Share and share alike

It was Lord Irvine of Laird who said the above a couple of years ago and the Government has always insisted that it aims to provide better support to ensure that families balance work and home and parents are better able to spend time with their children. The Government's intentions seem worthy, but are employers co-operating? Flexible working can mean flexi- time, term-time working, down-shifting, tele-working at home, all manner of options. But the one which seems to be most appreciated, particularly by people with dependants - young children or aged relatives - is job share.

I have spoken to many people who occupy complementary halves of a full-time job and not one of them has had anything detrimental to say about it. The only puzzling thing is that there are still employers who are stuck solidly in a mid-twentieth-century time warp of eight- hour Monday to Friday shifts, and regard people who do anything less as lowly and insignificant appen-dages to the real workforce.

In fact, real job sharing is all about real job recognition and opportunity. Without it many highly-trained, highly-qualified women might find they have slipped way down the ladder when they go back to work after a few years of being with their children. And some men would find themselves sidelined because they have domestic, business, or educational interests that are better served if they do a 20-hour-week instead of a 40-hour-week.

Scott Palfrenan, principal officer for employee development at Glasgow City Council, admits that it may be that many companies and organisations are run by middle-aged men who are used to an established way of operating and can be blinkered and afraid of change. But the changes are coming anyway.

For local authorities across the country they've already been around for years. And they work. ''For us, it's part of the equality agenda,'' says Palfrenan. The council has 35,000 employees and just 770 are job-

sharers - including 40 men - but the right to do it is ingrained. ''It's to our benefit, after all. We would lose a huge investment in training people to a high level of competence and experience then casting them aside or reducing their status because they wanted to spend part of their time doing something else.''

It's not just women with young children, although they make up the biggest proportion. Some men seek to pursue part-time degree courses or branch into small business. Some actually want to do two different half-time jobs so that they work a full week but get experience in two different spheres.

''There are tangible benefits. I would say we get 110% value from two people doing one job. We get two sets of ideas, talents, and abilities for the price of one.'' It is part of a broader issue - ''the life-work balance'' or, as Lord Irvine put it, the fact that people are not machines.

Senior personnel officer Ileene Mulholland was in her thirties when she started a family. ''I was well established in my career. I wanted children but I didn't want to give up my seniority.'' So for 10 years she has shared jobs. In the early days it was left up to the employee to find someone to share with but now the council seeks out appropriate partners.

She works a rolling timetable - that is, five consecutive working days on, then five off, overlapping on one of the days with her opposite number.

In the same office is Elaine Lee, a personnel assistant with two children aged three and eight. Her partner works half-time with her and half-time sharing a promoted post. The computations are endless. They all share responsibilities but not always their desks. ''That would be very hard if you were a bit messy with your paperwork!'' Nevertheless, they do feel they have to be more organised and they probably put more into each working hour than they would if they were full-time employees.

Whether in the public or the private sector, the procedure is the same. Everything - hours, duties, status, salaries, pensions, holidays - is split exactly down the middle. When Elaine Farrell took maternity leave from the Automobile Association three years ago, Lisa Brownlie covered for her in media relations. When Farrell was due back at work she asked Brownlie if she'd like to job share with her. It was the first time it had been tried in the AA at this level of specialisation and the reason it was accepted was probably because Farrell spent a considerable amount of time, careful thought, and consultation with Brownlie, presenting them with a detailed cast-iron set of proposals, succinctly covering every possible loophole.

''It works brilliantly. I love this job. I also love Megan, my daughter, and want to spend time with her. From the AA's point of view, they are getting two experts for the price of one.'' Brownlie has three children, between 10 months and six years. ''I had stopped working in PR before my four-year-old was born, but I was climbing the walls. This was the perfect way to have the best of both worlds, career and family.''

They keep in constant touch by mobile or pager. They share a diary and an e-mail address. One officer would have been entitled to one new AA car. They suggested, and got, two second-hand cars to the same value. ''We are quite generic but we still have our personal space for family photos etc. We do share storage. We throw everything into the same drawers. We have to be very conscientious about telling each other absolutely everything to do with work. It was left to us to make it a success and that's what it has been. We created the precedent.''

Alison Allan and Denise Canning are managers at Marks & Spencer in Hamilton. Denise had been on maternity leave and it was the company which offered her job share on her return. They do three days each and once a fortnight they do a day together to discuss strategy. ''We communicate by dictaphone,'' says Canning. ''We work very hard at communicating with each other and with colleagues. At first, staff thought they'd have to report to two different bosses but we explained that either one of us would do!''

Artists Dominic

Snyder and Sheena McGregor share the post of lecturer in art at North Glasgow College, working mostly with students in the community arts programme. ''I feel strongly that the more lecturers in art there are in education the better, because students then get a variety of creative approaches. Among artists, job-share posts are coveted because they allow us to paint, sculpt or whatever, while still having a regular income.''

Snyder is also able to teach fine art and print-making students at Glasgow School of Art one day a week because of his flexible time-table, while McGregor is completing an art therapy course in Edinburgh. ''It's good for us and it's good for the students,'' says Snyder. Scott Palfrenan has long been an enthusiastic champion of the system. ''My own staff are 18 people doing 10 jobs between them. Every one in the council is eligible. It would be up to us to provide a reason why any application couldn't be accepted but in fact I don't think we've ever refused anyone. We are not talking about women coming in for pin money. We are talking about very highly motivated and qualified men and women whose skills we would not want to lose. The world is changing and employers are going to have to absorb the changes.''

Linda Collins works 21 hours a week for the London-based charitable organisation New Ways to Work, which aims to change the culture of the work place to give freedom of choice to individuals who cannot or do not wish to occupy traditional patterns. They conduct research and disseminate information on the various ways of breaking the mould.

Needless to say, she shares her role with a colleague. Flexibility is well-established in the civil service and local authority, she says. Some commercial and industrial organisations are less amenable. ''It's as important for men as for women. I have worked in the past for two large charities and in both cases I was sharing with men. A lot of artists of both sexes share so that they can pursue their art but will have a steady income. There are so many areas where things could be much more imaginatively arranged to allow carers more time with dependants, young people who hate getting up in the mornings the chance to work afternoons or evenings, fathers to have more parental leave, parents to be home during school holidays.''

Some would-be sharers have been so frustrated at not being given the chance to split careers with someone else that they have taken their cases to the Equal Opportunities Commission. But gradually resistance is being worn down - mostly because all the evidence points to it being a great idea. Both companies and individuals can become members of New Ways To Work, receiving newsletters, free fact-sheets and discounts on relevant publications. For details contact: New Ways

To Work, 22 Northumberland Avenue, London N1 2TY;

tel: 0207-930 0093; e-mail: nww@dircon.co.uk