Job sharing keeps women working - Military Careers, Second Careers - Air Force Times

Job sharing keeps women working

There’s been much debate about why women drop out of the work force at the height of their careers. For whatever reason — to stay home with children, care for an aging parent or simply to drop out of the rat race — it is often a controversial decision.

One of the points often argued is that women significantly impact their earning and success potential by leaving their careers at an important stage. At the same time, companies are impacted because they lose valuable employees.

Still, just about one point that everyone can agree on in this debate is that trying to balance work and life demands for women is very difficult. The increased job responsibility for female employees in the management ranks only adds to that stress.

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could figure out a way for women to balance it all in a realistic way? And for companies to truly embrace the work/life balance?

Kelly Watson of Career Partners thinks she may have found the solution by serving as a sort of traffic cop for female executives who want to job share.

“Right now, we’re burning through executives who are tired of working 70-hour weeks,” Watson says. “There’s no real reason to reinvent the wheel. Job sharing can work, but it’s got to be managed correctly.”

Watson says too many job sharing arrangements fail because women “have had to fight it out themselves,” such as pitching the idea to every new boss that comes along, trying to hammer out the specifics with the job-share partner and keeping track of how benefits and salary will be handled. Plus, there is the added dilemma of successfully handling all the bumps in the road that go along with job sharing.

That’s where Watson steps in. Her company is an executive search firm that helps companies and their executive women find good job share matches. From the recruitment to the day-to-day operations to executive coaching for the lifetime of the job, the firm works to make the job sharing experience successful for everyone.

“When we present this idea to companies, we get one of two reactions,” she says. “Either the manager slaps his head and says, ‘Why didn’t we think of that?’ or the manager says, ‘Huh? They can’t job share.’”

Watson says the market is ripe for someone to handle the details and hassles of job sharing. Company leaders are often too overwhelmed with their own responsibilities to hammer out a job share arrangement, and the employees who want to participate often don’t have the know-how to find the right job-share partner.

Watson says that women “opt out” of the work force for an average of 2.2 years, and even though 93 percent want to return to their careers, only 74 percent succeed — and just 40 percent get well-paid jobs in the fields they desire.

Further, these women take a major financial hit, suffering an 18 percent reduction after two years off work and a 38 percent cut after three years away. (For more information on job sharing and to join the blog discussion, go to www.anitabruzzese.com.)

With only 16 percent of Fortune 500 executives being women, Watson says she hopes setting up and supporting successful job-share solutions for women will pump up those numbers.

And while many companies tout job sharing or flexible arrangements for women, Watson says the truth is that “that is not what is really going on.”

“Lots of bosses believe that if you’re serious, you stay at your desk,” she says. “The ‘mommy track’ is often career suicide.”

Watson is quick to point out, however, that women who have become mothers are often distinctly qualified to co-lead in a job share situation. “These women have an ability to share credit, and they collaborate on decisions,” she says. “They have a lot of skills that are important to the workplace.”

Anita Bruzzese writes Gannett News Service’s On the Job column. She is author of “45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy ... and How to Avoid Them,” (www.45things.com). Write to her care of Business Editor, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22107. For a reply, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.