Stress-free tips for job sharing without working harder

When you've got two people who are both working part-time, and the role itself equates to one or maybe just over a role, not specifically two separate part-time roles but a single role that is being shared, that's a big distinction to make. There are a lot of people out there who do work part-time roles, but they don't necessarily job share with anybody. They might work on a project and just somebody else does the other work. A job share usually is a formal structure and a formal agreement of sharing the roles and responsibilities of that headcount or FTE allocated in the team, even if just for a short time like Return to Work transition after maternity leave or extended sick leave. I've never done it myself because if I've ever worked less, I've just worked 4 days a week. But, I have heard and seen other people job share and have some ideas of what can help.

Split the work clearly

Some things that I see work really well is if you have clients, customers, projects, split those out. Let's just say there's 3-4 projects. One of you might take 2 projects, the other one might take the other 2, for example. Or, you might be like: "Yep, these are the departments that I help and service,” and then the other person’s like: “These are the departments that I help and service.” Delineating the work and the responsibility and ownership of the work itself can be really great. Having time and days where you do handover and using that time collaboratively to share and brainstorm. Share an update of what's happened, what needs to happen moving forward, brainstorm solutions to challenges, and just keep those lines of communication open. You might also make a day where you go out for lunch with the other person to develop that trusting relationship so they know that you've got steer of the ship when they're not around, and vice versa.

Agree documentation for task handover

The other thing I've seen work really well for job share is when you go to hand over the work, agree how you're going to do that. Let's just say Wednesday is your crossover day, but then they're not coming back until Monday and they've got to start and they're not going to see you when they start to pick up the work. Here's where something like work breakdown, where working Agile can be super handy, because say you've got a Trello card or a Jira ticket for a task, you can actually assign that card to that person to get it done by a particular day. So, finding a way of documenting the tasks and what needs to happen. When people used to work in the office, I obviously used to see big handwritten notes or a brief that was left. Now, working virtually and working digitally, it's just finding a one source of truth where both of you are able to access, and even when I've handed over projects before, there might be a crossover period where both of us access the same document for a while. I write all the stuff that needs to happen, they access it and I just keep an eye on it and check in. Sometimes by documenting it, you can also see if you've split the work evenly. You might be working on 2 really big projects and they might have 3 really small projects, and they don't have that much to do. So it also helps to drive a bit of fairness in the role.

Have empathy

I reckon more of what you are going to come up against is the other person's feelings than it is the practical work breakdown and sharing. Be really conscious of how that other person is feeling, especially if it's their substantive role, not yours. Sometimes people are coming back to roles that they're not passionate about, that they have outgrown, that they don't care about, maybe their priorities have changed, maybe what they want to achieve in life has changed. And it depends on the person. Some may feel you’ve muscled in on their territory and they don’t have a place anymore, others may be happy to put their feet up and relax a bit, others may be excited to come back and want to grab it all with both hands forgetting you’re there to help. Exactly like a Change Manager going into a project, I recommend approaching it with: “I'm here to help you transition successfully and feel safe and ready.” Play it by ear, because you’ll likely have more challenge with the emotions than the practical work sharing.

Clear communication

Clear communication is absolutely key. Build that rapport, which is why I recommend you do lunch or a coffee whenever you have that shared day in the office or shared day working. Clear communications of what you're there to do and trying to reinforce that you're not there to stand on anybody's toes. I share this in my Leading Successful Change program in Module 1: Setting Up Your Change when I go through the roles that support change and prompt: "When people think you are taking their role. What do you do? How do you approach that?" Clear communications, building that relationship, really reinforcing that you're there to help them, is key. 

Looking at their behaviour and trying to understand deeply what's driving it. 

• Do they not care anymore? 
• Are they scared? 
• Are they bored? 

Really try to understand what's driving it and just don't take it personally because it's got nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. That thing where people are breaking up and it's like: "It's not you, it's me." No, in this case: it's them! Have those really clear days, if you can break down the work and have different people work on literally different things and there isn't really any crossover, that's always great. Have those clear boundaries and just be super mindful, really try to understand how that person is feeling, what they're coming back into and how you can help them as much as possible to transition back, and then how they can feel secure on a longer term basis. You won't know until you walk into the room. 

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Lata xx

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