Lifestyle of all physicians depends significantly upon the practice within which they work. This depends significantly upon the volume of the hospital, number of surgeons or anes in the practices, presence or absence of residents, utilization of CRNA's, and the area where one works. I think that generally, people feel that anesthesiologists have an easier lifestyle. That is the case where I work, with the anes docs working typically 50 hrs/wk, including their night coverage. However, they have about 20 anesthesiologists covering the hospital and a couple outpatient facilities.
We did have one anes doc who moved from a city of about 40,000 to my town (350,000) who said that in her old practice, a lot of the anes docs were working closer to 100 hrs/wk.
Again, I think that a lot of it depends upon what you are looking for when you go to a practice. Definitely, the surgeons tend to have a bit more unpredictable, as we see more consults that never make it to the OR, and have to take care of floor/ICU issues.
I don't think that it's always the easiest to generalize. There are just too many factors.
