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PurposeThe purpose of this article is to consider why work‐life balance has become a major issue, and the likely outcomes of the widespread dissatisfaction with current work schedules.Design/methodology/approachThe article reviews international evidence on hours of work and time use, and the academic literature on employees’ attitudes towards their hours of work, and perceptions and complaints about work‐life imbalances.FindingsWorking time has not lengthened and complaints about time pressure are unrelated to hours actually worked. The sources of the widespread dissatisfaction with current work schedules will lie in a combination of other trends – increased labour market participation by women, work intensification, the spread of feelings of job insecurity, more work being done at odd hours, the spread of new information and communication technologies, free time increasing more slowly than spending power and aspirations, and relatively long hours becoming most common among employees (and the self‐employed) in higher status jobs. An outcome is unlikely to be a general downward trend in hours worked on account of the substantial opportunity costs that would often be incurred by employees, and because some (mainly middle class) employees have access to a number of effective coping strategies.Research limitations/implicationsNearly all the evidence considered (and available) is from Western countries.Practical implicationsRegulation of working time with the aim of delivering more acceptable work‐life balances needs to deliver flexibility (at employees' discretion) rather than any standard solution.Originality/valueThe article offers a synthesis of evidence from sources that are rarely drawn together – mainly labour market research, and leisure studies.

Previous work has shown several proteins defective in Fanconi anemia (FA) are phosphorylated in a functionally critical manner. FANCA is phosphorylated after DNA damage and localized to chromatin, but the site and significance of this phosphorylation are unknown. Mass spectrometry of FANCA revealed one phosphopeptide, phosphorylated on serine 1449. Serine 1449 phosphorylation was induced after DNA damage but not during S phase, in contrast to other posttranslational modifications of FA proteins. Furthermore, the S1449A mutant failed to completely correct a variety of FA-associated phenotypes. The DNA damage response is coordinated by phosphorylation events initiated by apical kinases ATM (ataxia telangectasia mutated) and ATR (ATM and Rad3-related), and ATR is essential for proper FA pathway function. Serine 1449 is in a consensus ATM/ATR site, phosphorylation in vivo is dependent on ATR, and ATR phosphorylated FANCA on serine 1449 in vitro. Phosphorylation of FANCA on serine 1449 is a DNA damage-specific event that is downstream of ATR and is functionally important in the FA pathway.

This paper presents and discusses evidence about the sport careers of representative samples of 31-37 year olds from the capital city and a comparator region in each of the three South Caucasus countries -Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. This is one of the few surveys to measure sport participation that allows change over time at the aggregate and individual levels to be distinguished. The evidence suggests that many differences in sport participation rates that are commonly attributed to circumstances and experiences after age 16 (higher education, for example) already exist at age 16, and that family cultures are the source of crucial predispositions to participate which have lasting effects. The evidence, from countries that up to 1991 shared the Soviet education and sport systems, also suggests that ethnic/national cultures that predate communism have outlived communism and are now a major explanation of inter-country differences in rates of sport participation in the South Caucasus. Finally, the evidence indicates that sport facilities do indeed make a difference, but only by enabling those who are predisposed to take part in sport.

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