comment: >
context: /u/humvee911 (OP) has awarded 1 delta(s) in this post.
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  You didn’t address any of the major issues that drive most work-life balance problems.   How many hours a day do you generally need to work?   How often do you have periods of extra periods of work beyond the norm and how many additional hours can you expect in those instances?  How flexible is the job if you need to do kid stuff during the day?    
  Everything you described makes a job fulfilling, but there are plenty of fulfilling jobs with terrible work-life balance.    
  And it’d be very hard to pass judgement on whether the entire industry has a good work-life balance since it’s almost always company specific.    From the outside, my impression is that plenty of tech firms have terrible work life balance.   Crunch at game development companies.   Sleepless nights at startups trying to get the product out the door to chase those big IPO bucks.   Weird creature comfort perks at the office like a game room to distract you from the fact that you’re still in the office.  “Unlimited” vacation days that are actually a neat accounting trick accompanied by subtle pressure to never take any real vacation.   And so on. >
  
  
  How many hours a day do you generally need to work?
  
  Less than 8. In most cases especially with remote work people get their work done in a lot less than 8 hours a day. 
  
  How often do you have periods of extra periods of work beyond the norm and how many additional hours can you expect in those instances?
  
  If you're smart about it, you wouldn't be working overtime at all. It's best to set the expectations from your managers early on.
  
  How flexible is the job if you need to do kid stuff during the day?
  
  Very flexible. Especially with remote work which I believe tech has the highest percentage of people doing remote work.
  
  Everything you described makes a job fulfilling, but there are plenty of fulfilling jobs with terrible work-life balance. 
  
  True, I should have noted that there would be outliers. I was hinting at the average but I should have been more clear. Absolutes aren't good. >
  
  I guess you haven’t convinced me that the industry is great and not that your job is the outlier.    
  I’m a federal employee and the pull of the salaries in the tech sector is inexorable for my peer group, but everyone I know who has made the jump is in a much higher pressure situation that demands more hours and less consistent scheduling, even if they do get to work remotely.   
  “Setting expectations with your managers” early on sounds great, until those managers change out or there is some project that needs to be done.   “Sorry, higher level boss, I’m only going to work 8 hours today” doesn’t work that well when you’re salaried and the deadline is looming.”
  Your view might be better phrased as “it’s possible to get a well-paying job with a great work-life balance in tech if that’s your goal.” >
  
  I mean, is it really surprising that private employers who actually have a monetary reason to accomplish things have more expectations than a federal job? >
  
  Nope, not at all.   But that’s a different question entirely, one that undercuts OP’s view that the tech industry as a whole has the “best” work life balance.     Lots of federal employees out there doing remote work with FAR less pressure on them than anyone in tech, for better or worse. >
  
  Well for me it would probably be the worst for balancing work and personal life. Just based off the fact that if I’m sitting down all day, I’m probably going to be insanely bored, I enjoy being active and moving around. Then there’s the fact being inside is depressing to me, pile that onto my chronic depression and it sounds like I’m going to blow my brains out before work one morning. >
  
  Absolytely none of these stats are about anything related to work/life balance? They're just about the quality of the work. >
  
  You don't learn things on the fly, you have to alocate time outside of working hours for that, and to have to do that constantly in order to keep up. >
  
  You're entire premise is flawed, from the idea of work/life balance. Work is apart of your life. If you're caught thinking that you only have access to 'life' outside of your work, you've taught yourself to hate your work, even subconsciously. >
  
  This is a different view that I hadn't considered. Δ
  In my opinion, most people would prefer to be retired or have less work in general. But after looking at some statistics it seems like 65% of people in the US are actually satisfied with their jobs to an extent. Perhaps it's the Reddit bias. Personally, I'd prefer to work as little as possible if given the choice. >
  
  Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/philmarcracken (1∆).
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  You have it all wrong, it’s life work balance. My life comes before my work. >
  
  Definitely agree with you there, that's just pedantics >
  
  Before tech, you had time to work and you had time for your family and health, there were clearly defined boundaries of where you could work, and the time you would spend working. With tech jobs there are no boundaries, you can work while you eat, you can work while you poop, and you can work while you're at home with your family. Being in the presence of your family and working is not the same as spending time with them. >
  
  It depends a lot on where you are talking about. I mean, I think that your statement holds true to most of the world, BUT, there are countries which have historically prestiged public positions that beat even tech in work-life balance, as well as payment.
  For instance, while in the US Judges are considered to be middle class and serve elected mandates, in Brazil the average judge makes 25X more than the average person, is life tenured (can only be fired if he is definitely sentenced to more than 4 years in prison for some crime he committed), has 60 days of paid vacation a year + 17 days to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve, in some States he does only need to show up in court 3 times a week, for 4 hours a day, etc.
  So, in Brazil at least, Tech only gives a better work-life balance than all careers besides being a Judge, a Public Prosecutor, or holding a similarly high ranking in Juridical positions in the public sector.
  Also, outside of the Brazil example, I think that there must be other exceptions to the Tech work-life superiority, because, even though Tech can generate the highest economic throughput, on many countries, due to political strength, some public career was able to gather a seemingly abnormal amount of privileges and social status.