KEY POINTS:
The term job-share is bandied about a lot, particularly when people are talking of work/life balance.
For Judy Dixon (57), a receptionist at Enterprising Manukau, it's more than just talk. It has been a way to keep in the workforce but be able to pursue other interests.
Previous to job-sharing, Judy ran a business with her husband full time.
"I was finding I had other interests; family things, home-based things like pottering around, gardening and being able to see friends. I wanted to pursue these things.
"Job-sharing has taken me off the treadmill. It's given me a life."
She was not, however, ready to retire. "Although I'm not working full time now, I'm able to keep in touch with new technology in the workplace. This is without the long hours.
"This maintains my marketability by keeping my skills current."
Dixon works in the mornings at Enterprising Manukau, she has a half-hour change-over period with her job-share partner Purekau (last name witheld), and then she has the rest of the day to herself.
"I'm a morning person, so this arrangement works for me."
Dixon stresses that co-operation and consideration of your job-share partner is paramount.
"Co-operation is very important. Of course, at times, there is some stress, but we communicate well and work through things," she says. "I like to resolve things and to find out why there is a problem. When you job-share you have to have empathy and understanding. You also have to realise that job-sharing is reciprocal."
Dr John McEwan, who also calls himself "Dr Stress", says as far as job-sharing is concerned, everything that contributes to lifestyle and personal goals in the workplace is a good thing.
"It's win-win," says McEwan.
However, he believes that job-sharing is only as good as the people doing it.
"They need focus and stability. In my work I have seen disasters when one person takes advantage of the arrangement at the expense of the other," he says. "Think of car pooling for parents - if you have someone who doesn't pull their weight and is not as equally committed as the others, you have a difficult situation.
"You have narcissistic people who want the world to revolve around them. If you are self-centred, then job-sharing will fall apart."
McEwan suggest you find a job-sharing partner whose work values are equal to your own, as is their integrity.
"You also need to discuss how things will work. What happens if one partner is sick? What about cultural expectations when it comes to attending funerals, that sort of thing?"
Clear protocols are the key, says McEwan.
Dixon agrees. "I feel responsible to my job-share partner. I don't leave her with extra work because I've wasted time. I only leave her things that I really haven't had the time to do."
She stresses that something to be careful about in job-sharing is not to end up doing the same amount of work as a full-time person, but with half the hours.
"One needs to get the balance. It's about time management and delegation. It's easy to get stressed out by trying to do too much," she says.
Because of her personal circumstances, Dixon's job-share partner Purekau is happy to work afternoons.
Her youngest child is in high school and takes the bus to her office so they can go home together.
For Purekau, job-share is short, sharp and sweet.
"Job-share suits me because I like to do other activities. I've never been keen on a full eight-hour day. I like to get in, go whatever miles an hour, and get out, she says. "I do other things in the mornings, such as catch up with friends, get involved with sports teams and committees and visit my sister and her twins."
Purekau is in mid-career. "At this stage, job-share suits me. I'm also developing a business idea."
She says some of her duties are different to Dixons, but with the ones they share they are able to communicate and sort out any difficulties.
"We are considerate of each other."
Staying with Enterprising Manukau has kept her networks going and has enabled her to keep in touch with business and industry.
Enterprising Manukau corporate services manager Richard Reid says the company introduced job-sharing in an organic way.
"It happened when two offices were amalgamated and two full-time receptionists were no longer necessary, so they had their jobs split. Over time the work load dropped and the situation was looked at again.
"As time went on, people wanted to reduce their hours and the job-share arrangement developed out of that."
Reid says Enterprising Manukau finds the arrangement works very well, particularly with the crossover period. "With this arrangement, there's always someone on reception. We don't have to be concerned about a lunch break and get other staff filling in."
He says this also works very well for sick days as mostly the job-share partner will fill in if the other one is unable to come to work.
"We did consider having one person working three days and the other two, but that would put extra pressure on the other administration staff," says Reid. "The way we do it now works very well."
Start of a new career
Aly McNicoll of the New Zealand Mentoring Centre says she had a very good experience with job-sharing in the early 90s. After the birth of her second child, she had retrained and found herself at the point of re-entering the workforce. She attained a job-sharing position at Unitec, running courses for women going back to work.
"A woman I knew and I decided to job-share. Both of us had young children, so we shared the jobs and the children," says McNicoll. "It worked out very well. We covered for each other, so if one of our children was sick, the other mother would go to work. We used to do our debrief when I went to my job-share partner to pick up my daughter."
McNicoll says this arrangement worked for three years. "For me, it was the launching point of a new career. My options would have been limited without job-share."
She and her job-share partner are still friends.
