{"id":185170,"date":"2026-11-04T17:46:52","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T16:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/?p=185170"},"modified":"2026-11-04T18:01:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T17:01:25","slug":"parisworkplace-2026-what-expats-can-teach-us-about-the-quality-of-life-in-the-office-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/notre-actualite\/parisworkplace-2026-ce-que-les-expatries-ont-a-nous-apprendre-sur-la-qualite-de-vie-au-bureau-a-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"ParisWorkplace 2026: What expatriates have to teach us about the quality of life in the office in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colonial SFL, a major player in prime real estate in Paris, reveals the results of the 13th edition of the Ifop Paris Workplace barometer, which measures the relationship of Francilians with their workplace. For the first time, the study compares the vision of expatriates with that of the average Francilien employee. Results: Expatriates are more proud than we are of working in Paris, more fond of our Parisian rituals and passionate debates\u2026 while at the same time judging our management to be lagging behind the rest of Europe.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\u2022 82% are proud to work in Paris, and 36% no longer see themselves living anywhere else than in France
\u2022 \u00ab Belle \u00bb is the first word that expatriates associate with Paris (40% compared to 29% for Francilians), with an architecture rated 8.5\/10 (compared to 7.9)
\u2022 Expats rate the quality of life in Paris higher than we do (6.8 out of 10), and 58% of them find a better balance between work and personal life there than in their home country.
\u2022 76% find that the French know how to enjoy life more than elsewhere\u2026 compared to 64% of the Francilians. And among our rituals, expatriates consider the typical Parisian thing to do to be having lunch at a restaurant (83% against 66%) or having a drink on the terrace after work (83% against 75%).
\u2022 The expatriates mostly (67%) believe that management in Paris is behind the rest of Europe. They describe Parisian managers as more change-oriented, with unclear instructions (27% vs 16%), and with long and poorly transparent decision-making processes (76% vs 69% among the French).
\u2022 The study confirms some older stereotypes about Parisian employees: for expatriates, they are complainers (82%), angry with the English (81%), strike-breakers (76%) and arrogant (65%).
\u2022 Nevertheless, Francilien employees report a record level of well-being at work in 2026: 7.1\/10, a higher historical level (equaling 2024) since the beginning of the study in 2016 (where it was 6.4). In particular, 57% say that their offices played a role in their current job choice (vs. 30% in 2017); even 72% among 18-24 year olds do so.


1\/ Venus for their careers; expats stay for the quality of life<\/strong>

What motivated expatriates to choose to come and work and live in Paris and its region? The question asked of the expatriates deliberately distinguished between two categories of motivations:
\u2022 factors directly related to professional life: professional opportunity (mentioned first, 33%), and the need to support one's family (10% of responses);
\u2022 non-work-related factors: quality of life (mentioned second, at 16%), and cultural life (fourth, at 8%).
What is striking is the weight of non-professional factors in the decision: people don\u2019t come to Paris just to work there, but for everything the capital has to offer \u00abon the outskirts\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And once there, Paris \u00abkeeps its promises\u00bb:
\u2022 Expats give Paris\u2019s quality of life a score of 6.8\/10 (compared to 6.2\/10 for Francilians)
\u2022 58% of the expatriates believe that Paris offers a better balance between work and personal life than their home country.
\u2022 Transportation, culture, festive life, security\u2026 in almost all the dimensions tested, expatriates are at least a little more positive than Francilians:
\u2013 84% are satisfied with public transport access to their place of work (compared to 79% of Franciliens in general)
\u2013 The cycle paths are rated 7.2\/10 by expatriates, compared to 6.6 by the French
\u2013 The security rating is 6.3\/10 compared to 5.8\/10 by the French
\u2013 93% of the expatriates consider the presence of culture in France to be important (compared to 88%), and 82% even consider it to be a \u00abtypically Parisian\u00bb element (compared to 74%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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The French, epicureans?
76% of the expatriates believe that the French \u00abknow how to enjoy life, more than anywhere else\u00bb... a big difference with the opinion of the Francilians themselves (64%).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result: 82% of the expatriates are proud to work in Paris, and more than one in three (36%) no longer see themselves living anywhere else but in France. Expatriates appear to be excellent ambassadors: they give an average of 7.2\/10 for the likelihood of recommending to a friend to come and work in Paris, compared to 6.6\/10 for the French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


2\/ Beauty as a factor of attractiveness<\/strong>

Expatriates remind us that the beauty of the city and its architecture are not mere add-ons to the soul, but central components of the attractiveness of workplaces. \u00abBeautiful\u00bb is the first word they associate with Paris (40% citations, compared to 29% for Francilians in general), far ahead of \u00abdynamic\u00bb or \u00abcosmopolitan\u00bb (12% each). And they assign an 8.5\/10 rating to Parisian architecture, compared to 7.9\/10 for Francilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Around the offices, expatriates are systematically more satisfied than Francilians with green spaces (69% against 65% \u2013 and even 31% against 15% \u00abvery satisfied\u00bb), the presence of monuments and heritage buildings (60% against 55%). They are also more sensitive to the view from their workplace (60% for expatriates versus 56% for French people).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This adherence to the Parisian landscape is also reflected in the choice of the ideal neighborhood:
Overall, 78% would prefer to work in a mixed neighborhood rather than in a business district. Their favorite neighborhood for work? The central and heritage neighborhoods (Louvre \/ Palais-Royal (93%) or the Latin Quarter (90%)) are cited as the top choice by expatriates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For companies, the beauty of the work environment is therefore not just a matter of image. It contributes to the daily experience of employees, their pride in belonging, and the employer\u2019s ability to attract talent accustomed to comparing themselves with the major international metropolises.


3\/ Lunch, RTT, debate: the French way of doing things makes everyone envious<\/strong>

In the office, expatriate employees favor a work culture that they easily associate with the French way of life:
\u2022 For them, lunch is a sacred ritual: 83% of the expatriates consider it \u00abtypically Parisian\u00bb to have lunch outside, in a restaurant (compared to 66% of the French).
\u2022 84% of the expatriates who have been living here for less than five years have lunch with their colleagues; this percentage rises to 90% among those who have been here for more than five years \u2013 almost the same level as the French people in general (91%).
\u2022 Expats place the most \u00abtypically French\u00bb elements at the top of the list in a Parisian workplace\u2026 the RTTs (24%), an achievement so well established in French culture that average Francilians rank it only fourth (13%)
\u2022 The debate, a national sport: 60% of the expatriates see the confrontation of ideas at work as a characteristic \u00abtypically Parisian\u00bb trait (vs. 50% of the French).
\u2022 56% of the expatriates consider the office a place of life as well as a place of work (this is 48% for the Francilians), and half of them say that their colleagues are also their friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the office plays a key role in integrating expatriates: 93% of those who indicate having very good relationships with their colleagues (a score of 9 or 10\/10) report having been \u00abwell received\u00bb in France in general.
The well-being score for expatriates stands at 7.1\/10, the same level as that of French expatriates, but 22% of them score between 9 and 10\/10, compared to 16% of the French. And newcomers (under 5 years old: 7.2\/10) barely stand out from the \u00abestablished\u00bb ones (5 years or older: 7.1\/10): a sign of successful and lasting integration.
The result: Teleworking appeals to expatriates a little less, who came to Paris to \u00abexperience the Parisian experience\u00bb. 78% French people state that the possibility of teleworking has become a criterion for choosing their next job, compared to 71% of the expats (-7 points).<\/p>\n\n\n\n


4\/ Management: the Achilles heel of French Touch?<\/strong>

The attachment to Paris and its working environment does not prevent expatriates from having a nuanced view of our working methods, which are often described as vertical and less transparent. This stereotype is confirmed in our study:
\u2022 67% of the expatriates believe that the management culture in France is behind that of other European countries
\u2022 27% describe their manager as being changey, giving vague instructions (compared to 16% of the Franciliens in general, the largest difference)
\u2022 76% consider the decision-making processes to be long and poorly transparent (vs. 69% of the Franciliens).


5\/ Grumblers, strikers, arrogant\u2026 some clich\u00e9s are in for a rough ride<\/strong>

Expatriates love Paris, but they still have their preconceived ideas about the French\u2026 some of which are based on a certain degree of truth:
\u2022 82% of the expatriates consider the French to be \u00abgrumbling\u00bb
\u2022 81% believe they speak poor English
\u2022 65% find them arrogant.
\u2022 A stereotype only convinces a minority: only 45% believe that French people work less than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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6\/ The Francilians nevertheless enjoy record well-being at work<\/strong>

Since the Ifop Paris Workplace barometer has been analyzing the reports from French employees about their work, the study has never recorded such a high level of well-being at work: it reaches 7.1\/10 (tied with 2024), compared to 6.4\/10 in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Loving their office therefore \u00abcounts\u00bb 1.2 points towards well-being: those who see it as a place to live rate their level of well-being at 7.7\/10. Only 6.5\/10 for those who see it only as a place to work.
57% of the employees believe that their offices played a role in their decision to join their company, compared to 30% in 2017. This figure rises to 72% among 18-24 year-olds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Covid has changed the way Francilians view their office: now more people consider the office a place of life as well as a place of work (49% versus 51%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The balance between the desired teleworking rhythm and the actual working rhythm is now stabilized (2.2 days desired, 1.6 days completed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Les Fran\u00e7ais, des \u00e9picuriens ?76% des expatri\u00e9s estiment que les Fran\u00e7ais \u00ab savent profiter de la vie, plus qu\u2019ailleurs \u00bb\u2026 un gros \u00e9cart avec l\u2019avis des Franciliens eux-m\u00eames (64%). R\u00e9sultat : 82% des expatri\u00e9s sont fiers de travailler \u00e0 Paris, et plus d\u2019un sur trois (36%) ne se voit plus vivre ailleurs qu\u2019en France. Les […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":185884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualite"],"acf":{"file":"","details":"","sticky":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185170"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185502,"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185170\/revisions\/185502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sflparis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}