Job-sharing - what are the pitfalls?

[levan]

There is a possibility I might be offered a job-share, which I would be interested in as would like to do fewer hours than I do at present. Don't know much about it though, so just wondering if anyone else has done/is doing it - would you recommend it? What are the pitfalls?

Thanks

I did a job share myself (quite a few years ago) and now as a manager, I have two people in my team who job share.I'm in teaching at middle management level, so running a faculty. When it works well, it basically means that you have two people doing one job, ideally as seamlessly as possible. The main difference from part time, I suppose, is that a job share is still seen as one job, not a part of a job. I certainly find less problems with the job share than with P/T staff (I have a couple of people who do a 4 day week in my team, which isnt great, as it's impossible to find someone else to work one day, and it means gaps in provision tbh). IME a job share works best where you have two people who want to do half a week or very similar (my jobsharers have a 3 day/2 day split). If both people are really committed and enthusiastic about their role, then as a manager, you are often getting a very good deal. Communication between the two people is vital - and this could be a potential difficulty as any liaison/changeover needs to be done in the employees own time - it cannot be at the expense of the employer. In other words, whereas it would be ideal for my jobsharers to maybe both be in work for a two hour crossover slot, it can't happen because that would leave the employer out of pocket. So I think you need to be prepared to talk/meet etc outside your working hours. Other potential pitfalls include where there are meetings/training sessions etc which mean that one jobsharer misses out (again, unless they are prepared to attend voluntarily). As a manager I expect my jobsharers to take responsibility for getting themselves up to date with information they may have missed etc. I suppose the main potential problem is that one job sharer is significantly less competent than the other. Luckily mine are both good at the job, but I can imagine it would be tricky if there was a big difference in how well they performed.
Hope this helps!

I do the first half of a shift and someone else will be doing the second, has worked fine in the past so hoping that new person will be just as good. we do a 4/3 split of a 7day shift and due to our job it doesn't matter who is more competent as its a new slate with every shift

I have job-shared successfully for 8.5 years, in a law firm in an admin role. Works for us because we both put in the same amount of effort and provide a seamless service (we are told!). If one party puts less effort in you will encounter problems. What sort of job is it?

I work in the NHS. I would think very carefully about doing an official job share as our policy states that if one of the job share partners leave, the remaining partner has a limited time to find a suitable replacement otherwise his/her own job is under threat.

I kind of job share unofficially. Basically my colleague and I both work exactly half time. To ease childcare arrangements she requests not to work on a Wed or Thurs and I request not to work on Mon or Tues, and these requests are always honoured. We are both available on Fri, Sat and Sun - it would have been unfair of us imo to be unavailable on those days! Between us we are available 7 days a week just like everyone else in our team.

I feel very lucky that we have these arrangements.

I do a job share and its OK. There are some issues with communication though, but I think generally it works.

Thanks for these responses. The thing about if one person leaves having to find a suitable replacement is a bit worrying though - is this the case for most employers?

levan this would usually be the case, yes. Think about it logically, if someone else to replace one of the job sharers can't be found, it would not be reasonable to expect the employer to carry on employing what would effectively be half a person.

I would expect to see something in a job sharing contract stating that in the event of one person leaving, every effort will be made to find a replacement, but in the unlikely event that it is not possible to find someone in a reasonable timescale, redeployment and as a last resort, termination may be considered. Something along those lines, but basically yes, if no one else can be found to do the other half, you may be out of a job.

The biggest pitfall is you only get half the blardy pay - apart from that I adore my job share and have had four opposite numbers who have all being wonderful.

We have organised swaps if we have run out of annual leave. We make sure we are on holiday at different times so that if needed we can cover and get overtime!

We do alternate thurs and wed mornings so see each other on these days and catch up.

Our union advised us to think very carefully about job sharing. (teaching)

If your other 1/2 leaves you can be made redundant.