Workplace

Florida teachers Lauren Piper and Heather Velez both found out they were pregnant around the same time, said Nicole Hutcheson in the St. Petersburg, Fla., Times. Each wanted to spend as much time as possible with her baby, but neither wanted to quit work entirely. Their solution: sharing a job at Tampa’s Deer Park Elementary. Though this trend still isn’t “widespread,” it’s recently been gaining acceptance. According to a recent Families and Work Institute survey, 31 percent of ­employers offer job sharing.

Such an arrangement can be ideal, but go into it with your eyes open, said Jennifer Turano in The New York Times. For one, “your work has to be flawless to counter any perception that things might fall through the cracks.” I split an advertising job at a magazine publisher—that means I and my job-share partner share both an e-mail address and phone number, tell each other everything, and keep “copious notes” about our clients. “We’re actually referred to as one person in the office” and when clients confuse us we don’t correct them. Evidently, it works. “Last year, we won the salesperson—or salespeople—of the year award.”

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