IME often they're over-compensating or projecting for a thing they know they want people to hear that they don't want to admit to.

It's "correct" to say "work-life balance" and "no heroes", but it doesn't generally NEED to be said in any normal circumstance; that they do say it is often because they do want the opposite of those things so they feel the need to point it out.

To me it's a form of the same thing that name-callers have when they call their adversaries names and you realize the charge they're levying against others is exactly what they themselves are/are doing; because they know they have whatever bad quality it's on their mind.