Job Sharers - advice please!

[sazzerbear]

A great opportunity has come up for a job share, me Mon, Tues, Wed and her Wed, Thurs, Fri so we have a day's crossover. Potential employer is a bit nervy about two part-timers doing more or less a full-time job and how it will work etc. What are the pros and cons of job share and what can we both do together to make sure the job share works and employer is a happy bunny? TIA

[sazzerbear]

bump

[cuppateaplease]

I used to job share: I did wed, thur, fri and sharer did mon and tues - so we rarely saw each other! However we had previously worked together in a different department.
It's very important to get on with the person you share with and you both need to be very organised. A lot will depend on the type of job you have - we used to have some work we shared plus other 'projects' we could keep seperate. Your hand over day will make life alot easier to ensure work is not 'lost'. I loved doing 3 days a week -it gave me the advantage of still having the social side of work, and of course the money! while I still had extra time to spend with Ds, meeting friends and fitting in all that boring housework!
Sounds like you need to play up the advantages and explain how you will ensure any diadvantages are handled well: for a start how about:
employer gets a fresh set of eyes to look at problems - getting two sets of skills for the price of one
as each person only does half a week - less likely to run out of enthusiasm by end of week/less likely to want extra days off/throw a sicky!
If one person is off sick/hols the other one is still likely to be there
Can you offer flexibility on the days you are there for cover?
they are getting 2 epople at once on the wed!
However disadvantage for employer
If the two people don't get on it is easy for them to just blame each other if things go wrong!
things do ocasionally get lost as each person thinks the other is doing it!
Not all information is passed over - it's easy to forget (and this includes to boss remembering to tell both people!)

If i think of any more I'll add them later!

[dollyparting]

I did exactly the same as you (Mon Tue Wed) and it worked really well.

Our boss was concerned initially because no-one had job-shared before, but when he saw how well it worked he really loved it.

Having one day when we were both in was great - we could keep other up to date, and we were a source of support for each other on the rare occasions when our boss was being a pain.

It only became difficult when I wanted to move onto another job (promoted post). My job share was left a bit in the lurch. In the end she took a different part-time job, and our boss got a new full-time employee.

[saggarmakersbottomknocker]

I used to job share - I di Mon, Tues on week one and Mon, Tues, Wed on week two. It was great . Like cuppa there were things I was wholly responsible for and stuff that was shared and vice versa. It might take a few weeks bedding down to see what works for you but I agree, having a crossover day should alleviate pretty much all the communication issues.

The flexibility is the bggest pro for employers - not having to cover holidays was a major plus for my employer and we were expected to cover sickness although there was flexibility on day 1 for child care arrangements. Also it's great for you if you can swap days occasionally so you can get to sports days and the like. Also you generally book other appointments on your days off so your employer has someone there all the time, again a big plus for them. If you work well togther there is really little of disadvantage for the employer.

[sazzerbear]

brilliant advice, thanks ladies!

[EyeballsintheSky]

I do Mon-Weds and my JS does Thurs-Fri. We don't have a cross over day and that has been the hardest part. Boss is great but it has been hard for her too. We were the first JS as well.

One thing we have found is that it's easier if each if you have your own tasks and take rsponsibility for different things if poss. We shared everything at first and it was a nightmare, things got duplicated a lot. Now we work on separate things mostly with some tasks meeting in the middle and it works much better. Good luck

[sazzerbear]

thanks Eyeballs!