Job sharing

Job sharing or work sharing is an employment arrangement where typically two people are retained on a part-time or reduced-time basis to perform a job normally fulfilled by one person working full-time. Since all positions are shared thus leads to a net reduction in per-employee income. The people sharing the job work as a team to complete the job task and are equally responsible for the job workload. Compensation is apportioned between the workers, Working hours, pay and holidays are divided equally. The Pay As You Go system helps make deductions for national insurance and superannuations are made as a straightforward percentage.

History in the U.S.

The news media began reporting in earnest on job sharing in the 1970s and 1980s. The practice was most often described as a solution tailored for women, as one Associated Press article summarized, "a compromise between fulltime housework and full-time employment".

1970's

In 1972 the New Ways to Work Foundation was funded, it is a non-profit organization founded in the San Francisco Bay area. Its main focus was to help "establish a work world that responds to the changing needs of individuals and organizations".

In 1978 the International Personnel Management Association and the Institute of Local Self Government joined with New Ways to Work to sponsor a conference on job sharing in the public sector. More than 80 public agencies sent representatives who were to learn about the experiences in increasing the number of job sharing projects. The Part Time Career Employment Act pl 95-437 was passed in 1978 as well. It narrowed the definition of part-time career employment from scheduled work of less than 40 hours a week to scheduled work between 16–32 hours per week.

2000's

Job sharing became even more prevalent during the 2000s, as women have succeeded professionally in greater numbers and proportionally seek out alternative work arrangements. in the early 2000s, two important factors began to push the job sharing movement. The access to information became increasingly easy to access and the demographics in the workforce began to change. The birth of the World Wide Web made it easier for companies and job share participants to share information through web tools like email, instant messaging, web portals, online databases and multi-user domains, these web tools allowed employees to share work in a more collaborative environment and in an asynchronous manner. The ever-changing demographics in the United States also drove the job sharing arrangement. With most of the baby boomer generation leaving the United States workforce and retiring, generation X and Y have transitioned their lifestyles to an even better balance between family and work. Gender has also impacted the work force demographics. In 2004, women made up 59% of the workforce, with 50% of them in management professional positions. The banking, insurance, teaching and library professions are cited as more commonly using job sharing. Some companies that use job sharing include New York Life Insurance Company, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, and Walgreens drugstores.

Modern Implementation in Pharmacy Academia

In pharmacy academia, job-sharing has been seen as a tool to help encourage and increase female employment. Female pharmacists, compared to males, desire to work part-time earlier on in their careers. There is a shortage in the pharmacy field of women due to some employers not providing flexible enough schedules to match the desires of female employees. In academia a similar problem exists, only 20% of full professors were women in 2007 even though 66% of students enrolled in pharmacy schools are women. In order to retain and increase female employment in the educational field, the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy implemented job-sharing in 2007 and has observed a noticeable improvement.

Advantages and disadvantages

As an employee who wants to change their full-time job responsibilities and switch to job sharing instantly feel less stressed and more work satisfaction. Employees who work full –time are torn because it creates no real time to spend time with family. The work-life balance issue for employees didn’t become a problem until the new generation of workers known as millennials expressed their desire that aside from having a job they want the time to carry on other activities such as hobbies and keeping in touch with friends/family regularly, therefore job sharing is preferred today. Examples of who Job-sharing is extremely convenient for employees who may have other things going in their life such as being pregnant and taking care of a child once they are born and must leave the workplace for a substantial amount of time or employees who are taking care of a terminally ill family member and need to leave at unprecedented times. Employees who don’t have a constant workload and do not need to constantly commute to a job on a daily basis lowers their stress levels leading them to lead overall healthier lives and have a better work-life balance.

For an employer job sharing is a benefit because it keeps two valuable contributors who might have decided to just leave their job to pursue taking care of their family full-time. When two employees share the same job there are now two different approaches than can be used as well as two different types of enthusiasm and creativity. Employees who feel less stressed and more work satisfaction helps improve their own motivation as well as providing positive customer service and positive coworker relationships. Job-sharers who become successful and create a mutual relationship become accountable for one another and increases the accomplishments they achieve together. Most important of all to an employer and an employee is when there is a personal emergency it is easy for the absentee to have their position taken care of and the same applies for vacations as well.

For employees seeking more free time for themselves, job sharing may be a way to take back more control of their personal lives. Employees who job share frequently attribute their decision to "quality of life" issues. Studies have shown that net productivity increases when two people share the same 40-hour job.

The disadvantages as an employees who take a chance on job-sharing and cannot create that harmonious relationship that needs to occur for job-sharing to work it creates even more problems for the employee. Employees need to decide collectively who will contribute what and know that neither one can have things go his/her way, compromise is key or else the relationship will suffer as well as the job. If the relationship between the job-sharing employees isn’t compatible it can make the job difficult to complete and in order for job-sharing to work there needs to be certain unmentioned agreements such as agreeing with job share and why they are doing it as well as understanding that their partner may be absent for a couple of days or a substantial amount of time. Jo· b-sharing from the beginning is a relationship, commitment and partnership but once one of the partners may unexpectedly leave or resign their position it leaves the other partner and their arrangement put to a halt. The transition period to getting another partner could be disruptive and detrimental to the one employee left.

The division of labor that can happen if job-sharing can cause an even bigger strain and stress to the employee ifHowever, there is an inherent challenge in making job sharing work for the rest of the company's stakeholders. The "handoff" or "handover" communication between those sharing the job is essential, and co-workers must adapt to working with each other, for example, one person being responsible for a task on Monday, but another on Tuesday.

See also

• Full employment
• Short time (short-time working)
• Work-life balance

External links

• "OPM-Part-time/Job Sharing". Retrieved 2009-08-13.