SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CAREERS / PART-TIME CAREERS : Compatible Partners Make Job Sharing a Win-Win Option

Anne Pearl and Bill Rosenfeld share the same desk. The same appointment book. The same phone number. The same files. The same stapler. Even the same computer disks.

In fact, the two social workers have become so interchangeable at a hospital cancer ward in San Francisco that memos from their colleagues arrive addressed to “Blanne.”

At Hewlett-Packard, Karen Boda and Rebecca Hinkle, who have split the duties of a management job for two years, have also built such a symbiotic work relationship. They have earned the moniker “Bodinkle.”

“The blending of our names is an absolute tribute to how well our job share works,” said Pearl, who has been teamed with Rosenfeld at UC San Francisco Medical Center for four years. “We know each other and our jobs so well, we bounce off each other.”

Job sharing, which offers employees flexibility in their work schedules without requiring that they sacrifice their careers, has become an increasingly popular innovation in many workplaces. Of 505 corporations polled nationwide in 1994 by management consultants Hewitt Associates, 37% offered job sharing--two workers splitting one full-time job--compared to 28% in a 1990 poll.

Today’s partners share high-profile and demanding jobs such as bank president, lawyer, nurse, accountant and teacher.

“Job sharing is becoming part of (corporate) policies. It is increasing, certainly in the sense that people know a lot more about it now and it’s been seen in the workplace and talked about,” said Suzanne Smith, co-director of New Ways to Work, a nonprofit resource group in San Francisco that promotes job alternatives.

But job sharing is still considered pioneering, Smith added: “I don’t think there has ever been a great big, huge groundswell. It really has to happen because someone wants it and really works for it.”

Most job sharers seem to be women with young children, but retirees seeking shorter working hours and adults studying for advanced degrees are also opting for it, Smith said.

Allowing some employees to cut their hours without moving to less challenging part-time jobs makes many workers and their employers happy. Managers can get the best of two employees for the price of one, since partners usually split one salary and often share one benefits package.

“I doubt job sharing will ever replace normal work styles, but I think it has a tremendous place in American life today, with all the two-income families and the pressure of raising families,” said Rosenfeld, whose shared job is counseling cancer patients.

Still, such a marriage of work partners is not always easy.

When a job-sharing duo succeeds, the two function as smoothly as one. But if they don’t blend well the relationship can crumble like a bad marriage.

Job sharers say the most crucial factor is finding a partner with a compatible work style and similar level of experience, to ensure equity and avoid envy. Is one person more committed to the job or more detail-oriented than the other? How does each feel about giving up some control and accepting the decisions of the other? Sharers must also pay great attention to coordination and communication--which essentially means keeping exact records of each task performed.

“It is not just two part-time jobs,” said Boda, who with Hinkle manages a team of 13 customer-support engineers at Hewlett-Packard. “It’s one job, and you really have to work with the other person. The reason it works so well for us is we have very, very similar goals and a common work ethic. If one person is treating it as a job and the other is treating it as a career, you could have some problems.”

Why do some companies welcome this alternative? They have discovered that it is a way to retain some of their most skilled workers, including women with young children. Some say it solves problems encountered trying to promote women who would turn down regular jobs in upper-level management because of the stress of balancing career and family responsibilities.

“At Hewlett-Packard, we’re doing it for more than one reason,” said Susan Moriconi, health benefits and work-life manager at the Palo Alto-based computer products firm. “It allows us to retain experienced, strong employees and not spend time retraining people, which is very, very important in today’s specialized world.”

Job sharers say the option works especially well for people in mid-career who do not need much training or supervision. In such a case, “it isn’t just 50-50 that (the employer) gets out of a job share. It’s at least 60-60, or 70-70,” said Pearl, who has 20 years of social work experience.

In many cases, the employer benefits in merging the skills of two people. If, for example, one is good at managing people while the other excels at technical work, the company gets the skills of both for one full-time salary.

“We’ve learned to treat our differences as advantages,” Hinkle said. “If we’re working on some thing that requires creative thinking and making some strategic decision, we can call on the strengths of both of us to come up with a better solution.”

H-P does not keep track of how many job sharers it has among its ranks, but Moriconi said she personally knows of at least 50 cases at its offices throughout the country, and she added, “I know for a fact there are far more.”

“I’m amazed at the number of success stories I hear--people saying they have been doing it for eight, 10 years,” she said.

Other large companies offering shared jobs include Texas Instruments, the Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast Publications and Aetna Life & Casualty.

Still, results of a 1994 nationwide survey of 131 employers by the Conference Board Inc., a group that provides information to businesses on work and family issues, show that management resistance can often stand in the way and that some job sharers sacrifice career advancement to get more flexible schedules.

“Job sharing does not come without challenges,” the report says. “Management resistance and skepticism is the most frequently cited challenge to employers.”

Supervisors and employees say job sharing works best when it has support from the highest reaches of a corporation. At Hewlett-Packard, which has 56,000 employees in the United States, such flexible work options come with the full blessing of Chief Executive Lewis Platt.

Clerical and administrative staffs, at 59%, were the largest group using job sharing in the Conference Board report. Only 16% of employers surveyed offered the option to managers and supervisors.

However, in some cases, partnerships work so well that both are rewarded with dual promotions to high-level jobs. At First Chicago Bank, Cathy Pratt and Kathy Weidner were promoted as a team to be branch co-presidents. “My career has advanced despite my part-time status,” Pratt said in the Conference Board report.

Weidner added that one challenge is persuading others that the arrangement works: “We did experience skepticism from the community, our potential client base. We worked to educate our staff, clients and potential customers. . . . They now view us as one manager.”