What does it mean word for word?
The term vie professionnelle means "professional life" and is used to denote the work aspect of the balance. The term vie privée means "private life" and is the standard way to represent the personal side of the equation.
Which one should you use?
There are several ways to express this depending on the setting. Équilibre entre vie professionnelle et vie personnelle and Harmonie entre travail et vie privée are formal expressions. For an informal setting, you can use Gestion du boulot et de la vie perso, while Équilibre entre le taf et le reste is a colloquial expression.
How does it change in a sentence?
In casual office conversations, French speakers often use abbreviations to shorten the terms, resulting in the expression l'équilibre vie pro-vie perso.
Did you know?
- France has a legal droit à la déconnexion, or 'right to disconnect', which allows employees to ignore work-related emails and calls outside of office hours to protect their équilibre vie pro-vie perso.
- The colloquial terms taf and boulot used in informal versions of this phrase are both slang terms for 'work' that have different origins, including one derived from 'tableau'.
- French speakers use vie privée to describe their 'personal life' because privée emphasizes a boundary of privacy that personnelle does not.
Example conversation
Hugo and Lea are discussing their jobs during lunch.
- HugoEst-ce que tu as un bon équilibre vie professionnelle-vie personnelle ?Do you have a good work-life balance?
- LéaNon, je travaille trop d'heures en ce moment.No, I am working too many hours right now.
- HugoTu devrais en parler avec ton patron, Léa.You should talk about it with your boss, Lea.
- LéaTu as raison, Hugo, je vais essayer.You are right, Hugo, I will try.
