WorkForce21   Job Sharing

Monday, August 7, 2000 Job sharing increasingly an option for balancing work and life By Carol Kleiman, Chicago Tribune Audrey Ruderman is associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and codirector of the Office of Applied Psychological Services, a training clinic for graduate psychology students. Ruderman, who is married to Mark Levin, a physician, has three children - and "an incredible amount of things to do." And since last September, she has had a much better chance of getting them done. That is when Ruderman began to share her job at the clinic with Nancy Dassoff. Both job sharers have doctoral degrees in psychology. Job sharing is an arrangement - with management approval - between two employees who usually each work three days a week, with one day overlapping, and who share full responsibility for one job. Salary and benefits are pro-rated. That is the most prevalent arrangement, but there are variations on the theme. Ruderman and Dassoff, for instance, each work four days a week. Any gaps in their hours are filled by Gloria Balague, who also has a doctorate in psychology. The arrangement, suggested by Ruderman, who works one day from home, is "working nicely because we work well together," she said. "And I know, when I'm not physically present, everything is running smoothly. That gives me peace of mind." Job sharing is a creative solution to balancing work and life responsibilities - and to attracting and retaining talented employees. It first gained national exposure in 1972 when Barney Olmsted and Suzanne Smith, founders of New Ways to Work in San Francisco, shared the post of director of the nonprofit firm. A recent survey of 606 human-resource professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management, based in Alexandria, Va., showed that only 22 percent of the companies studied offered job sharing. But experts expect the option to grow. "Employers are getting interested in job sharing because it's a wonderful concept to fill positions that need full-time coverage, not part-time, and that's what you get: 52 weeks a year," said Nadine Mockler, principal of Flexible Resources Inc., a staffing firm in Cos Cob, Conn., specializing in permanent jobs with flexible hours. "Job sharing's only going to get bigger because the labor market is shrinking and the cream is thin on the top." That management will increasingly turn to job sharing is what Shari Rosen Ascher is betting on. She has shared her job in radio advertising sales since 1995 with Maggie Sisco. In April, the two started ShareGoals, a consulting firm based in New York that offers counseling for potential job sharers and training for management and employees. Their Web site at http://www.sharegoals.com/ has free information about the option. She and Sisco continue to job-share. "Over the years, Maggie and I have turned managers who were doubters of job sharing into believers - and we outlasted them," said Ascher, who is married and has two children. "It's a way to keep talented people, and we want to demystify it. Some managers think it's complicated, more expensive, more work, and clients may not approve. But we have worked it all through: Maggie and I even worked back-to-back maternity leaves." Ascher said that because of job sharing, she could go on class trips with her children, and kick box, and lift weights. "Even when stuff happens, work goes on when you job-share," she said. "Employers get two minds - and 20 fingers." And they get more, according to Dana Mazis, sales manager at the Hyatt Regency hotel of San Diego. "Employers get the combined strengths of two people - and they only have to pay for one," said Mazis, who has job-shared with Susan Stoneback since 1996. "We were the first sales managers here to job-share, and now three of our seven managers do, too," she said. The reason other Hyatt managers are adopting it: "It works," Mazis said.  © 2000 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.