Job Share?

[onionlove]

Hello,
I am due to start back at work September / October time and have been exploring options with my manager. I requested to work 3 or 4 days a week (possibly compressed hours or home working maybe).

She has come back to me today to say that it would have to be on a job share basis rather than on a part-time basis because the role is too busy and she doesn?t see how we could squeeze the workloads into 3 or 4 days ....but she does think a job share would work with both working 2.5 days each or one working 2 days and one working 3. She said they need to hire someone to share with me and require flexibility from both in relation to your desired work patterns, once we have a suitable candidiate we can discuss further.The trouble is that I don't know if I can secure nursery care on this basis also this company are notoriously bad at hiring people and take ages at times to get someone.My question is can I accept the 2.5 or 3 day job share position and then the hiring for the other days is their problem or can they withdraw the offer of job share if they can't hire someone suitable to share?Thanks for your help.

I think anyone else looking for a job share will most likely be in the same position as you and will want fixed days on which they work. There will however need to be a degree of flexibility for both of you, say if one of your kides is not well and most nurseries will make the effort to help you out if they can. If they can't you will need a back up who can step in on the occasional basis that you might need to go to work to cover, but it will be most likely every now and then instead of every week.

If your company or you would like help in recruiting a job share partner, I could help you via my website www.flexibleskillsbank.co.uk where you will find many other mums looking for part time work and it is free to advertise your requirements. It might save them time and money looking for someone.

I applied for a job share under the flexible working regs and agreed the days I would have before they recruited.

The understanding was that if they were unable to recruit at all then I would have to come back full time or resign (recruitment issues are a legitimate business reason to refuse a flexible working request). The option to move my days to see if that helped was also discussed. Basically to answer your question yes it would be a legitimate business reason to refuse a job share if they can't recruit.

In the event they got loads of applicants, even though we started with it as a temporary post for six months as work wanted a trial period, and we got someone who was happy to work the days I didn't want to. We also had a three day two day split (I work three days) and this didn't cause a problem in recruiting either.

Why don't you suggest that you are happy to work 3 or 4 days a week whilst they are looking for a job share? It shows willingness to be flexible for them.