[vinceguidry]

There can be no harmony between work and life for most people because capitalism isn't interested in your happiness. It only wants to turn piles of money into bigger piles of money. Invariably whatever you do to manage your relationship with work will come to the attention of a manager who will make it their job to disabuse you of the notion that the managerial relationship can go both ways. They manage you, you can only negotiate with them. And they will never consider themselves held to any bargain you strike with them other than one that can be held up in court.

Some workplaces are more or less forced to accommodate (a subset of) their employees. But this only lasts as long as economic conditions force them to. As soon as those conditions change, get ready for the new fleet of managers ready to pound all the pegs into these square holes, never you mind what shape you are.

Work is always, at best, a tenuous truce.