Publications
Job Sharing And/Or Part-Time Work Arrangements Guidelines
Table of Contents
Introduction
Policy Description
Definition
Advantages and Disadvantages for Employees
Is Job-Sharing or working Part-Time for you?
Would Job-Sharing work in your job?
Types of Job-Sharing arrangements and examples
How to write a proposal to share your job
What to do if your proposal is turned down
Recruitment of a Job Share partner
Terms and conditions
Termination of arrangements
How would Job-Sharing or working Part-Time impact
your benefits?
Example of a Job-Sharing arrangement
Other flexible work arrangements
Contacts for further information
Printer Friendly Version **: Job-Sharing and/ or Part-Time Work Arrangements - Guidelines (pdf)
Job Sharing
and/or Part-Time Work Arrangements Guidelines
Introduction
If you've ever considered job-sharing or working part-time, but didn't know if it would suit your job or your life-style or how to go about getting approval, then the information contained in this guide should be of assistance to you. It describes the Province of Manitoba's policy, as well as the different options available, what you need to consider in making your decision, and the "how-to" of preparing a proposal and getting it approved.
Employee Requests
The policy of the Province of Manitoba Government is to allow employees to job share or work part-time where operationally feasible, and subject to the approval of the departmental employing authority.
The Province of Manitoba recognizes that job sharing and other part-time work arrangements permit employees to better balance their work and personal lives. Employees may wish to reduce their work hours to:
- devote more time to family responsibilities
- pursue community work, hobbies, or further education
- deal with health problems, stress, burn-out, or aging.
Part-time work can be a transition to entering, re-entering or leaving the workplace.
In other cases, applicants to full-time positions may state a preference to job-share or working part-time. Managers may consider these requests, if operationally feasible.
Job sharing or part-time work requests will not be granted to enable employees to pursue alternate career opportunities, private business interests, or for any purpose which could lead to or be perceived as a conflict of interest with the employee's position of employment.
Job sharing and part-time work may be a permanent arrangement, or for a specifically agreed upon time period.
There are no restrictions with respect to employee type, classification, or supervisory responsibilities: potentially anyone could job share or work part-time.
Management Requests
Managers may elect to allocate vacant positions specifically for job sharing or alternative work arrangements. These arrangements can assist work units in meeting operational requirements by addressing workload or extended hours for public service requirements.
Managers will not change the status of an employee without the agreement of the affected employee.
The number of job share or part-time positions approved per unit is at the discretion of the employing authority.
"Job sharing" is an alternative work arrangement whereby the duties and responsibilities of a full-time position are shared by two part-time employees. Each employee may be responsible for the whole job and all of its tasks, or alternatively, some projects or tasks may be assigned independently. By definition, for a job to be shared, both employees are accountable for the majority of its responsibilities, and must interact in order to accomplish them. For example, two employees may share one Community Health Nurse position.
Some Advantages
and Disadvantages of Job Sharing
That Some Individual Employees Have Identified
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Opportunity for a more balanced life-style | Change of some fringe benefits (refer to M.G.E.M.A) |
| More time for family | Limited opportunity for career advancement if there is a continued desire to work in job share arrangement |
| More time for other interests | Less identification with workplace and employees |
| Higher level of job satisfaction | Less opportunity for in-service training |
| Makes subsequent transition to full-time easier | Work time can extend into time off |
| Less stress and burn-out | Harder to change jobs |
| Provides a "mental break" from the children | Possible conflicts between job share partners |
| More flexibility for arranging days off | Impacts future pension benefits |
| Keeps skills current | |
| Develops team skills | |
| Keeps a "foot in the door" | |
| More time for continuing education | |
| Provides part-time work for those seeking it | |
| Shifts and pay are more regular than other types of part-time work | |
| Reduces child care costs |
Most of these advantages and disadvantages apply to part-time work in general.
Is Job Sharing or Working Part-Time For You?
Usually people are interested in job sharing or working part-time because they want to balance their personal lives with their working lives. However, not everyone can afford financially to job share or work part-time, although it has been shown to work well in two income families.
If job sharing or working part-time appeals to you, your first step should be to assess the various facets of your life and evaluate the combination of work and leisure activities that meets your needs. Then, try looking at the amount of satisfaction you need and derive from your job and also at the amount of income it provides.
The work sheets that follow are designed to help you address these issues. Allow yourself enough time to go over these questions carefully. By doing so, the issues at stake will become clearer to you and thus enable you to make the right decision.
A. Can You Afford it Financially?
| Your monthly figures | Example A (monthly) | Example B (monthly) | |
| 1. The amount you spend now to live | $ _______________ | $600 | $1000 |
| 2. The amount you need to spend to live | $ _______________ | $500 | $750 |
| 3. What your job share or part-time income would
be
Other income. Total income. |
$ _______________ | $400
+ $100 $500 |
$500
+ $100 $600 |
| 4. The amount of money you would be cutting back in order to job share or work part-time. | $ _______________ | $0 | $150 |
| 5. Does this fit with your economic life-style? | ----------------------- | Yes | No, but you are willing to reduce what you need to spend (#2) |
B. Can You Afford it Professionally?
- What do you want to be doing three years from now?
- What will working part-time do to this goal?
- In order to achieve your personal career goals, do you need to continue to perform certain aspects of your current job after it has been restructured?
- Will sharing your job or working part-time allow you to increase or maintain your current career aspirations?
C. Are You Ready to Share your Job?
- Are you basically satisfied with your job?
- Do you have the patience and determination to go through the lengthy process of restructuring the job?
- Are you ready to give up part of the job? Are you willing to share ideas, decisions, tasks, and outcomes?
- Are you ready to share responsibility and authority? Are you able to accept that personal achievements might be credited solely to your partner or regarded as teamwork?
- Are you ready to work as a member of a team?
- Are you willing to negotiate differences with your partner?
- Are you willing to spend extra time and effort working to build a solid, trusting job-sharing relationship?
- Are you adaptable to change? Are you willing to adapt to your partner's habits and-point of view?
- Can you financially afford to job share?
- Do you have the basic skills necessary for job sharing: flexibility, organization, collaboration and communication?
If you have answered yes to #1,2,9, but no to all of the other questions, you may want to consider working part-time on a job split on staff year split basis rather than job sharing.
Would Job Sharing Work In Your Job?
The first step is to analyze your job.
- What are all of the responsibilities and tasks that make up your job? For each major task, what are the sub-tasks? How do the tasks relate to each other? (Your position description should help you answer these questions.)
- Which tasks are time-dependent (tasks that must be done at a certain time)? Which tasks are independent (where you can choose the time they are done)?
- Are there natural breaks during the working day, when certain task are completed? Can certain tasks be finished by the end of the day or week? Are certain times of the year natural start and end points? Are there slow periods during the day, week, month or year?
- How would you reduce your workload? (Positions that see clients might reduce their workload by reducing their caseload.)
- How do you handle information? What aspects of your work is written or verbal communication?
- Who would be impacted by your change in work hours? (e.g. Supervisors, co-workers, subordinates, clients)
Your job is shareable if you are able to answer the following questions in a manner that would still meet the operational requirements of the unit.
- How will you divide the work? Which tasks will you need to share with your partner, and which is easier to split? Duties that require prompt action should be shared, while tasks that can carry over with less strict time deadlines may be split.
- How will you share time with your partner?
Types of Job Sharing Arrangements and Examples
Examples: 50/50
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | An example of 3 days on 2 days off; 2 days on a bi-weekly schedule with the overlap day every second week | |
| am | A | A | A & B | B | B | |
| pm | A | A | B | B |
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | An example of 5 days on, 5 days off schedule | |
| Week 1 | A | A | A | A | A | |
| Week 2 | B | B | B | B | B | |
| Week 3 | A | A | A | A | A | |
| Week 4 | B | B | B | B | B |
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | An example of a schedule where each employee works 3 days per week with one day overlapping. Included reducing hours each day to ensure one FTE is not exceeded. | |
| Reduced hours | A | A | A & B | B | B |
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | An example of 3 days on, 2 days off; 2 days on, 3 days off bi-weekly schedule with no overlap. | |
| am | A | A | A | B | B | |
| pm | A | A | B | B | B |
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | An example of a 5 days on, 5 days off schedule starting Thursdays. | |
| Week 1 | B | B | B | A | A | |
| Week 2 | A | A | A | B | B |
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | An example of 5 half-days per week schedule | |
| am | A | A | A | A | A | |
| pm | B | B | B | B | B |
Example: 40/60
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | An example of a schedule where one employee works 2 days per week, the other works 3 days per week. |
| A | A | B | B | B |
Example: 30/70
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | An example of a schedule where one employee works 3 days bi-weekly and the other employee works 7 days bi-weekly. | |
| am | A | A | B | B | B | |
| am | A | B | B | B | B |
Example: 20/80
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | An example of a schedule where one employee works 4 days per week and the other works 1 day per week. |
| B | B | B | B | A |
Any other variation is possible.
In determining your preferred time schedule, consider both the practical needs of your organization as well as your own needs. Where are you willing to negotiate? How can the schedule be designed to minimize disruptions to your superiors, clients and staff? Is overlap needed for planning or meetings? How could this be accommodated without overextending the FTE position?
How will you communicate with your partner? How will you pass on information obtained from superiors, clients or staff? Some options might be to meet for lunch or coffee, phone calls at night, a changeover file, bulletin board, or tape-recorded messages. You supervisor and other contacts should only be responsible for communicating with the partner "on duty," while the partners should keep each other informed.
If you want to share your job or work in another part-time capacity, you will need to be able to advise your supervisor: - when you would prefer to have the new work arrangement start - whether you would prefer to implement the new work arrangement on a trial, time-bound, or permanent basis - what time schedule you would prefer - what tasks you propose to be responsible for - how communications would be handled - whether you would be willing to work full-time when your partner is on a leave e.g. sick leave, vacation leave or maternity leave.
How To Write A Proposal To Share Your Job
A well-written proposal may help convince your supervisor that your request is operationally feasible and should be approved, especially if yours is the first request in a particular position or work unit. Check with your supervisor or departmental personnel branch to see if one is required or advisable, as your department may have its own procedures for requesting approval.
Your proposal should indicate how you intend to share your job. A suggested outline is as follows.
- Begin with your statement of purpose, e.g. this proposal is a request to share the position of (position title) currently held by (your name) on a permanent basis.
- Using your position description as the basis, indicate how your job duties should be shared and why. If you or your partner should have overall responsibility for a particular project or section of work, state this. If you supervise staff, how would you divide or share this responsibility?
- Outline a proposed time schedule, indicating where any overlap would occur. Indicate what alternatives you would be willing to consider. Do you want to be able to switch time with your partner? Indicate whether you would be willing to cover for vacation, sick leave, etc.
- Indicate how communications with your partner will be handled, as well as with others that your position interacts with, such as clients, your supervisor, and other staff. Indicate what communication mechanisms could be used to overcome problems. How would staff meetings be handled? What requirement is there for both partners to attend other meetings or training? How would unfinished work be handed over to your partner? How would crisis calls be handled?
- Indicate what extra space or equipment may be required for a partner, or what other arrangements could be considered.
- List any advantages that may benefit the organization from your job sharing, such as coverage for vacations and illness, lunch hour coverage, or better coverage for peak periods. Is there any other way that two incumbents may be better than one? After listing the advantages, briefly list any potential disadvantages and how they could be lessened or avoided.
- If you have identified potential partners, indicate this in your proposal. In any event, indicate what experience and skills should be sought for your partner, and how these skills would complement yours.
- It may be helpful to list other examples of job sharing in your field, and how specific concerns were addressed.
- Indicate a preferred implementation date. Present the proposal for discussion with your supervisor, and negotiate any areas of disagreement. Where your supervisor has significant concerns regarding the operational impact of a job share, a trial may be considered.
What To Do If Your Proposal Is Turned Down
If your proposal is turned down, it may be possible to suggest an alternative that is mutually acceptable to your supervisor and employing authority. You may ask your departmental human resources branch or the Human Resources Programs Branch of the Public Service Commission to assist you and your manager in exploring options. If the proposal is not operationally feasible in your own branch, your departmental human resources branch may be able to identify some alternatives within your department. You may also wish to consider other options, such as:
- applying for job share or part-time positions that are advertised within the Public Service
- jointly applying for regular positions with a potential partner after working through the same issues as if you were to share your job
- indicating a preference for job sharing or part-time work when applying for regular positions.
Recruitment Of A Job Share Partner
Your supervisor, in conjunction with your departmental human resources branch, will determine the most appropriate recruitment method for obtaining your partner. Generally, regular Public Service Staffing guidelines, including the merit principle, apply. Your supervisor may request your participation on the Selection board, to ensure congruence of work habits, etc.
Each employee's classification, salary, and benefits are determined separately.
Once the terms and conditions relating to the job share or part-time work arrangement have been negotiated and agreed upon by the manager and employee(s), your manager will provide you with written confirmation of the agreed-upon terms, either through a memo, letter of offer or a separate agreement.
When you accept a job share on a permanent basis, you relinquish all rights to your former full-time position. Should you wish to revert to full-time, and the other portion of the position is not vacant or management wants to continue the job share arrangement, you would have to compete through the regular process for a full-time position. If you entered into a job share or part-time arrangement on a trial or time-bound basis at the outset, then you would retain the right to return to full-time status at the end of the agreed-upon time period.
Upon termination of one of the parties, depending upon the arrangements made, the job share agreement may be terminated. Management will evaluate at that time if the job share arrangement can be continued with a new partner or if the position will revert to full-time. If it is not operationally feasible to continue the arrangement, then the remaining partner will either convert to full-time or be required to obtain an alternative position. Managers may also terminate job share or part-time work arrangements for bona-fide operational reasons.
How Would
Job Sharing Or
Working Part-Time Impact Your Benefits?
(Job share employees are entitled to the same benefits as other part-time employees. Refer to the most recent applicable Agreement or Public Service Regulations and the Public Service Employee Benefits information.
1. Salary: Salary is pro-rated according to the percentage of full-time that the employee works (i.e. 50%, 60% etc. of full-time).
2. Deductions: Deductions for Superannuation, Group Insurance, CPP, EI and union dues are based on the actual salary the employee receives.
3. Overtime:
- Overtime for part-time employees is paid on the same basis as for full-time employees.
- Daily overtime is payable when an employee has worked beyond the normal daily hours for the employee classification (e.g. the normal daily hours for the employees classification are 7 1/4 hours. The employee's part-time work schedule is 1/2 day each day. Any hours worked beyond a 1/2 day up to 7 1/4 hours would be paid at straight time rates).
- Overtime on a day of rest (e.g. Saturday/Sunday) is payable only when an employee has worked 5 days in the immediate preceding week, (e.g. an employee's part-time work schedule is 3 days the first week, 2 days the second week. Any hours worked on a Saturday and Sunday up to 7 1/4 hours would be paid at straight time rates).
- Any extra days worked beyond the normal part-time schedule would be compensated at straight time (e.g. if the employee comes in to attend a staff meeting or to replace a partner who is ill or on vacation).
4. Shift Premium: Employees must work an entire 8 (7 and 1/4) hour shift to qualify for shift premium (i.e. employee whose part-time work schedule is 1/2 day each day would not qualify).
5. Benefits:
The following outlines benefits to which an employee (who is hired/changes to part-time) is entitled:
Benefits Pro-rated or Based on an Actual Earnings
- General Holidays (e.g. if you work .6, you would be paid for .6 of a day)
- Compassionate Leave (e.g. if a full-time employee would be entitled to 3 days leave but you work half-time, you would be entitled to 1 1/2 days paid leave and the remaining time would be without pay)
- Paternity Leave
- Court Leave
- LTD Plan benefits
- Workers Compensation
- Qualification Pay
- Group Life Insurance
- Accidental-Death and Dismemberment Insurance
- Earned Vacation Entitlement (e.g. as a full-time employee you would earn 15 days, as a 4 day employee you would earn 6 days paid leave)
- Sick Leave
- Dental and Ambulance and Semi-Private Hospital Plan Eligibility
- Seniority
- Severance Pay on Retirement
- LTD Plan eligibility
Benefits Based on Calendar Service
"Calendar Service" is based on continuous service with the employer (i.e. 1 year of continuous service = 1 year of calendar service).
- Long Service Vacation Eligibility
- Adoptive Parent Leave (length in weeks)
- Eligibility for earning sick leave credits at higher rate
- Maternity Leave qualifying period
- Maternity Leave (length in weeks)
- Merit Increases
- Bridging of Service
6. Superannuation:
Qualifying Service
Ten years qualifying service is required to be eligible for early retirement,
disability and pension paid on death. Qualifying Service is employment
that is unbroken by reason of resignation, termination of service
or absence from work in excess of 52 consecutive weeks. Qualifying
service is not affected when an employee changes from full-time to
part-time employment.
Service For Actual Pension Calculations
Pension calculations are based on an employee's 5 highest earning years
of the final 12 years of service prior to retirement. An employee's
pension calculation at retirement would therefore be affected in
accordance with the employee's changed contributions and changed
service (e.g. an employee who works half time pays approximately
half of full time contributions. On retirement, the employee would
therefore be entitled to approximately 1/2 of the pension benefits).
NOTE: The Deferred Salary Leave Plan is not applicable to part-time employees.
An Example Of A Job Sharing Arrangement
| Position: | Community Health Nurse |
| Duties: | Utilizing the nursing process, provides services to individuals, families and communities in the areas of maternal and child health, health promotion, communicable disease control. |
| Division of Duties: | The partners divided the caseload of school, nursery
schools, and day cares equitably.
Each partner would be the primary contact for the assigned caseload, but acts as back up to the partner 'a caseload to ensure continuity of care and coverage. Referrals and intakes were assigned equitably to both halves of the position. Each partner would teach one series of prenatal classes a month. Employee A retained responsibility as a representative on the Prenatal Committee. Employee B retained responsibility for jointly coordinating the Young Mom's Group with the Home Economist. Whoever was working when a child health conference was scheduled would attend. Responsibility as contact for communicable disease control was reassigned to a full-time nurse. |
| Schedule: | 5 days on, 5 days off rotation starting Thursdays. |
| Communications: | A folder of memos and mail was kept for each partner to initial after reading. A communications log was kept to update each other of significant activities, directives, and caseload developments. Met on a monthly basis to discuss caseload and workload distribution. Phoned or left a tape recording for the partner at the end of every rotation. |
What Other
Options Are Available To You
Other Than Job Sharing Or Working Part-Time?
Other options that you and your supervisor may consider include flextime, working at home/telecommuting, leaves of absence, and compressed and modified workweeks.
Who To Contact For Further Information
For further information regarding job sharing or other part-time work arrangements, contact your departmental human resources branch or the Human Resources Programs Branch, Public Service Commission.
