"The Big Bang Theory" is your best choice to understand how scientists come off as. I have had myself my work-life priorities misplaced and have had my burnouts.
I had BS and I had enrolled in an PhD engineering degree. One of the departments have had people working and living in the lab. Those were 25-year old dedicated professionals. One of my friends was getting married. When we asked him when was the engagement party, he said he "had not time for it." Good for him. That was not the job for me. I want to experience my life. My roommate works in an electrical engineering company. He plans to move to another place - the work hours that the workers attend to there are 8 am to 8 pm. For, well, 40 years? That is nowhere near normal-life-ish.
You also forgot other jobs also offer sunlight-filled offices and certainly more common human contacts. I do not want to spend my life in an isolated place or holed up in a windowsless lab. It sometimes happens in some science jobs.
I think the scientists have been resilient folks, when we put the settings that they have had to survive in. They have not been taught some social skills as much. Which you do not teach - you just let the people play them out. I am reading an IT-job interview book, which I quote: "however, like the engineers, many computer scientists have sub-standard communications skills."
I don't think lawyers do the same or less amount of work than scientists and engineers. I've watched up close a big patent suit (I was one of the inventors named on the patent, and the only one available for the trial), and at least in that area of law, the lawyers worked more hours sustained than any scientist or engineer I've known.
When I was in my early 30's I got burned out on programming, and went to law school with the intent of going into patent and copyright law. However, after the third year, when I had one paper to write to graduate, I went back to my old job for the summer. I was no longer burned out on programming, and I also had the worst case of writers block in the history of the universe, so never got around to writing that last paper.
Having watched the lawyers during the patent suit, I am pretty sure I dodged a bullet by not becoming a lawyer.
Having family members who are/were high powered lawyers (working for international firms, taking home 300K UKP per year or more), they certainly spend very long hours and lots of time in meetings, and certainly have to read a great deal in order to review carefully very long documents.
However I would make a distinction between hours spent in meetings, talking, and reviewing documents, vs. bringing as much brainpower as you can to solve a problem and do something new. Somehow the job of the scientist or engineer seems much harder - perhaps this is just my perception however.
I had BS and I had enrolled in an PhD engineering degree. One of the departments have had people working and living in the lab. Those were 25-year old dedicated professionals. One of my friends was getting married. When we asked him when was the engagement party, he said he "had not time for it." Good for him. That was not the job for me. I want to experience my life. My roommate works in an electrical engineering company. He plans to move to another place - the work hours that the workers attend to there are 8 am to 8 pm. For, well, 40 years? That is nowhere near normal-life-ish.
You also forgot other jobs also offer sunlight-filled offices and certainly more common human contacts. I do not want to spend my life in an isolated place or holed up in a windowsless lab. It sometimes happens in some science jobs.
I think the scientists have been resilient folks, when we put the settings that they have had to survive in. They have not been taught some social skills as much. Which you do not teach - you just let the people play them out. I am reading an IT-job interview book, which I quote: "however, like the engineers, many computer scientists have sub-standard communications skills."