 years and can now spend the next 20 focused on other things. But that is not balance. I do not wish that for anyone. Even at the best times in my career, I was never deluded into thinking I had achieved any sort of rational allocation between my life at work and my life outside.

It’s honest. And perfectly encapsulates how I feel about work-life balance.

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(hat tip: Sarah K. Peck)