FIRST PUBLISHED ON 18 AUGUST 2020 BY BRIGITTE HULLIGER and Be like Grace

Dear Maja, tell us about you. Who are you and where are you from?

Maja: I was born and grew up in Serbia, where I also completed my studies in information systems and technologies at the University of Belgrade. Since my early years I was interested in computers and programming and to this day the interest and passion have not waned, on the contrary.

I have been living and working in Switzerland for almost 20 years and I can now call myself a 99% Swiss.

Professionally, I worked for Swisscom as an agile tester and testing lead before I decided to go my own way and start my own business.

In my private life I am the mother of 2 wonderful girls and I am very committed to all women and especially women in IT.

Quite the journey! What valuable advice did you get from your parents?

Maja: Determination (GRIT in EN), courage, and integrity.

Valuable advice indeed. How and when did you get interested in Innovation and Tech? What fascinates you about it?

Maja: The Commodore 64 was the biggest for me as a child. From an early age, I was interested in computers and to this day the interest and passion have not waned, on the contrary. While my brother and friends mostly played computer games, I was more interested in programming and media in general.

I’ve always been interested in technology. Later I wanted to study something with a future and decided on information systems and technology. In my home country Serbia it is quite normal for women to choose technical professions. When I came to Switzerland after completing my studies, I quickly realized that it wasn’t the case here. It bothered me a lot.

That was also my motivation to initiate a Swisscom internal community – Women in Tech & Lead. We are around 100 women in technical professions, network, exchange ideas and increase our visibility at Swisscom. I looked after the community in my spare time for 3.5 years. People are very important to me.

Congratulations on how well you handled that fact. And to have built a community with a 100 tech-women is amazing. What would you say drives you at work?

Maja: For me, solving the right problems for our customers is the most important thing to me. 

Of course, following lean and agile principles is also very close to me and if you can quickly see and check the early and first results, my motivation is even greater.

What aspects of your life are you most proud of?

Maja: I am particularly proud of the fact that I came to Switzerland myself after I found a job in a start-up in Lausanne in 2000 (!) And also managed to stay in Switzerland and find the next job, despite the strict rules and quotas for third countries.

Definitely something to be proud of. And what would you say was or is your biggest challenge at work?

Maja: I, unfortunately, have to repeat what so many other women have said already: The biggest challenge so far was actually a few clichéd moments in which I had to assert myself as a woman and as a mother in the technical world until I stopped doing it and learned to profit out of the situation. By the way: I will speak about these learnings and experiences at the Digitaltag in November.

Oh yes, we will talk about that. Can you give a sneak peak: What advice would you give young women in tech and innovation?

Maja: To always stay committed. Get yourself a mentor and a coach and join different networks to keep in touch with others.

At work, always show your results and be brave and persistent.

Thank you very much Maja. Let’s hope young women out there follow your advice. We think it is a very good advice. 

Now for the next part, we would like to know, what first comes to mind with the following terms.

Diversity

Maja: Multi-Cultural

Future

Maja: Young generation

Women in Tech

Maja: YES

Algorithms

Maja: YES

Internet of Things

Maja: Cool

Job-Sharing

Maja: My Business. Sharing Tribe.

Health Roboters

Maja: Looking forward to them

Nice. We can see, you definitely are a techie  Now, let’s put that to the test with some either…or questions (Majas choice is Highlighted)

Online or Face to Face?

Artificial Intelligence or Human Brain?

Digital or Analogous?

Ballot Box or e-Voting?

Cocktail or Beer?

Career, Family or Both?

That was it! Thank you so much Maja for this interview. You really are a role model for women in tech and innovation. We wish you all the best, especially with your new business Sharing Tribe. Let’s keep in touch and we will see each other in November! 

We hope you enjoyed reading about our founder’s experience. If you are intrigued to learn more about the advantages of the job-sharing model then please join our community, post a free job ad on our platform or contact us to make an appointment.

Does your company have a flexible work strategy?

If not, it’s time to design and implement one. The sooner, the better.

The pandemic took a heavy toll on employees, and in particular on people with additional caregiving responsibilities. The sudden switch from traditional workplaces to remote work has brought many challenges, from redefining team dynamics to creating workstations in the kitchen or bedroom and juggling homeschooling and elderly care.    

Recent surveys show that high percentages of employees struggle with mental health issues and burnout.

We all need to process the collective trauma and transition to a new “normal.”  

Recently I was fortunate to be introduced to Laura Reismann who worked as an Associate Brand Manager for Procter & Gamble on the Gillette Disposable Razor Global Business Unit and in her role also worked together with a job-sharing tandem Laura Miller and Melissa Lush. We are very grateful that Laura was ready to share her experiences and insights from working with a job sharing tandem with the Sharing Tribe and our community.

How were you introduced to the job-sharing model? 

I learned about job-sharing while working at Gillette together with Laura and Melissa who were sharing a product management job. The concept struck me immediately and I realized the advantages it brings, especially for the work-life balance.

During that appointment, I was promoted to the Brand Manager, also as a result of the great job and results I have achieved while working together with Laura and Melissa.

Sometime later, I took off time for family reasons and wished I could find a similar job-sharing role. Nothing was available. I knew Laura and Melissa had to create their job share position. It’s a shame there aren’t more opportunities to help people balance the responsibilities of home and work.

I’m working on a contract role now.

That sounds inspiring, but it also leaves room for more opportunities. What do you think are the main advantages of job sharing besides achieving a work-life balance?  

I believe complementing each other’s hard and soft skills and working closely together as a job-sharing couple together with the rest of the team (in this case: myself) is the way to reach mutual goals and learn and challenge each other. Our working relationship was built on confidence, trust and mutual understanding. Also, our working styles were quite similar and that helped us be very productive which meant there was a seamless approach.

What was your working approach? 

Laura and Melissa have created and maintained a transition file with the most recent information on the status of various projects. I have also been involved in its updates. The main goal of this was to help one person pick up where the other left off and it proved to be a very helpful tool for keeping us coordinated and organized.

Our Director had great respect and confidence in the team. He provided direction, but allowed us to all work together to discover our own way to stay organized and work at peak performance.

What are some other lessons learned? 

First, job-sharing IS a way to get back to business and to have the type of position that one deserves.

Second, job-sharing should shine a light on the fact of how difficult it is to achieve work-life balance. There is an even bigger need now with covid-19 and remote working than before.

Personally, I had great fun and really enjoyed working together with the job-sharing couple and I can totally recommend it to everyone aiming for a sustainable career and work-life balance.

How would you pitch a job-sharing model to an employer? 

To finance two part-time positions within the current employees: the retention is already achieved because they are so far in the company. The company, therefore, invests in their further training and upskilling.

Statistics also show that employees who work part-time or share a job have fewer absences, better holiday and illness coverage, which in the end results in more productivity and better value delivered to the overall team’s results.

What would you advise other employees that are interested in the job-sharing model?

Create a job-sharing position from a role with your current employer and definitely arrange before going into a maternity or paternity leave.

Hear the perspective and learn from someone who is working with the job-sharing couple.

And what would you advise line managers that are interested to learn more and implement the job-sharing model?

They should get training and coaching on how to recognize the good job-sharing match between two employees. Often we can be biased and favor people we know and have worked with, but usually, it helps when we are open to employing people from other departments and diverse sets of skills and backgrounds since they bring another fresh point of view. The personality and working style of the job-sharing couple also needs to be matched to the rest of the team.

Furthermore, making sure of who is taking care of the continuity of the job-sharing relationship is as important. Handling the workload and team management should be line managers’ responsibility as well, but it can also be delegated to HR or the job-sharing team itself.

Your last piece of advice, Laura? 

I am now working as a part-time marketing consultant. However, I still support the job-share concept and would seriously consider that as an option. I enjoy working with others and I think it would add more support, consistency and professional interaction and comradery.

If you are unsure about how to approach a company yourself, join a community that is experienced in this working model, for instance, the Sharing Tribe’s community. Visit their online educational and networking events and mingle with like-minded people. The chances of getting to know your future job-sharing partner are great. You can also invite your friends and colleagues to join you. Their network is well connected to employers as well! 

Thank you Laura for sharing your insights and experience. We wish you all the best in your private and professional endeavors.

We have seen that Laura’s positive and engaging experience gained while working with a job-sharing team convinced her that this model is the right one for her as well. 

Since she couldn’t fulfill her wish to job-share, she is still curious and open to try it out in the future and to find a matching and motivated partner. Her beliefs are built on the job sharing key success factors which are identifying a perfect match, collaboration, communication, transparency, commitment and accountability.

We hope you enjoyed reading about Laura’s Job Sharing experience. If you are intrigued to learn more about the advantages of the job-sharing model then please join our community, post a free job ad on our platform or contact us to make an appointment

Recently I was fortunate to be introduced to Laura Miller, who had worked 5 years as a Product Manager at Gillette / Procter & Gamble in the United States. This was a job sharing position and we are extremely grateful that Laura was willing to share her job sharing experience and insights with Sharing Tribe and our community. 

How were you introduced to the job-sharing model? 

After taking maternity leave with my first baby, I wanted to go back to work in a position that matched my experience and skills, but also gave me enough flexibility and time for my family obligations. I needed a job that would be as fulfilling and challenging as the one I was used to. 

I knew my working colleague from before and we already had a very successful working relationship and understood each other perfectly. As we were both in a similar situation, we decided to propose to our line managers a job-sharing opportunity where we would both share one full-time position. We mapped out the advantages of that approach and luckily, they were very open and had full confidence in us. Ultimately, we were a case-study for job sharing in our company! 🙂 

That sounds like a great start. What were the main advantages of your job sharing partnership? 

In addition to our shared product, marketing and business skills, we complemented each other’s soft skills and we found that working together on the same role meant we not only achieved but we actually collectively surpassed our goals. Our working relationship was built on confidence, trust and mutual understanding. Also, our working styles were quite similar and that helped us be very productive which meant there was a seamless approach.

What was your working approach? 

We both worked three days a week. I was available between Monday and Wednesday and she was available between Wednesday and Friday. Therefore, Wednesday was our common working day where we would work together and share all the necessary information to ensure continuity.

By using a common email address, we were able to organize and secure our correspondence. Even if we occasionally received emails at our personal addresses, we would immediately forward them to our common address so that no information would be overlooked.

We also created a transition file with the most recent information on the status of various projects. The main goal of this was to help one person pick up where the other left off and it proved to be a very helpful tool for keeping us coordinated and organized.

What are your main lessons learned? 

Identify a working partner with whom you can build confidence in that both you will invest the same commitment and energy, in other words both feel and take accountability.

Listen, communicate and rationalize decisions with data. If any difficulties do occur, or you find yourselves unable to jointly make a decision as you would in any work situation seek input from other team members or your supervisor for their opinion. Last but not least embrace it with a positive mindset and enjoy it. 

Personally I had great fun and really enjoyed working together with my job-sharing partner and I can totally recommend it to everyone aiming for a sustainable career and work-life balance. 

How would you pitch a job-sharing model to an employer? 

For a 100% position, a company receives 120% of the resources which is considerably more than if one person does the role.  This is because employees who work part-time in the job-sharing working model are generally a lot more productive, they schedule their holidays to ensure continuity, any private appointments are outside of work schedule which in real terms means less absentee, better holiday and illness coverage, which in the end results in more productivity and better value delivered to the overall team’s results. 

What would you advise other employees that are interested in the job-sharing model?

Find an employer and line managers who know about job-sharing or are willing to listen to the advantages and/or willing to pilot it.

However if you are unsure about how to approach a company yourself join a community who is experienced in this working model for instance the Sharing Tribe’s community.  Visit their online educational and networking events and mingle with like-minded people. The chances of getting to know your future job-sharing partner are great. You can also invite your friends and colleagues to join you. Their network is well connected to employers as well! 

Thank you Laura for sharing your insights and experience. We wish you all the best in your private and professional endeavors.

We have seen that Laura’s Job Sharing story was a great triumph, not only for Laura and her work partner but also her team and employer. Their triumph was built on the job sharing key success factors which are identifying a perfect match, collaboration, communication, transparency, commitment and accountability. 

We hope you enjoyed reading about Laura’s Job Sharing success story, if you are intrigued to learn more about the advantages of the job-sharing model then please join our community, post a free job ad on our platform or contact us to make an appointment.