Thwarting terrorist plots is surely one of the most important occupations in the UK, so it might come as a surprise that this key role at the very top of Britain's cyber intelligence agency is occupied not by one person but by two part-time women.
Viki and Emily share the position of Deputy Director of the State Communications Headquarters for Counter-Terrorism - which is one of the first job sharing in such a high position for operational intelligence work.
They spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity.
The two perform sophisticated analysis in support of military operations and help the government respond quickly to changes in geopolitics to reduce terrorist threats at home.
The National Communications Headquarters works with MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service to fight terrorism, cyber-attacks, serious crime and espionage.
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The two met for the first time a decade ago and became close while working on assignment in America during part of their careers.
They decided to apply for the current joint workplace in May 2020 as part of the promotion, or in no other way, precisely at the time when the pandemic began to spread around the world.
"Vicki's baby was only a few weeks old, so we weren't sure at first if it was the right time for us," says Emily.
"And, of course, she was sleep-deprived and exhausted from taking care of a newborn and another toddler, with very little support from the side due to covid, so we knew for a fact it was going to be difficult," she adds.
"Vicky was quite the dragon and vividly remembers writing her biography at three in the morning after a night of nursing!"
Like many shared workplaces, this business model was then scrutinized while one woman was literally left with a baby in her arms - looking after the other woman's child while she was being assessed for the workplace. Which may sound familiar.
Both mothers are employed, both work 28 hours a week. Together, they have more than 30 years of experience in national security and intelligence gathering.
Mondays are their "common day" and they then use one email address "for both our strictly confidential and our open inboxes", which means that, says Viki, people practically do not know which of the two of us suits them.
They use those Mondays to plan the working week in the office in advance, and the meeting allows them to monitor threats, discuss problems that may have arisen over the weekend and assess counter-terrorism strategy with people in Whitehall.
"This means we can discuss the full range of our top secret work, making sure we do it together in the office, where we have access to top secret systems," they say.
They also hold meetings with bosses, "when we assess changes in terrorist threats, operational problems, opportunities for partnership and risks", and set aside time to discuss the situation in the teams.
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A favorable situation for job seekers
The fact that this job sharing in the State Communications Headquarters exists at all illustrates how radically the pandemic has turned the labor market in favor of some trained professionals.
In 2021, there were 122.000 workers on job-sharing contracts in the UK, up slightly from 119.000 in 2020, according to official figures.
The vast majority of job sharing belonged to women working in education, health or social work.
But now the demand for workers with more flexibility has become high.
Working from home has increased from one in XNUMX employees before the pandemic to one in five today, and there has been a surge in senior positions in shared management positions, partly in response to the fatigue created during the pandemic.
However, half of the British public still think that part-time working in senior positions is simply not possible, and almost the same percentage would not entrust a part-time colleague with an "important or business-critical task", according to a survey by consultancy firm Timewise.
And yet there are eight million part-time workers, around a quarter of the UK's working population.
And among them, around 750.000 are now in senior roles with strategic responsibility, with an average salary of £47.000, according to analysis from the Institute for Learning and Work in April.
For the first time since records were kept, there are as many job vacancies in the UK as unemployed jobseekers, meaning the ball is now firmly in the court of British jobseekers.
And they are very often "pushing on an already open door," according to Stephen Evans, CEO of the Institute for Learning and Work.
"Recruiters should proactively make it known that they are open to flexible working, and job seekers should not be afraid to ask about it," he says.
It's not just for working moms
And it's not even just about working mothers.
There is quite a gap between the contract under which all workers work and what they want.
Only 21 per cent of employees use flexible working hours, but 39 per cent of them want the perk, according to a recent CIPD survey.
Another senior management couple, Zack Mensah and Sara Wajid, share the position of CEO of the Birmingham Museum Trust.
Both work three days a week running one of the largest holdings of independent museums in the country, covering nine locations across the city.
Of the 45 institutions represented by the Council of National Museums, it is the only organization run by people of color.
Like Viki and Emily, they also decided to apply for this position of high responsibility and pressure as a tandem.
Neither of them would accept it on their own.
The two say that the fact that they come from completely different backgrounds, skills and generations makes them better at the overall job.
"Just like the visitors who come to any of our locations," adds Mensah, a father of two young children.
"During 2020, we both reassessed what is important to us in life," he adds.
"There's a reason two pilots sit in the cockpit!"
"Women are more likely to be stigmatized"
While there are obvious benefits to job-sharing, Hijung Chang, a professor of sociology at the University of Kent, urges caution because, she says, UK work culture still sees "those who show up to work as productive and committed".
This means that not only do job sharers have a lot of overlap during handover shifts, but they also have to work longer hours to make doubly sure they aren't stigmatized, she says.
This is much more likely when those sharing jobs are mothers or wives.
"When mothers work flexible hours, they are much more likely to be stigmatized than, for example, a heterosexual older man sharing a workplace.
People will think that he is sharing the workplace because he is in another management position, which is believed to have a positive effect on the overall performance of the work."
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The reality, however, is that many shared workplaces will benefit bosses more than workers - because they get two brains for the price of one.
Professor Chang says that, inevitably, co-workers "work harder and make themselves more available than if they were working alone, to overcompensate."
But for Emily and Vicki at the State Communications Headquarters, the biggest advantage stems from the constant exchange of ideas between the two colleagues.
"Things are analyzed faster and the final hurdles in any problem are resolved with the added leverage that job sharing brings," says Vicky.
But they are strict about the boundaries they set between work and home.
"The two of us go to some events together - but we set a very high bar for that." Non-working days are untouchable," says Emily.
"We do not want to be advocates of job sharing, if in reality it is not feasible."
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