Jobshare Revolution: Flexible Work for Work-Life Balance

31. Why Did Google Erase International Women's Day? And Why DEI Matters More Than Ever.

Something happened this International Women’s Day that I can’t stop thinking about—and I bet you missed it too.

Google quietly erased International Women’s Day from its calendar app. Not just that, but they also removed other major cultural observances like Women’s History Month, Black History Month, Pride Month, and Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. It’s not just about a missing calendar event. This is happening at a time when Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are under attack, despite overwhelming research proving that diverse companies outperform their competitors.

If you care about gender equality, representation, and creating a future where all voices are valued, this conversation is for you.

Here Are 3 Key Takeaways From This Episode:

1️⃣ DEI is NOT just ‘good PR’—it’s a business advantage.
Companies with diverse leadership teams are 39% more likely to outperform their peers financially. Ignoring DEI isn’t just wrong—it’s bad business.

2️⃣ Representation matters more than ever.
Silencing historical and cultural observances is a deliberate act, one that signals to marginalized communities that their contributions don’t matter.

3️⃣ Women’s careers (and leadership opportunities) depend on work structures that support them.
Job sharing isn’t just about flexibility—it’s a career accelerator that allows women to balance work and life while moving into leadership roles.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

• Research: McKinsey & Company's "Diversity Matters Even More" Report (2023)
• Article: Google & Apple's Calendar Controversy (NY Post & Politifact)

More From Me:

• Want to explore job sharing? workmuse.com/guide
• Join Job Share, Live Life + Slay Work community for like-minded folks who value flexibility AND their careers
• Follow me on LinkedIn

Episode Website: workmuse.com/31
Transcript here.

Send Melissa a Text Message.

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Thank you for supporting my bootstrapped social good business and mission!
“I love Melissa and Jobshare Revolution.” <– If that sounds like you, please consider leaving me a 5⭐ rating and review! Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate 5⭐ , and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. This helps me support more people—just like you—to find true work-life balance. 🙌🙌

5. They thought about it for years—corporate turned entrepreneurial job share team Gabriela Mercado and Gabriela Proctor open up about how they persisted for their job share's approval and what they'd do differently today, so you don't have to.
You might be surprised to learn how job sharing can positively impact your career and income. Tapping into one another's strengths gave the duo the "perfect formula" for career success so much so that, unbelievably, the minute GX2 (their job share nickname) began job sharing, not only did they make more income than working full-time, but the job itself became a fun adventure.
In episode 5, GX2 shares how they took their job share from the corporate world into their entrepreneurial journey. The duo expands upon how job sharing impacted their household labor and Mental Load while allowing them to lean into the parts of parenting they enjoyed most but were previously unable to do, like volunteering for field trips once they found themselves able to "move through both worlds fully and more intentionally."
GX2's message to you: Educate yourself, create a plan to job share, but don't wait—instead, go for it.
Links mentioned:

• Work Muse Job Share Project Case Study Videos

Episode Website: workmuse.com/5
Transcript here.

Send Melissa a Text Message.

RATE, REVIEW & FOLLOW ON APPLE PODCASTS

Thank you for supporting my bootstrapped social good business and mission!
“I love Melissa and Jobshare Revolution.” <– If that sounds like you, please consider leaving me a 5⭐ rating and review! Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate 5⭐ , and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. This helps me support more people—just like you—to find true work-life balance. 🙌🙌

1. Your Job Share 101 and my story—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
What is job sharing? To start with, job sharing is the flexible work practice that transformed my work-life balance and career trajectory for nearly a decade in the 24/7 fast-paced radio industry. At Work Muse, we define job sharing as a partnership between two professionals to share the responsibilities of one full-time position.
Teaching companies and people how to create their successful job shares to live life + slay work has been the greatest honor of my life. I found more happiness in work and life than I ever imagined possible and a bold new way to work achieving greater results than I ever could solo by leveraging two minds and skill sets in one full-time position. Beyond that, job sharing brought an equal caregiving aspect to my marriage (including the mental load!) leading to more equality at work AND at home.

Seeing a job share team in practice opened my eyes to sharing my job, and when I was ready to job share, empowered me to pursue this innovative way to work. So in Episode 1, I'm sharing my personal job share story and how I created my four job share partnerships with you. Despite the challenges I faced, I never wanted to work any other way. I founded Work Muse so you don’t have to go through the pains I did to level up at work with a capable partner while reclaiming HALF your time—in whatever shoes you choose.

This is my story and how you too can create your own successful job share.
Links mentioned in this episode:

• 3 Keys to Job Share Success & 3 Steps to Get the Job Share Green Light cheat sheet

Episode Website: workmuse.com/1
Transcript here.

Send Melissa a Text Message.

RATE, REVIEW & FOLLOW ON APPLE PODCASTS

Thank you for supporting my bootstrapped social good business and mission!
“I love Melissa and Jobshare Revolution.” <– If that sounds like you, please consider leaving me a 5⭐ rating and review! Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate 5⭐ , and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. This helps me support more people—just like you—to find true work-life balance. 🙌🙌

12. When a pause and real self-care are called for.
If I know one thing for sure, it's this: There will always be challenging seasons to navigate when life moves fast and work is intense.
End-of-school craziness paired with lax summer schedules can feel harder for parents of younger kids, trying to piece together childcare during working hours via relatives, friends, camps, or most likely, a combo. I find arranging offline activities, viable work experiences (dependent on parent help and chauffering), and the emotional ping pong of parenting pre-teens through teens who've fazed out of care, more stressful.
Personally, the end-of-school craziness always hits me like a two-by-four. If there's one thing I miss about job sharing, it's having a work bestie to help me keep my well-being in check, even if it takes putting a blowhorn to my ear (because for real, that's what it takes) to signal it's time to pause and extend myself some real self-care. In Episode 12's Mindset Minisode, the unpolished me shares how I handle summer (am I talking about myself in the third person 😜, IDK, I'm pretty bad at grammar), why I need to pause and slow down (and you may too), and how I pivot and downshift some parts of my business for real self-care when kids are home (and it's impossible to work in the same way)—all so I can continue the sustainable work of changing the workplace (or at least the way you work!).
As job sharing enables humans to rest, refresh, and recharge weekly, you too, can slow it down a bit. With that, Jobshare Revolution podcast is taking a short summer pause to bring you thoughtful eye-opening episodes to empower you to make your big moves come back to school time. Until then, here's how we can stay connected and you can keep up with job share learning opportunities over the summer:
Links Mentioned:

• Join our weekly newsletter (biweekly this summer!): workmuse.com/newsletter
• DM me on Instagram @workmuse
• DM me on LinkedIn

Episode Website: workmuse.com/12
Transcript here

Send Melissa a Text Message.

RATE, REVIEW & FOLLOW ON APPLE PODCASTS

Thank you for supporting my bootstrapped social good business and mission!
“I love Melissa and Jobshare Revolution.” <– If that sounds like you, please consider leaving me a 5⭐ rating and review! Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate 5⭐ , and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. This helps me support more people—just like you—to find true work-life balance. 🙌🙌

11. Finance leader Liz Stapleton Zerella's moxie landed her a rare senior job share arrangement at Clorox with partner Michelle Shalauta.
What the duo did next is remarkable. If you're wondering if job sharing will negatively impact your career progression, not only does research prove the opposite—According to The Job Share Project, over 70% of job share teams who apply are promoted together—but Liz and her job share partner Michelle successfully navigated a nine-year partnership in four roles while also winning promotion as a job share. As if that weren't impressive enough, they worked in a predominantly male division of Clorox in finance where job sharing was unheard of.
So friend, take that to heart. Both are possible for you too. We had this phone meeting before this podcast was even a thing, and I think you'll find our conversation unique and special—like being a fly on the wall for two former job sharers who’ve finally connected as part of a secret society of job sharers to dish on what it was really like. I hope you enjoy it!
Links mentioned:

• Fast Company article: Is Job Sharing the Solution to Our Flexible Work Problems?

Episode Website: workmuse.com/11
Transcript here

Send Melissa a Text Message.

RATE, REVIEW & FOLLOW ON APPLE PODCASTS

Thank you for supporting my bootstrapped social good business and mission!
“I love Melissa and Jobshare Revolution.” <– If that sounds like you, please consider leaving me a 5⭐ rating and review! Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate 5⭐ , and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. This helps me support more people—just like you—to find true work-life balance. 🙌🙌