I got an internship at a company that I'm super excited for, and it's considered one of the best in my field for work-life balance. We don't have to clock in or out, we just get paid per week and it's up to us to finish the work on time.
I decided to look up 'day in the life of a …' YouTube videos and pretty much everyone says that they love how balanced their life is and that they “only” work 40-45 hours a week. On Glassdoor it's listed that 54% of employees work 40 hour weeks, 39% work 40-60 hour weeks, and 7% work 60+ hour weeks.
When my parents were still working, 40 hours was considered a full time job. I assumed that good work-life balance meant under a full time job…? As in a 40 hour week is expected, a sub-40 hour week is considered a benefit, and an 40+ hour week is over time. I know we get to set our own hours but work is work and I didn't consider that as part of the 'life' portion of work-life balance.
Having a good balance was something that my interviewer specifically told me is a benefit of the job and I'm confused. Since when has working above full time on average started being considered a 'balanced' benefit? Am I misinterpreting the meaning of work-life balance?