Job Share

[GRS]

Some of the older guys in our office have been asking about job share, as in doing 3 days each a week each. A couple of weeks ago we had a visit from some guy from RM explaining the basics of DM26 as we are due to start sometime in October, the opportunity of job share was put to him & he basically turned it down flat saying that the business doesn’t like job share and it is too costly. When pressed on this & asked how can it be costly when obviously you don’t need a day off cover he just continued to say “no the business won’t have it as it’s too costly” but couldn’t explain how.
Does anyone on here know why a job share of 3 days a week is too costly to the business? Does anyone think that we can legitimately push for this? Is it just a case that it’s another thing for the planning team to try & incorporate & it will save them a headache by just dismissing it from the beginning.

[hazzeem025]

Without a doubt they can't be arsed to try and plan it out. We're in a similar situation in our D.O, we stand to lose our 4 day weeks. Just because the management/planners can't be bothered to figure out new rotas!

Martin Walsh came on here and said EVERY D.O would have the opportunity to vote on 9 different duty patterns. Funny thing is when it came to vote on these '9 patterns', it had been whittled down to 3 by the planners. Planners excuse was the other 6 options wouldn't work for our D.O.

And how the f**k do these 'planners' actually know anything about how a D.O works? It's basically the same s**t as always. If it requires a little bit of effort and thinking outside the box, then Management aren't interested. Surely having an office of staff that are happy with their attendance patterns, makes them more productive?

I honestly don't see why the CWU thinks this 2 in 5 Saturdays is all of a sudden the gold standard for staff that work in delivery offices? It's a piss poor f***ing bribe, from an out of touch piss poor union.

[POSTY11]

JOB SHARE
In job sharing two employees share one full-time job rather than performing different parttime jobs.
There are several potential job share patterns:
 Employees work separate times during the week than their job share partner
 Employees have times when they overlap in working hours with their job share partner
 Duties are split according to skills and knowledge of the job share partners rather than by
tasks
How does a job share work?
Where two employees job share, they are expected to perform the same duties as one fulltime employee. They receive a share of the pay a full time employee earns based on their
proportion of the full-time job.
How to arrange a job share
The employee and their manager must follow the same flexible working procedure as
outlined above.
The employee should look at how the job could be divided and approach their manager with
proposals in writing for discussion. Often employees have already identified a suitable
colleague for job sharing, and in this case the proposal should include the name/s of any
other job share parties, with both employees completing the form.
If the request for flexible working is supported by business needs and the employee has not
identified a suitable job share partner, the manager should try to make reasonable effort to
find them a suitable partner. However if no suitable job -share partner is found the flexible
working request will be denied.
To arrange a job share, managers and employees should follow the procedure for arranging
flexible working. The criteria as to whether the request for job share is reasonable, is the
same as for all other types of flexible working.
Making a job share work effectively
 Job share partners are aware how the arrangement works in practice, e.g. if one resigns
the other partner may be asked to increase their hours; if one is off sick or on holiday the
expectation is for the other to cover
 Communication between the partners is essential to ensure there is a handover, work is
not repeated or not completed
 Compatibility of job share partners. They must be able to work effectively together by
sharing responsibilities and covering absence for one another.

[postslippete]

Why would job shares be too costly? If you have 2 experienced staff who want to stay in the business but reduce their hours then surely that would help retention and reduce the need for recruitment. It's more likely they can't be ar$ed because it gives them less flexibility

And as for the choices, I think ours are likely to be:

- 2 Saturdays off every 5 weeks
- 2 Saturdays off every 6 weeks
- the 9 day fortnight (1 Saturday off every week)

Some of the original choices like 1 Saturday off every 3 weeks aren't available because we are not a fully driver office. The CWU seems to be pushing for the 2 in 5 Saturdays off.

My preference for the 35 hour shorter working week (with no loss in pay) isn't there unfortunately. But if it was, then I would take the 4 day week every time because us posties don't just value our time off, we also value being finished early. That has been part of the attraction of the job for decades.

[tramssirhc]

Some of the older guys in our office have been asking about job share, as in doing 3 days each a week each. A couple of weeks ago we had a visit from some guy from RM explaining the basics of DM26 as we are due to start sometime in October, the opportunity of job share was put to him & he basically turned it down flat saying that the business doesn’t like job share and it is too costly. When pressed on this & asked how can it be costly when obviously you don’t need a day off cover he just continued to say “no the business won’t have it as it’s too costly” but couldn’t explain how.
Does anyone on here know why a job share of 3 days a week is too costly to the business? Does anyone think that we can legitimately push for this? Is it just a case that it’s another thing for the planning team to try & incorporate & it will save them a headache by just dismissing it from the beginning.

DM26 does not change the existing agreements. Job shares are still an option. What's the CWU doing about it?

[tramssirhc]

Without a doubt they can't be arsed to try and plan it out. We're in a similar situation in our D.O, we stand to lose our 4 day weeks. Just because the management/planners can't be bothered to figure out new rotas!

Martin Walsh came on here and said EVERY D.O would have the opportunity to vote on 9 different duty patterns. Funny thing is when it came to vote on these '9 patterns', it had been whittled down to 3 by the planners. Planners excuse was the other 6 options wouldn't work for our D.O.

And how the f**k do these 'planners' actually know anything about how a D.O works? It's basically the same s**t as always. If it requires a little bit of effort and thinking outside the box, then Management aren't interested. Surely having an office of staff that are happy with their attendance patterns, makes them more productive?

I honestly don't see why the CWU thinks this 2 in 5 Saturdays is all of a sudden the gold standard for staff that work in delivery offices? It's a piss poor f***ing bribe, from an out of touch piss poor union.

There never was 9 options available to all offices and Martin knew that. However it's not true that the CWU think 2 in 5 is the gold standard. The CWU is encouraging members to vote for 4 day weeks and 9 day fortnights as it allows for more quality time off. There should be no issue with you keeping your 4 day week. What's the rep doing about it?

[scoobydo79]

Invariably job share is tempting to two guys who are in their 60s. What usually happens is after a short time one will think you know what? I’m done here. He will Jack it in giving a weeks notice and the DOM then has to find at short notice someone who wants a 3 day week and is happy to mesh with the guy who remains.

[SMS1969]

Job share will be available at ours as long as you can find someone to share the duty and if you have problems with the later finishes because of family matters then that can be discussed. We’ll see, also we’ve got three duty patterns to choose from, not nine. 2 in 5, 9 day fortnight and 4 day weeks.

[twoloops]

Job share will be available at ours as long as you can find someone to share the duty and if you have problems with the later finishes

When has a later finish ever been mentioned?