job sharing

[bonnieweelass]

Does anyone have any experience of a job share?

how does it work? Would it be difficult or a hassle?

I saw a job advertised that I like the look of but it would involve travel which would be difficult for me as I have multiple disabilities, a service dog, a young daughter, husband who also works, childcare to consider plus I live in Scotland and the job is in London!

I asked if the job could be done remotely and they said they would consider a job share and I could work from home that way. They are keen for me to apply because they like the look of my skills and experience.

I do have a lot of experience in this field and 2 years ago (pre redundancy) I was earning £40,000.

I can no longer drive though and WFH has really helped me manage my disabilities. I am working temporary at the moment but I am really struggling to find something permanent WFH that pays the kind of salary I used to have.

This job is £31,000pa and I'm not sure what a jobshare would be.

DH isn't keen on a job share cause the salary might be really low. He says I might not find anything for the other days especially if my days were to alternate each week or something.

WIBU to take a job share?

I think you would be unreasonable to make a decision either way before knowing all the details.

Find out what the pay is, what the days are, how it would work etc. and then make a decision.

If your current job is temporary I'd say there is no harm in trying this one out?

I have some experience both directly and indirectly (I work in HR). It can work very well, IME the best job shares are where the work is more easily divisible, e.g. where there are distinct 'clients' or 'projects' that can be split 50:50 and so while technically 2 people are sharing one full time job, on a day to day basis they manage their own workload, diary etc without constant reference to the other one - so like two part-time colleagues really. Or even where the job can be redesigned into actually 2 separate jobs, e.g. one high-skilled/senior person half the week and then one lower-skilled/admin person the rest of the time. Where it's more of a true 'job share' and there are ongoing tasks across the week that need to be handed back and forth it really only works well where there's a really good relationship and communication between the two 'sharers' and even then it can be tricky, what happens if one 'party' wants to leave, get a promotion, go back to full time etc., the other can be left in the lurch.

To be honest, people nearly always job share because they want to work part-time for whatever reason. I've not heard of someone job-sharing purely in order to work remotely - I'd be with your DH, unless you want and can afford to work part-time I think this job may not work for you - most job shares each party works 40-60% of the hours and then obviously gets 40-60% of the salary. So if you are aiming for the £40k mark I think you'll end up a way off, and then looking for another part-time role to fill the rest of your time could be difficult. However 90% of job shares have had fixed days as usually both parties need to know where they stand for childcare or whatever - the only ones I've known where the days/hours rotate are in jobs/industries that have rotas and different shift patterns anyway which sounds not the case for you. So I guess that's a plus point. You've got nothing to lose at this stage by asking more about their job share suggestion, how it would work, how hours/salary would be divided, whether they have already identified a job share partner or would that happen after you'd been successful...

I have job shared four jobs over my career and they have all worked really well, although the shares were probably not as yours would work.

The first, I did 0.6 and two other people did 0.2 each. I was the lead and did most of the strategic stuff and they played to their strengths mostly on more operational activities. I knew them both before, had worked with them, rated them, and we all got on well. They were both coming back from maternity leave so this worked welll for them. It allowed me to keep 0.4 of my previous job while we set up the project, which they then took over after two years as I had trained them up (although they were paid at the same rate as me throughout, and it was a job share situation, not line management).

The next two jobshares were with the same person, and simultaneous. Two jobs were offered in the same organisation, designed to dovetail closely, and I and the other person (again someone I had worked alongside before, knew we got on well and their work was great) were interested in both. We had the bright idea of applying for both roles together as jobshares - 0.5 for each job - offering ourselves as the dream team. It took a bit of persuading for the top people in the organisation to get their heads round it, as they didn't want a jobshare for either role, but we were very persuasive that much less was likely to fall between us than if we worked separately. We worked very well for two years on that then made the case to add an extra 0.4 capacity, whom we chose (again, we had both worked with her in the past, although not at the same time) and the three of us shared the two jobs for a further three years very successfully. It worked because we trusted one another, had not the slightest doubt about the commitment of one another or the quality of work, and also knew we would give exactly the same advice. We met every 3 or 4 weeks and emailed and rang in between. Still the best time in my working life!

I am currently job sharing again, this time not through choice. A 0.4 role came up in the organisation where I already worked 0.6. I applied, interviewed well and thought I would get it. But instead, I was offered 0.2 as a jobshare with another person, whom I also knew, although only distantly. We both turned down the offer and played chicken with the recruiters for a week or so, but then met one another to talk about it. We were both open that we did not want to share the role and couldn't see how it could work, but we went back to the employers with a possible approach, insisting on regular meetings and pay parity (I don't think they had thought we would find this out, but they had offered each of us the 0.2 at the same rate as our other jobs, one of which was much better paid than the other), as well as 3 monthly review meetings with the option for either of us to drop out with a month's notice if we thought it wasn't working.

Two years on, it is working very well. We are very different people and don't work the same way, or always make the same decisions the other would. But we operate on give and take and professional respect, and now let each other know what we have done or are planning (which neither of us were good at to begin with). We can ask the other to step in if we think their skills are better suited to a particular situation, which can be a relief, and we have someone to back us up on controversial decisions. It works because we actively make it work and neither of us is precious about status or personal recognition. I now wouldn't want to change the set up.

PS. None of my jobshares has had fixed days and I have always checked emails daily, unless on annual leave, as a consequence, just to make sure nothing urgent gets missed.
I see that as the price to pay for flexibility.

I’ve job shared before. It was really tough, for many reasons. I ended up leaving after 2 years. My manager said she’d overseen other job shares and all had been difficult, irrespective of the role or individuals involved.