Work life balance as a Software Engineer

A: Hey Mayuko. I'm about to go grab some coffe. Want to join me?
B: Yeah let's do it. Oh, by the way before we leave I want to say thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring this video. Whether you need a website or domain, make it with Squarespace.
A: So Mayuko, I have a question for you.
B: Alright.
A: I've recently heard about this thing called work-life balance.
B: Yeah
A: But I have no idea what it is. Could you explain it to me?
B: Yeah. So work life balance is the balance that an individual needs between work and life and so I think it's important to also note that everyone has like a different balance point. So this really means something different to every person.
A: Okay. Okay I think that makes sense. So like, even if I have a lot of work to do, I should still take time to take care of myself?
B: Yeah, exactly.
A: Okay. I mean I spend so much time working. How many hours a day do you work?
B: So I usually work about like 40 hours a week and so typically that's like Monday through Friday Nine to Five is generally how much I work. What's more important is like the emphasis on getting what I need to get done so it doesn't matter like how much time I put into it because it's more like outcome than effort.
A: Right, right.
B: Yeah.
A: Cool. Okay. Makes sense, makes sense. You work nine to five you said?
B: I do, yeah.
A: So like are you working that whole time? Or do you take breaks?
B: I definitely take breaks. Even if I'm working an eight-hour day, I can't possibly code for eight hours straight because I need my brain to refresh once in a while. So usually I'll work either 20 minutes or a couple hours basically until I get stuck or tired. Then I'll take like a quick five to fifteen-minute break to refresh myself. So they're definitely great so I don't have to be like coding the whole time.
A: Interesting. Okay because like whenever I see programmers on TV and stuff they're kinda working really long hours with no breaks and wearing hoodies and drinking sugary drinks.
B: Yeah and that's definitely one way the software engineers have been depicted over time in the media but yeah that's not really what my kind of day-to-day is like at all. It kind of was like when I was in college when I had to study a lot. But you know nowadays when I'm working a full-time job that's rarely the case.
A: Okay, so what about when you like don't get your work done on time? Do you work nights and weekends to catch up?
B: I sometimes do and that's actually really rare. It's more like a self-imposed thing than anything. Like no one's telling me to work nights and weekends so much as it is like I just want to be able to finish my work. SO sometimes I'll put in a couple extra hours at night or I'll work on the weekends, but generally that's not the case and so maybe I'll work say five weekends a year to catch up on any work when it's crunch time.
A: Thanks for the coffee Mayuko. Anything else I should know?
B: Yeah, I would say that like everyone has a different work life balance point I would say. So it's really important when talking about work-life balance to be empathetic to everyone's situations. Everyone has a different max to what they can do so it's really good not to enforce what your max is to other people and just like talking about it, communicating, being empathetic to other people's situations is going to make everything a lot easier. So that's the only thing I would say about it.
A: Hey, yeah. Okay well thanks Mayuko. I've got to run to a meeting so I'll catch you later.
B: Sounds good.
A: Bye.
B: Hey everyone, thank you so much for watching today's video. IF you liked it please give it a thumbs up and hopefully I answered a lot of the questions you have about work-life balance but if I have not, leave a comment down below. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button for new videos and I want to take a moment to say thank you again to Squarespace for sponsoring today's video. So as I mentioned in my last video I think there is a little bit of a pressure to make your own website and stuff but given where your work life balance point is at maybe you're really busy with other stuff and you don't have enough time to make your own website, I think Squarespace is a great solution to that problem. They have beautiful designer templates that are ready to go for you and it's an all-in-one platform so you never have to install, upgrade, or patch anything which means way less work for you.

(the rest is just advertisements for squarespace so i quit writing after that;;)