Anne and her husband Johannes Bulko, who have a 2-year-old son, Olvar, share one job: packer in a drug-supply firm. They work alternating weeks. The spouse who’s not working stays at home caring for Olvar. “Our employer doesn’t mind at all,” said Johannes, “as long as there is always one Bulko signing in in the morning.” Sound like a novel arrangement? It is — or rather, it was. The details above are lifted from a story that ran in TIME nearly 40 years ago. The article described a five-year experiment, which was started in 1970 and was sponsored by the Norwegian government, to test a radically different model of work-life balance. Sixteen couples took part, switching off between home and family. Some partners worked alternating days, and some alternating weeks. It was so progressive, even for Scandinavia, that a descendant of playwright Henrik Ibsen — considered a pioneer in the women’s movement — participated. As for finances, although money issues eventually sent the fathers into full-time jobs, most of the work-share couples said they did catch up with their peers. One couple said their only regret about participating in the experiment was that it affected their pensions. But the temporary-job-sharing idea didn’t stick — even in Norway, the first country to introduce paid paternity leave and semipaid parental leave for up to 12 months for either parent. In hindsight, the work-life experiment seems crazy; it’s no cakewalk to raise a family on two part-time salaries, even for a little while. But is it any crazier than what families are doing to get by today? Download TIME’s iPhone, BlackBerry and Android applications.
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