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Blurring boundaries: can work and personal life be separated?

Move beyond the work-life boundary debate to address constant demands and mental load.

Visuel de la conférence Blurring : la séparation des temps de vie est-elle possible ?

Psychosocial risks & quality of work life · Social innovation

Employment law created a supposedly impermeable divide between the time and space of private life and professional life. This distinction has strongly shaped lifestyles, work organisation and even behaviours and identities, sometimes leading us to be different people at work and at home.

However influential, that separation remains artificial. It struggles with changing practices, particularly new technologies, and widespread remote work has sometimes shattered it altogether. Today, people call for the right to disconnect and renewed respect for work-life boundaries. Is this really possible? What if the main problem is not separating times, spaces and identities, but constant demands and excessive mental load?

Part 1 · A recent and artificial separation

  • The long history of undivided life
  • The invention of private life and professional behaviour
  • The challenges of reconciling different parts of life

Part 2 · Blurred boundaries: an inevitable trend?

  • The remote-work revolution
  • Tools and practices
  • Calls to restore the boundary

Part 3 · Live and work well without splitting yourself

  • Be yourself across all parts of life
  • Reduce mental load
  • Challenge constant demands

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