Anne-Marie Slaughter is a very successful academic. Here is her long essay on the tradeoffs of joining the Obama Administration. I am surprised that she didn't investigate the time requirements for the job before she accepted it. Academia offers personal freedom that "real jobs" don't. That's a tradeoff and different people self select into the different types of jobs.
In a world where it is costly to transmit information (say from one doctor to another doctor about a patient's health), it is impossible to "share work". We need folks putting in 13 hour days and there is a question of who can and is willing to do it. I'm not! I like the academic "soft" life!
