Conference 7.286::digital

    Two secretaries in our group share a job: m-w-f, tu-th. It's worked
    very well for several months.

    It's been discussed in PARENTING by women who've found
    very little opportunity or support for the idea.
    
    Donna

About twenty years ago Digital had something called a Mother's Shift.  The hours
were from 9:00 to 5:00 with all school holidays and summers off.  No benefits
and no guarantee of your job being there come September, but it was certainly a
blessing for this mother.  That's how I started at Digital.  

When the 'shift' went away, I had to come in full time.  Don't know why it was
abolished, but perhaps someone who was privy to that decision could explain?
I don't remember there being any problems with the system at that time.

Betty

    

    FTE means Full Time Equivalents.

    Job sharing is going on in Augusta. We have two materials trainers
    (both mothers with small children) sharing one job. Works great.
    

    
    re: .1 and .6
    
         But does it count as '1' headcount? I think it's a great idea
    but more incentive for management to support and sponsor would be
    if the person(s) count as partial headcounts, i.e. R20 = 1/2
    person,etc.
    
    
    Gary

    In some organizations it counts as "2"; I have two PT's (Both R20)
    who initially began being counted as one headcount; however, our
    good folks in Finance cannot count 20+20=40 and therefore 1+1=1,
    they look at it as a headcount of 2.  It's too bad, because alot
    of good people, who for a myriad of reasons cannot work a full 40
    hours per week are shut out; the real loser is DEC.
    
    Jay
    

    re: Finance not understanding 1+1=1
    
    Perhaps it's time to revamp/educate finance??  It sounds awfully
    like a computer programming issue to me!!
    
    Bruce (the naive) Evans (software specialist)
    
    PS: I agree that DEC is losing valuable people/talents by not embracing
    job sharing better.

What are the overhead costs of job sharing?
What benefits do two part time people get for sharing one job?
Half a medical insurance program each? 
What are the personnel and administrative costs associated with each person?
Will the job be disrupted if one of the two people leaves, thereby doubling
the risk of losing an employee?
Every job requires some continuity.  How much time will the two workers
have to spend telling one another what parts of the job have been done?
Is there risk in asking a half-time person to go beyond the job boundaries,
say with modest unpaid overtime?  Two extra hours is only five per cent 
of a full time person's work week, but 10 percent of a half timer's.

I don't oppose the concept, but I point out these questions as indications
of how and why managers might wish to take the easy way and minimize
perturbations by acting conservatively.

- tom]

        Clearly, if job sharing is to work, there need to be clear and
        consistent policies for making it work, and they need to be
        applied consistently and fairly. 
        
        Some of the questions raised by Tom Powers in .10 are very
        relevant, and these are the sorts of issues that a policy around
        job sharing must address, so that R20 + R20 = R40 throughout the
        corporation, if job sharing is to work.  (As Tom points out, there
        may be additional overhead costs.) 
        
        I haven't looked to see what, if anything, the "Orange Book" says
        about job sharing.  I suspect there is no clear policy, but if
        there is one, I'd expect it to come from the Compensation and
        Benefits group in Corporate Personnel. 
        
        Wouldn't it be nice if there were an "official" PERSONNEL notes
        conference, where questions about personnel policies would be
        answered by people who are responsible for the policies, and
        feedback could be shared?  Sigh.. 
        
        Tom

        I went and took a look at the ORANGEBOOK to see if I could find
        anything about "job sharing".  There's nothing specifically
        listed, although there are parts of policy 2.01 ("Employment")
        that relate to job sharing indirectly, and policy 6.41 ("Special
        Work Weeks") addresses some of the issues around vacation, holiday
        pay, sick pay, and short and long term disability, and refers you
        to other policies for other benefits (like medical and dental).
        The definitions of "regular" work weeks other than R40 is in this
        policy, and it's referenced by 2.01. 
        
        The question of whether, say, R16 + R24 = R40 from the perspective
        of "headcount" doesn't seem to be addressed explicitly, which
        means its left open to local interpretation. 
        
        Tom

    See Parenting notes file #528 and #786 for a lengthy discussion.
    Write to Laurie Margolies @CFO concerning these issues. There is
    no policy, but evidently one is "in the works". I wonder if we'll
    be around to see the benefit of any of these policies being "worked".
    
    beth

    From talking with managers, personnel and various others who need
    more flexible working arrangements, it seems that the biggest stumbling
    block to job-sharing and part-time work is the way that "headcount"
    is tallied and the fact that managers are under severe restrictions
    to keep it level or reduced.  Each body is counted, rather than
    Full-Time Equivalents.  It seems that two 20 hour per week persons
    might have a greater ROI than one 40--based on current benefits,
    neither would get health insurance, which has to be one of the major
    benefits costs.  The "cost" of vacation and sick leave should be
    the same.  If the FTE issue could be resolved, I believe that the
    management issues around work responsibilities, attendance at meetings,
    etc., could be worked out on a case by case basis with one's manager.
    Many jobs can be "shared".  In our group, we have two full-timers
    "sharing" two different full-time jobs because each job on its own
    is rather uninteresting, but combining duties from each make them
    more interesting.  Each works half-time for a different supervisor--and
    it works.