Mechanical engineer in Canada here, I took a research assistant job in academia (after a few years in industry) to get similar benefits. 35h hours weeks, 5 week

Mechanical engineer in Canada here, I took a research assistant job in academia (after a few years in industry) to get similar benefits. 35h hours weeks, 5 weeks vacation, lots of flexibility for kid sickness (has been a godsend for the past two years, getting called all the time to pick up kids with sniffles for mandatory COVID testing), relatively low stress yet fun and interesting projects. Low pay, but enough for a good lifestyle in a LCOL small university town.