Abstract: A firm’s performance may be affected by its attempts to reconcile its employees’ work and personal lives. The literature indicates that the existence of such practices in a firm is itself insufficient for true reconciliation. The present study therefore considered not only the effect of formal practices on conciliation, but also the effect of a culture of awareness in the firm of the need to reconcile its employees work and personal lives. To this end, a study was made of Spanish listed firms. The results showed that these firm’s reconciliation practices were distinguishable from their culture of the need for such reconciliation. While both influenced performance, they were completely different in that the practices affected performance negatively, while a culture of the interaction of work and life affected it positively at the same time as moderating the relationship of the firm’s practices with its performance.