AIBU to stop covering my job-share partner's time off?

It’s not . It’s one job

Still go on your holidays and work will have to manage without you. I'd be having a word with your manager and supply a list of dates you have covered for colleague. Tell colleague and manager you won't be covering for colleague again because she is clearly using you.

Yep!

Definitely say you can no longer cover her holiday. Let your manager deal with it.

I'd send her a message- if you can't cover my holiday I will have a problem getting it covered. Covering your holiday is not convenient for me, so I don't feel inclined to cover it.

Tho if you cover for her you get paid more ?

if no one covers for you what happens

Well if she agreed to cover you’re dates and now isn’t

why can’t you not cover her dates anymore

Not really understanding how this affects you or leaves you in the lurch in any way? You are entitled to take your annual leave, and it should be no odds to you whatsoever if the job is covered in your absence (that’s a management issue).

What you both appear to have, which most people don’t, is the opportunity to occasionally work some extra days as hoc for extra income, something either of you can say yes or no to at your own decision, depending on whether it is personally convenient. That sounds like a bonus, not a problem.

The only thing I can think of, is that if there are certain tasks, that for example are always scheduled for a Monday and Tuesday, and so if neither of you work on those days…they pile up for the person when they return…then it does assist you to have those days covered…however what you should remember is that if this was just one post-holder, they would be taking 2 week’s leave at times, without this type of cover option…so getting behind would happen anyway.

If it’s essential that the role is covered during annual leave, management can offer both of you extra hours, but if either of you decline that…it’s the manager’s responsibility to find a way to cover by stretching the rest of the workforce a bit thinner to get the essentials in place.

As for her trying to ‘one-up’ you, she may have that attitude about her…but it’s likely that your manager has noticed that it’s just attitude and not real…the fact that you have been really amenable by agreeing to working extra days, and she agrees then pulls out…shows the type of employee she is. This stuff gets noticed, even if not explicitly said.

i think what you should do is ask that cover is arranged via the manager, what this would involve is that when someone submits and has their leave request approved by the manager, the manager then decides whether to offer another employee extra hours, or cover using staff already on the rota for that day. Doing that would also stop this person from messing other people around, as
they would not be able to say yes, then just pull out without proper reason when dealing with a manager.

This is the key point. Each of you are covering for the company rather than covering for each other.

Because that's what happens when you job share and it's just the two of you.

I would say something like this!

Don’t feel guilty, you are not the person damaging the cordial working relationship here, she is. Keep the response polite as the quoted poster has said and leave it with management to resolve.

I don't see why not - she agreed to cover OP's and changed her mind so why should OP feel any guilt about doing the same?

If you don't want to I'd just reply 'Actually thinking about it you're probably right, it's too complicated to cover each other's shifts, it's probably easier if we both just take leave when we need to.' Or just tell her 'haha no, if you can't do mine I can't do yours.' Unless you want the extra money, but if that's the case only do it when it works for you, no feeling obliged to do her a favour!

She sounds like a complete idiot and jerk, and I hope you won't cover for her in the future. My response would have been, "What a coincidence! I just found out I won't be able to cover for any of your dates either." It's not a cordial relationship when one side is all give and the other side is all take. (I say this as a people pleaser who's been building up my spine in the past handful of years: It is possible, especially once you get that initial ball rolling.) I'm glad you see this as your manager's problem now, and I wish you luck! If you haven't already dug up her agreement from back in Jan, I'd get that handy just in case.

This does seem a bit cynical. She has waited for you to confirm you can/will put yourself out to cover her and only then she leaves you in the lurch. I do not think it is petty to say one in one out, i.e. you will cover the same number of days as she does for you.

I don’t understand why you need to cover each other? In my job where people job share, yes they share a FT role over the week but if 1 takes annual leave, the job share doesn’t have work those days to cover. They just work their 2 days? I mean sometimes people do cover so they can accrue toil but it’s never expected.

I would send her a message straight back.

What? Why can you no longer do my dates? Not sure I would have agreed to all of yours to be honest had I known that before. I try and accommodate all your requests Jo, but you don’t reciprocate which is a shame. I think we should have a sit down with Sarah and work out this predicament as you have plenty of cover and I have…well…none.

Yes, send this 👏🏼

Job shares can be really really difficult, especially when one of them does not do their job and is flaky with lots of time off. I speak from bitter experience.

It's only a "cordial working relationship" while she gets it all her own way! From now on I would just say a flat out "no".

I’d be replying I can’t do any of the covers I said I could now. Talk about shooting her herself in the foot…..

The core truth is that job shares only work when both halves are on equal footing. Op does not state whether she has children. However children often mean unpredictable absences. In practice, the “other half” of the job share becomes the default cover. This is framed as “teamwork”, but it’s actually gendered labour displacement the costs of motherhood are shifted onto whoever is nearby and the more so if they are childfree.

Many years ago (when I had applied for a full time academic job) they offered me a job share. I declined. Their reasoning was that they had an existing staff member returning from maternity leave who wanted to drop down to half time. They thought that offering a job share was good way to do it. I could see the existing employee getting first dibs of the good hours and tasks with the newcomer picking up the dregs. In fact I was quite blunt about the reason for my refusal. Returning from maternity leave - new baby - constantly off with me picking up her work. No thanks.

‘Cordial’?! She’s using you. That’s the relationship.

But she also said she would do it and had no problem backing out so you should do the same. Is say this because with certain types of people you need to see when they are testing what they can get away with. If you stick to this, she will absolutely try this again. Unless she had an emergency situation, which sounds unlikely as surely she would have communicated this, then her move was calculated. “Next time I will say no” won’t come, sorry. Tell her that clearly this arrangement isn’t going to work so you henceforth withdraw from her days and that management will need to handle this going forward.

I would email her that unfortunately you are unable to cover for her.
Any push back from her, list out how many times you have done it to date, at considerable inconvenience.
Copy your manager.

Going forward, "doesn't suit" every single time.

She doesn't respect you, thinks you're a mug, and is a cheeky fxxker.

Remain pleasant, but insist that constantly juggling to cover for her doesn't suit you.