Job sharing is a short term arrangement and only viable for working mums...

We have been asked openly about whether our job sharing arrangement will be a short term thing. Honestly? As life stands right now it is almost impossible to say. At the moment we pay for long nursery days from 8am-6pm. What will we do when we have a 3pm school pick up to consider, coupled with a 9am drop off? Meeting with another job share couple recently, they joked that though they thought job sharing would be short term - to see them through the challenges of managing the children’s early years without getting down from the career ladder and all the ambition associated with that - but now they now couldn’t imagine working 5 days per week again, instead utilising those home days for hobbies/interests/keeping the demands of life in order as commitments shift and change. The reality of the situation is... if the arrangement is working well and both sharers are happy to continue it - why shouldn’t the couple and the business benefit from all of the advantages of having two people dedicated to the cause? (See benefits of job sharing on our “seamless” post from 30 October). . @workmuse recently shared a fantastic article from slate.com entitled “why flexibility isn’t just for the mummy track”... . “Work life balance and flexible work arrangements are so strongly correlated with parenthood that we assume a successful childless person prioritises career advancement over anything else, and that a colleague who leaves early doesn’t take her job seriously.” . This deep rooted thought process has to change. We have showcased the fantastic pairing of Sam White and Will McDonald at Aviva to demonstrate that flexible working, and job sharing in particular, is hugely beneficial for those in all walks of life, not just mothers on return from maternity leave. Unilever too have a successful mixed job share partnership where one of the pair works reduced hours in order to study software engineering part time. . The assumption that we work less hours simply because we are parents is misguided and demonstrates just how far we need to come in making flexibility more ordinary. . #flexforall #flexappeal #mumtribe #thejobsharepair #worklifebalance #flexibleworking #jobsharing #hr