Part two of the blog series “My Journey with Jobsharing” recounts how a Robert Schuman Fellowship in 1986 and 1987 laid the foundation for Marie-Therese Herbers’ decades-long commitment to jobsharing in Europe
Oldenburg: In the second instalment of her blog series “My Journey with Jobsharing,” Marie-Therese Herbers takes readers back to 1986 and 1987, when she worked at the European Parliament as a Robert Schuman Fellow. What began as a one-year fellowship became the starting point for four decades of work on qualified part-time employment across Europe.
More about Marie-Therese Herbers and her journey with job sharing:
https://www.marie-therese-herbers.com
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Two years earlier, Herbers had completed her thesis on qualified part-time work at the University of Oldenburg, at a time when the topic received little attention in German labour market research. The Robert Schuman Fellowship gave her the opportunity to explore the question on a European scale for the first time. At the seat of the European Parliament, she saw first-hand how labour market policy took shape at the European level, and she came into contact with members of parliament, officials, and experts from several member states.
The year at the Parliament reshaped her perspective. What had been an academic question became a European vision: jobsharing, she realised, could be discussed and developed across national borders. That realisation became the driving force behind her later work. Even during her fellowship, she began building contacts with like-minded people across Europe — a network that would soon give rise to an association of its own.
“I was in my mid-twenties, suddenly sitting in meetings where European labour market policy was being negotiated. That experience showed me that ideas which had no name yet in Germany were already being discussed elsewhere in Europe. I never let go of that.”
— Marie-Therese Herbers
How these early European contacts led, on 29 October 1987, to the founding of EURO-TZA e.V., Europe’s first jobsharing association, is the subject of the next instalment of Herbers’ blog series.
About the Company
Herbers Consulting Agency QT, based in Oldenburg, has for many years supported people interested in jobsharing – both individuals and tandems – on their way to the right part-time role. The focus is on developing jobsharing and part-time concepts, as well as personality analyses that retain skilled staff, safeguard knowledge and support work-life balance.
Marie-Therese Herbers founded EURO-TZA e.V. in 1987, Europe’s first jobsharing association, and is one of the pioneers of qualified part-time work and jobsharing in Germany. In 2000, she also built the first jobsharing partner-search database in the German-speaking region – already articulating, at that time, a vision of connecting jobsharing enthusiasts and organisations across Europe. Through her agency QT, she supports jobsharing tandems and companies with consultancy, coaching and practical concepts – for well-matched placements and future-proof working models.
Media Contact
Marie-Therese Herbers
herbers@qualifizierte-teilzeitarbeit.de
+49 (0) 151 20179552
Blog: https://www.marie-therese-herbers.com