Absolutely the worst technical recruiter call I've ever had. I mentioned "good office culture and healthy work/life balance" as something I'm looking for in a position. Was asked how I felt about work/life balance "when there are deadlines you need to hit".

I responded that I understand that obviously there are sometimes hard business deadlines that require working long hours, but in a healthy org I'd expect that this doesn't happen often and, when it does, that management makes sure that people are taking PTO afterward to make up for it and prevent burnout.

Was told that the recruiter "couldn't speak to that". They then reiterated that "sometimes there are just deadlines and everyone needs to pitch in and work long hours."

So uh. Good luck, everybody!

How do you handle situations where there's a lot of work to do on a tight deadline?