Jobsharing in Europe: A Fellowship at the European Parliament

From the Lecture Theatre to Europe: How a Robert Schuman Scholarship Shaped My Thinking on Job Sharing

After everything I had read, researched and experienced up to that point, one question remained stubbornly unanswered: if jobsharing had already been tried and tested in the USA, what was the situation in Europe? Were there similar developments, different legal routes, different models? Or was this form of work still largely unknown here? Before I could find answers, there was something else I wanted first: I did not want only to research jobsharing. I wanted to live it myself.

Photo Batiment Schuman Luxemburg

The Attempt to Live Jobsharing

In 1985, fresh from completing my degree in economics at the University of Oldenburg, I wrote applications for classic full-time positions. I applied explicitly for jobsharing roles at companies and public authorities across Germany. I wanted to show that this form of work did not only function in theory. The responses were revealing, if somewhat sobering. Some institutions sent immediate rejections. Others invited me in — and then, in interviews, said things like: “We have no experience with this,” or: “That isn’t organisationally feasible for us.” Today, such statements sound almost like relics from another era. At the time, they were reality. Many companies simply could not imagine how shared responsibility would work in practice. Looking back, these rejections taught me just as much as any academic study: they showed me how wide the gap can be between an idea and its acceptance.

A Detour That Turned Out to Be a Turning Point

After my jobsharing applications had led nowhere, I initially took a different path. I completed an internship at the Arbeitgeberverband Oldenburg e.V. (Oldenburg Employers’ Association) in the field of employment law, working on opinions concerning questions of labour and social insurance law. It was solid, useful work — but the subject of jobsharing would not let go of me. In my diploma thesis, I had come across Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco — one of the first companies to make systematic use of jobsharing. The idea fascinated me so much that I promptly sent off an application for an internship in California. The reply was a polite rejection. At the time, I was disappointed. Today I know that new paths sometimes begin exactly where others close.

The Unexpected Opportunity: Luxembourg

Around the same time, I applied for a Robert Schuman Fellowship with the European Parliament. Place of work: Luxembourg. Selection was tough: at the time, only eight fellowships per year were awarded to applicants from Germany, in line with population size. I was fortunate enough to receive one of them. From 1986 to 1987, I worked there in the Social Affairs department — Science and Documentation. And suddenly my perspective broadened in a way I had not expected. I was no longer focused solely on Germany, nor on the USA. Before me lay Europe — with all its diversity of working cultures, legal systems and social policy thinking.

Jobsharing as a European Question

At the European Parliament, I encountered researchers from almost every member state. Each country brought its own perspective — on work, on flexibility, on the role of the state. And it was there that I began to think about jobsharing differently: no longer as a single working model, but as a European question. I found myself drawn to questions such as: How do different countries approach flexible forms of work? What legal frameworks exist? Where had practical experience already been gathered, and what could be learned from it? And where did the real obstacles lie — in legislation, in corporate culture, or in society’s image of work?

The People Behind Europe

What shaped my time in Luxembourg most was not reports or documents. It was the people. Among the fellows and the so-called visiteurs from various European countries, friendships and conversations developed that went far beyond everyday work. I remember with fondness Lars from Denmark, Theophile from Greece, Carol from Ireland, Nadine from France and André from the Netherlands. Through these encounters, the subject of jobsharing gained a new dimension — a deeply personal one. Lars told me that part-time work had already played a significant role in Denmark during the 1970s and, in particular, in the early 1980s. Denmark pursued a clear labour market policy strategy aimed at increasing women’s participation in the workforce — and the trade unions were not obstacles but active co-shapers of this process. What impressed me most: the discussions there were no longer about whether, but about how. How could part-time employees be given social security? How could their equal treatment under employment law be ensured? These were questions that were barely being discussed in Germany at the time.

André from the Netherlands painted an equally nuanced picture, albeit under quite different circumstances. He told me about the Wassenaar Agreement of 1982, a collective agreement between trade unions and employers’ associations that ushered in far-reaching employment-boosting reforms and contributed substantially to the expansion of part-time work. In the Netherlands, André explained, part-time work largely met the needs of employees — it was not a stopgap, but a deliberately chosen model.

What struck me most about these conversations was this: in both countries, jobsharing in the strict sense played hardly any role at all. Flexibility in working life there was achieved through part-time work — broader in scope, more widely accepted by society, and more solidly grounded in law. Jobsharing was not the only path. But I was convinced it was a particularly elegant one: because it preserved full positions, made responsibility shareable, and did not sacrifice qualification. For the first time, I truly understood how differently European countries looked at the same questions — and how much they could learn from one another, if only they entered into dialogue.

A Special Encounter

One further encounter has stayed with me to this day. Through contacts with Dutch translators, I got to know Eelco Hesse, an official at the European Parliament. He took a genuine interest in my research, and our conversations — about jobsharing, part-time work and the future of the world of work — were extraordinarily enriching for me. When my fellowship came to an end, he gave me a book he had written himself, with a personal dedication. I still own this copy today. It reminds me of a time full of new beginnings, curiosity and genuine European encounter.

My First European Jobsharing Report

My research in Luxembourg resulted in the report Jobsharing in the EEC Member States. In it, I examined the earliest European developments, legal frameworks and practical experiences with jobsharing across the member states of what was then the European Community. I no longer own the report itself today. I sometimes regret that. Fortunately, however, I had recorded part of the findings in an article titled “Ein Plädoyer für mehr Job-Sharing” (“A Case for More Jobsharing”) for the journal Der Arbeitgeber (No. 21/40, 1988). The following examples from four countries are drawn from that article — a small glimpse of what jobsharing meant in Europe at the time.

Belgium Continental Foods, near Mechelen, offered its employees its own variant of jobsharing: instead of eight hours, they could in future work five hours a day. The company pursued two goals at once — contributing to the reduction of unemployment and improving the balance between work and family life. At the political level, the Belgian government voted on 9 January 1985 in favour of legally supporting part-time work and job sharing. Parliament passed a law on social recovery to this end.

The Federal Republic of Germany In Germany, the legislature made an important contribution with the Beschäftigungsförderungsgesetz (Employment Promotion Act) of 1985: part-time work was given legal codification, and job sharing was recognised as an independent legal institution. A first, but important, step away from treating part-time work as a second-class employment relationship. From the outset, jobsharing was regarded as a labour market policy instrument for combating unemployment. The states of Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg and Saarland established jobsharing positions within their respective state governments.

England In England, large companies such as Barclays Bank and National Westminster Bank already had many employees working under jobsharing arrangements. As a rule, it was the workforce’s own wish that brought such arrangements about. GEC Telecommunications in Coventry took a different route. There, more than 50 per cent of sixteen-year-olds were unemployed. The personnel director developed his own jobsharing programme — not under pressure from employees, but out of a sense of corporate responsibility. He explained his reasoning in words that have stayed with me to this day:

„I don’t think we can just stand and wring our hands and say, isn’t youth unemployment terrible. We have to do something … The youngsters are caught in a vicious circle. They can’t get a job because they have no experience. And they can’t get experience because they have no job.“ (Bickerstaffe, Personnel Director)

This programme was more than an internal company model — it extended the government’s work experience scheme with a concrete corporate dimension.

Irland The example that surprised me most at the time came from Ireland. As early as 1984, the Irish civil service introduced a jobsharing scheme. By October 1985, 225 civil servants were sharing a position — even though twice as many, 405 people, had applied for it. Demand far exceeded supply. What impressed me particularly was that the Irish civil service did not stop at introducing the scheme. The department responsible for public relations actively promoted awareness — with flyers, brochures and posters. And for those who had difficulty finding a suitable jobsharing partner, an internal list was even set up — a kind of state-run jobsharing matchmaking service. This commitment on the part of the Irish state showed me that jobsharing does not succeed through good intentions alone. It requires active support, communication and practical infrastructure.

What These Examples Showed Together

Looking back today at these four countries, one thing becomes clear: jobsharing in Europe did not stand for a single idea. In the Federal Republic of Germany, legal protection was the primary concern, and, as in England, the idea of labour market policy dominated — jobsharing as an instrument against unemployment. In Belgium, meanwhile, both aspects played a role, complemented by the wish for a better balance between work and family life. No country had found the one right answer. But every country showed that jobsharing works — where the will exists to make it possible.

At the time, I had no idea that these months in Luxembourg would lay the foundation for much of what followed: the founding of EURO-TZA e.V., European partnerships, my own publications, and, eventually, the first jobsharing database in the German-speaking region. But it was precisely there that the conviction took root that jobsharing needs more than good ideas — it needs people who connect knowledge and pass on experience.