Balancing work and family

August 26, 1997: 1:31 p.m. ET

Job-sharing has benefits for both workers and employers
From Correspondent Beverly Schuch

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Innovative work arrangements ranging from tele-commuting to part-time work continue to give employees increased flexibility in the workplace. Job-sharing, according to some employees, is the best way to balance work and their personal lives.
     Donna Kubeck, a Merrill Lynch systems analyst for 13 years, began sharing her job with co-worker Jill Austin nearly four years ago when both became pregnant around the same time. Both women work a three-day week, their schedules overlapping on Wednesdays.
     Austin describes job-sharing as the "best of both worlds."
     "I've been able to continue my career... and yet at home I have a little more time to deal with my family," says Austin.
     Job-sharing has benefits for employers, too. When The Conference Board surveyed 155 businesses, 75 percent of which offered job-sharing, 79 percent said it helped them retain employees and 48 percent claimed it actually increased productivity.
     Job-sharing works best when goals and measurement standards are clearly defined and when all parties involved are very flexible, says Merrill Lynch Vice President Camille Manfredonia. Flexibility is required of managers and clients, as well as the employees themselves.
     Job-sharers usually have to give up some of the benefits of full-time employment, such as higher salaries. While Austin and Kubeck still get pension, life insurance and vacation benefits, they have to rely on their husbands' health care plans.
     But Kubeck says the benefits outweigh the costs, and claims she is a better mother and employee in return.
     "I'm much more productive... than when I was a full-time employee because... when I'm there, I'm working."