The origins and meaning of the French expression boulot peinard

Once September’s rentrée was completed and everyone was grumpily back into their post-summer routines, I finally caught up with a few village acquaintances whom I’d not seen all summer.

The main reason I hadn’t seen two of them is because they are fonctionnaires (public servants) and, as everyone who is not a fonctionnaire will gladly tell you, these are deemed by many as the cushiest roles in France – jobs for life with little stress, decent benefits, and a very generous holiday allowance. They were away for all of August.

Anyone who works in the French civil service, known as the fonction publique, is used to some gentle ribbing from others about their sometimes huge leave allocation.

One of the aforementioned friends has a whopping ten weeks’ paid holiday every year, accumulated over a career that ends when he is a spritely 57.

Municipal workers are the soft target for one of France’s most popular comedy creations, Les Chevaliers du Fiel. These two mairie employees – the bossy ‘thinker’ and his feckless sidekick – are depicted as being fiercely dedicated to doing as little physical labour as possible. 

The pastis-supping pair are depicted as fainéants (bone idle) and more interested in when the next apéro is due than doing any work. They are the satirical embodiment of anyone with a cushy job – the French word for which is un boulot peinard.

Peinard can be traced back to the word peine (literally ‘pain’ but in this sense, effort or trouble), coming from Latin poena (penalty) and Ancient Greek poinē.

The only stress for some people comes from worrying about what to do with all that time off.