Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1541840
DECEMBER 2025 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 51 has made my work-life balance so much nicer, including the others I've already mentioned. For a PWB design engineer like me, working remotely is a big plus for both sides of the work- life balance equation. At my company, we are asked to set our work hours to the company's core hours, and I adhere to that with some changes every now and then. It depends on your location compared to your teammates' and customers' loca- tions. On some proj- ects, my teammates and customers are located three time zones away from me. I adjust my schedule to help make our design interactions easier to manage, allowing us to complete the work more effi- ciently. Setting boundaries and stop times, as well as resetting at times to improve the design team's work- flow, strikes a good balance in engineering design. I highly recommend setting work boundaries for those who have kids, as schedules can get complicated. I take a three-minute walk break every hour, and I always do simple mini-exercises for my hands, arms, shoulders, neck, knees, ankles, and feet while sitting at my work desk. It is strongly recommended to engage in some form of exer- cise if you work at a desk for 10 hours or more a day. I have a Rubik's Cube at my desk, and I pick it up and solve it once or twice a day; it helps with my design process thinking. If you can solve the Cube, you can route a board. One of my biggest struggles is trying to over- achieve at work and set a good example by working longer hours and getting the work done, while sacri- ficing time for life experiences and family gather- ings. It is an honest trap to fall into, but getting out is not as easy. It takes time to set a good work-life balance, but don't give up on it. Make it happen. Work is important, but life experiences with family and friends are more important in the grand scheme of things. Understand your career options and set goals to achieve the desired work output accord- ing to your sched- ule and objectives. Doing that and leaning more into life will allow everything to balance, even if it doesn't seem that way. Absolutely, develop a positive life-work balance, understand it can change and go through an itera- tive process at times, and everything will be okay. DESIGN007 Fil Arzola is principal electrical engineer at Raytheon.