Body Lease ?

Language Corner
1
Hello,

this is a question to native English speakers: Does the term "bodylease" or "body lease" exist at all in English language?

Here in German speaking Switzerland some companies use it to designate employees who are subcontracted from other companies for an extended time period. In my opinion this term is inappropriate and stupid. I have the impression that this term was coinded by a German speaking HR person as a pseudo professional term.

Whats your thoughts?

2
Body lease either does not exist or is unheard of in British English.

3
It's nonsense, if someone asked me what I thought it meant I would say prostitute.

4
What is the German term?

5
Here's an explanation, and it's in English...although I'd say "outsourcing."

http://www.outsourcingportal.eu/en/b...r-whom-and-why

6

Would simply be either a contractor or a posted worker in English. The word bodylease doesn’t exist.

7
Please read my link. It does exist!!

8
I'm not sure there is one, actually. PersonalVerleih on the sending and PersonalLeihe on the receiving end come close, but the two are used interchangeably and as an umbrella term for the entire business.

Apparently Bodylease was invented at least 15 years ago. It's probably supposed to sound super-professional and impress the listener.

"Bodylease - fill your bodybags with the best content available!"

9
Body leasing is definitely a term used in English, and came from the English usage into German.

Now it is mostly a pejorative term implying cheap labour vs quality.

10

Again, no it doesn’t. You will not find it being used in the English language. That article is on a Polish website and was taken from a European magazine. Europeans may use it, but UK English - nah.

Outsourcing would be another word for that type of set-up.

11
The author isn't a mother-tongue english speaker though; Slovakian or Czech possibly?

You're right, outsourcing or perhaps contracting out would be the correct english terms.

12
Sure about that?

I would think outsourcing means you "export" the work (not necessarily across a border). Bodylease means you "import" the workers (temporarily). It seems closer to hiring consultants, except the hired do actual productive work.

13
No, that would be a Wet Body Lease

14
I've never heard body lease. I thought "bodyshopping" was the usual term?

15
Sub-contractor surely?

16
Body Shop is the standard term that is used in the US when it comes to IT contractors.

17
What the heck is body lease? Never heard of it.

18
It even has a wikipedia page: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body-Leasing

19
For one, it obviously exists and b this entire article is in English !

edit next day: Same linke as bossybabies - must be a good one then. Sorry, only read first post last night as I was interested in the term.

I'm 99.9% sure it is not a German invention but taken over into "Neudeutsch".

20
We used it quite a lot when working in London along with "body shop" and "meat market".

It's a pejorative term for a company that provides no added value beyond providing people. Often used to refer to a umbrella company / recruiter pretending to be a consultancy...

(For the non native English speakers, a body shop is also a car repair garage and a meat market is a whore house... but both are used in consultancy to refer to fake consultancies)