Just got off the phone with my manager in Rochester after our weekly call. He told me not to work so hard. That's difficult to do for the following reasons:

1. The previous two IAs were skilled engineers and on top of that worked all the time. I'm not that amazing in this job, but I have to work all the time anyway just to live up to the benchmark.
2. I sit next to the Mobile CI guys, and they work longer hours around here than most. Because I'm involved in mobile programs as well, I'd feel bad if I skipped out early (meaning before 8-9pm) while there's stuff to do.
3. At the start of this assignment, I got a promotion, so I have more responsibilities than before, and I'd rather overkill rather than underkill from the perspective of work ethic.
4. Salary-wise, I make more than a lot of people around here, so that makes me feel guilty. Actually, pretty much all U.S. employees make more than the Japanese employees. That doesn't take into account other factors, like they have additional benefits that I don't (semi-annual bonus worth ~3 months salary, housing assistance, commute allowance, limited overtime pay, etc.), and I'm living in a foreign environment and they're not. Still, I have that extra personal pressure of "Am I worth it?"

"Work-life balance" is something that starts with management. Of course, I can impose my own restrictions on my working hours, at the expense of my work ethic. On the other hand, it's a two-way street—I shouldn't be put in that situation or be forced to resolve it myself. However, without my support, the CI teams here will have a harder time fixing problems, so that's another compelling point.

The problem with being able to see multiple sides of an issue is that one has trouble deciding which side is correct.