Okuzeka
Business English vocabulary · Working Life

Work-life balance

Meaning in business english, with examples

nounCore term

In business english, work-life balance means: A healthy balance between the time and energy you give to your job and to your personal life.

In Turkish: iş-yaşam dengesi

How it is used

Common in HR, management, and workplace culture discussions. Often used with improve, maintain, support, or struggle with when talking about hours, flexibility, and stress.

Example sentences

  1. After months of late calls with overseas clients, Maya asked her manager for clearer boundaries to protect her work-life balance.

    Here it means keeping work demands from taking over personal time, especially when international schedules create repeated pressure outside normal hours.

  2. The company added no-meeting Fridays because staff surveys showed poor work-life balance across several project teams.

    In this example, the term refers to an overall condition measured across teams and used to justify a policy change.

Common collocations

  • improve work-life balance
  • maintain work-life balance
  • support work-life balance
  • work from homeTo do your job at home instead of at the office, usually using a laptop, email and video calls; often shortened to WFH.
  • annual leaveThe paid days off work that an employee is entitled to each year, often used for holidays.

More terms: Working Life

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: