All work and no play makes Iain a Nineties man ...

Iain Kennedy, 50, is managing director of an electronics company. He has three children.

"When I'm in the office I spend an awful lot of time with people. So the work I do at home is reading and thinking. Away from work, I can stand back and look at long-term strategies. Weekends are the worst - I do at least two half days of work then. I'm very vigilant about employees over- working and exhausting themselves. I certainly wouldn't expect them to follow my example - they probably don't know how much work I do take home. It's one of life's conundrums; I know I need more balance but it's a very difficult thing to manage."

Average homework: at least 20 hours a week.

Judith Gershon, above, is in her late thirties. She is a senior associate partner and head of secured lending at Eversheds, a national law firm. She has three children under the age of 11 and lives in Birmingham.

"I used to get up at 5am and work till 6.30am. I stopped that and now do it all in the evenings."

"I don't like taking work home but I do it for three reasons; first, I have a young family so I don't like staying in the office late - I'd prefer to get home in time and see them go to bed then work after that; secondly, some work is easier to do away from the office; and finally, we're driven by a commercial recession and have to keep up with clients' demands."

"What I don't like about homework is when I start resenting callers who turn up unexpectedly. I don't like myself for feeling like that."

Average homework: 2-3 hours per evening