Job Sharing: Catalyst for Superpowers!

For 4 years I’ve had the opportunity to balance meaningful work with parenting 3 small kids - which feels like having a superpower - because I’ve been part of an incredible job share with Anna Doyle delivering the Graduate Apprenticeship Programme at the University of Glasgow.?

Meeting Anna as my maternity cover I instantly liked her working style and people centred approach, and having worked flexibly on the Saltire Scholars Programme and at Entrepreneurial Scotland when the opportunity arose I was excited to become a job share.

Anna was patient and supportive when I came back to work and together, we set up structures and established patterns - which now feel like second nature - to make the job-share work:

1.????? Communication is the heart of a successful job share so we have overlapping work patterns, begin each week together planning the workload, religiously copy one another into emails, have a shared email account for parts of our role, provide handover notes when needed and talk, message and laugh our way through the week to deliver a united front.

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2.????? Anna and I share some skills, but we also bring our own experiences to the party, which makes us better than the sum of our parts.? When one of us has an idea, we talk it through and build on the good ones together.? When one of us hits a challenge, we combine forces to find a solution. When we have success or failure, we reflect or celebrate. Sharing our role gives the power, energy, perspective, and resilience of two minds.? ?

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3.????? Together we can be flexible to meet the demands of our role in way neither of us could comfortably be individually, creating continuity while we genuinely get to work part-time. ?For me maternity transitions have been seamless thanks to Anna, and I have the opportunity to be the parent and worker I want to be.

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4.????? Our work involves a lot of communication with colleagues, and we are open about being a happy job-share which sets expectations that a response can come from either of us and be consistent.? How we respond might differ slightly, but never on the big things - I trust and support Anna all the way and know she has my back too.

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5.????? Our line managers have created a context where our job share can thrive by giving us the space and flexibility to work out our own dynamic. ?We share responsibilities in a way which gives each other the space - and support - to do what we each enjoy most. ?Thanks Matthew Barr for championing our job-share from the start and Fiona Dick for her trust and support.??

Decent part-time roles are a unicorn in the labour market so job sharing can enable part-time workers to progress through access to fulltime roles, but it can be much more.? It can be an opportunity to create a collaborative partnership (in an environment we often consider individualist) to genuinely support, challenge and learn from someone else to achieve more than the sum of your parts. ?So thanks to my partner and pal Anna for supporting, encouraging, and laughing with me over 4 transformative years - and making me better at all parts of life.

Job sharing is a relationship which creates growth for job-sharers, their organisations, and the economy: the world needs more job-sharing induced super strength!

EDIT: Since writing this piece, Anna and I successfully applied for second job-share as Coordinator for the Glasgow Centre for Sustainable Energy.? Thanks Gioia Falcone and David Flynn for seeing the possibilities of the power of two (see Anna Doyle 's post for her take!).