Work/Life Balance

Question

This is answered all over the place in many different ways so my apologies but I see a lot of people talking about their great work/life balance at their job and their steady 35-40 hour weeks, not working excessive overtime. I'm not in consulting and I find it hard sometimes to find this routine that I am reading so much about. To those that have it, what do you do? Are you in life? Health? Something else? I do love my company for the people so I am not necessarily looking for a job hopping opportunity but I don't have many actuaries to talk to outside of work (I have none)

Answer 1

All the insurers I've worked for had less than 40 hour workweeks. When I was in consulting I did work a lot of overtime. But even that was self-imposed as the office was maybe 10% full past 6 and those were the people who were motivated by their bonus. The rest just went home.

Unless the majority of your department is working overtime, nothing will happen if you just tell yourself "oh man look at the time it's 5:00, gotta go." *shuts laptop*

Answer 2

Life valuation
Remote
US
ASA
Just stop working so much and see what happens. hop jobs if u think ur gonna get fired. the companies that are poorly managed will kake u worj more and those well kanaged will give u worj life balance

Answer 3

Are you based in Asia?

Answer 4

I worked for a company where it was always a fire drill. Can't believe I stayed for 3 years. Im with a new company where work/life balance is super good which has helped me be healthier mentally. With that said, I feel a bit bored with the work. I feel like there is always a trade off.

Answer 5

I've been in Life, Health and something else and have yet to work a 40-hour work week. Even during busy valuation periods.

Answer 6

You’re not alone. I’ve worked for 4 different carriers. I’m in the Northeast too. Work/life balance at my first 3 jobs was terrible. There was always an emergency, everything was top priority, extremely unreasonable deadlines, no study time. I was convinced actuarial outpost and r/actuary were a bunch of scammers. Then I realized my mistake: Medicare Advantage. I switched to Commercial and it’s all peaches and cream now. Went from taking one prelim every ~1.5 years to passing all my FSA exams on my first try, back to back sittings.

I would encourage you to look for other options. This career is about making reasonable money while having a good work life balance. If you take work/life balance out of the equation, you might as well do something more lucrative.

Answer 7

I feel like my current team is enjoyable.  40 hrs most of the time.  Occasionally deadlines/problems might come up and we have to figure it out, which could be a 50-60 hour week/few weeks. Tons of flexibility.  Most people have families and realize  there are more important things than work. Enough busy periods to not get bored, but not enough to be burnt out.  In Life Insurance.

Answer 8

Maybe like 20 of actual work when it’s busy. Second company like this. Health.

Answer 9

Consulting in my experience is the antithesis of work life balance.  They decided where I was to be, when I was to be there, and if I didn't thank them for it, I was ungrateful.  No thanks.

Answer 10

Group Pricing (life, disability, etc) and I rarely work over 40 hours. When working on a rate filing or when states roll out new PFML plans I can get busy but is never overwhelming. Previously I was in a life modeling role so quarter ends sucked. But I found a new job and have much more balance now.