Job-sharing childcare directors were almost 'unheard of' by the time Kylie Morrison had notched up 25 years in the industry.
But the Brisbane mother didn't want a full-time position when she returned from maternity leave, so she asked her manager if she could share the role.
"I just put that on the table," she says.
"Job-sharing directors were really scarce, but Goodstart were focusing a lot on reinventing and challenging the status quo.
"They were very open and willing to look at it."
Ms Morrison stepped into a job-share position two-and-a-half years ago, managing a childcare centre at Bray Park, Queensland on Turrbal lands.
She helped with the recruitment process for the other half of her role and says it has taken some tweaking to ensure communication and operations run smoothly.
"Communication was high, and the emails in depth," she says.
"We've worked on that over the last two-and-a-half years, because it was the unknown.
"We weren't sure how this would look, but we've grown and developed over time."
Employers need to be 'adaptable'
Last year Melbourne women Bronwen Bock and Lucy Bradlow announced they would be campaigning at the next federal election to become Australia's first job-sharing MPs .
Their proposal is to work one week on and one week off with a handover at the end of each week.
Business leadership expert and author, Dr Brenda Jamnik says job-sharing is becoming much more common in Australian workplaces.
"Before COVID it was only an option usually for women who went on maternity leave.
"What's now happening is that there is a skills shortage, and also a concept of applying work-life balance."
She says employers are starting to be more adaptable and flexible, "realising that they need to have skilled staff, not staff who are going to work around their rules and regulations."
Job-sharing is a concept that Poppy Lever hopes will attract the right people to the Warlayirti Art Centre, in Balgo/Wirrimanu country in remote West Australia.
The centre director is on the hunt for an art centre manager and studio technician in job-sharing roles to help support its 200 Indigenous artists.
"By advertising the separate roles, they kind of have to be a bit more defined," Ms Lever says.
"But you can choose where your skills and interests lie and figure it out amongst the partnership, who does what."
She says after working in a flexible role herself, she realises the importance of having a work-life balance.
"Never, ever, will I do a nine-to-five desk job ever again.
"I love that I can bring my dogs to work, I'm barefoot walking around the studio.
"If I'm really exhausted, I can tap out for the afternoon, and I'll come in and work a few hours on the weekend, it's really flexible like that."
How do you create a job-share role?
Dr Jamnik says whether an employer will approve a job-share arrangement comes down to the size and the type of organisation.
"Bear in mind, government departments, large private industry and small private industry often differ.
"However, if the person understands their role and what they do on a day-to-day basis the best of anybody, some may be able to start asking, how can I job-share this?
"How can I make this less complex?"
Don't go in empty handed, Dr Jamnik says having solutions to offer your employer on how the job-share would work and what skills the other person would need is crucial.
"They (the employee) don't need to find the other half of their role.
"But what's important is to understand that we all have strengths in different areas.
"For example, you might do all the accounting and all the finance, you get the other person to do the payroll."
Dr Jamnik says it means employers have two people in a role who are using their best skills.
'Huge' benefits to job sharing
Ms Morrison, who we heard from at the start of the story, has been job-sharing for more than two years.
She recommends having a day where both job-share employees are in the office together.
"One thing we learnt very quickly was to have a thorough handover process each week and communication between us had to be extremely high.
"I'm currently looking for a three-day-a-week director, so we'll be back to having a day where we're together and overlapping."
She says there are many benefits to the arrangement that make it an attractive option.
"The benefits in my opinion are huge, it allows the best of both worlds — working and being a mum.
"I can attend school events, I can have "mental health days" and do household tasks.
"It also means that my co-director also has the same lifestyle in a very supportive way within the work environment and therefore we can be more productive within the centre."
And if she is ever away, Ms Morrison says she doesn't feel guilty about her absence.
"We do help support each other, if one of us is on leave or can't make it in, we do sort of tag team, or pick up a day, drop a day, whatever the case may be."
