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A number of individuals availing of family friendly / work life balance working arrangements were interviewed and their stories appear below. They illustrate the complexity of real life decision making and experiences in a few cases, taking account of the situation that individuals found themselves in. (Names have been changed to preserve anonymity.) We are not suggesting that the conclusions reached by these individuals should act as a guideline for others nor are we suggesting that they are a representative sample.

Answers to many of the questions which are frequently asked about family friendly / work life balance arrangements are available on this website.

Miriam - job-sharer - public sector - South

Brian - job sharer - large public sector organisation - East

Chris - part time worker - private sector SME - North East

Brenda - tele-worker - private sector - South

Sheila - career breaker - job sharer - full timer - public sector

Jean - career breaker - private sector

Miriam - job-sharer - public sector - South

Miriam works as a middle manager in a large public sector organisation in Munster. She has spent almost six years in full time education attaining a PhD. Following a short time in research she opted for a management career in the public sector.

She describes herself as a woman who has created herself at different junctures in her education and work careers.

"In the current climate there are lots of opportunities to recreate yourself, in this sense one has to grow one's own job."

This also applies to being able to redesign the job to fit in with the organisation's needs as well as one's changing personal circumstances.

Following the birth of her first child Miriam became increasingly convinced that she wanted to spend more time at home with the baby. She was aware of this personal dilemma as she left to take up her maternity leave, but opted to make no decisions until after the baby was born. However, following the birth of her baby it was clear the dilemma would not go away and she knew that she needed to discuss her needs and feelings with her line manager. Miriam was also clear she did not want to stop work altogether for two reasons. Firstly, she really liked her job and secondly she felt it was very important that a woman retains the potential to earn money. 

The Organisation
The organisation provides a range of family friendly options agreed with trade unions, including job sharing. To avail of one of these options one negotiates with one's supervisor.

She and her supervisor had a frank discussion where she laid out her willingness to be flexible around the method to be adopted.  At the outset no one structure was mentioned. When the discussion was finished her supervisor said,

"It looks like we are talking about job sharing. It was that easy" , said Miriam.

The supervisor advised her to think about this for a week and if still interested he would advertise the other half of the job. This allowed her the space to consider the financial implications of opting for job sharing and to firm up on her commitment to the new arrangement.

Benefits of job sharing
I was confident in my ability to make it work.

The main benefit is that she has time with her child. The benefits to the organisation are that it has retained a highly motivated and creative manager. Both job sharers work at the relationship and as a result there is a real excitement in having professional support and partnership with another person. Miriam and her partner are convinced that the organisation is getting more than the sum of two persons working half time.

Concerns
One issue that needed to be managed concerned the staff. Initially in the job sharing arrangement the staff felt that when the second job sharing manager joined the office on Wednesday, the staff had two days work done, but the manager was full of start of the week energy. This could have had implications for the continuity and smooth running of the work. The matter was discussed with the team and this has ensured an awareness that allows team members to express their views and the managers to operate a more understanding approach to the staff. The essence of success for the team is that any change needs to involve all the parties, not just the immediate employees availing of the family friendly service.

In conclusion, a creative solution has ensured that two dynamic and participative middle managers are now providing a committed, professional service to their organisation, and they also have more time to be with their families.

Brian - job sharer - large public sector organisation - East

Brian is a senior clerical worker in a public sector organisation. He and his wife made a decision that he would take advantage of job sharing in his organisation when they found themselves with three small children one of thirteen months and newborn twins.

Both Brian and his wife decided that Brian would job share to help establish some balance in the work and family scene. Brian's wife remained in full time employment for the next eighteen months when she also opted for job sharing in a separate public sector organisation. Thus for the next seven years both Brian and his wife job shared, in separate organisations, in order to ensure that one or other of them was at home with the children during the working week.

The Organisation
The organisation where Brian works has had a job-sharing scheme in operation since the late 1980s. This scheme as well as other family friendly working arrangements, including career breaks, flexi-time, unpaid leave and the statutory entitlements have been put in place with the agreement and support of the trade unions.  Brian found that his immediate supervisor was a little resistant to the idea of having job sharers in his department. However, the general manager was fully supportive and ensured that the arrangement was put in place quickly. 

Both Brian and his working partner settled down and have been sharing their job for seven years. It was arranged that Brian always worked the same days every week. This satisfied both Brian and his employer as it seems both employers and children thrive on continuity.

One issue that Brian found interesting was that he, as a male job-sharing applicant, was asked by his general manager if he had concerns about his future promotion prospects being affected. This question was not put to his female work partner. Brian has now returned to work full time, as the children are now older.

Benefits
Brian says that it has been a wonderful experience to be so close to his children when they were so little. He feels that he is very fortunate having had this experience as

"you will never get that time again."  

Both he and his wife have benefited from a true partnership in parenting equally. Brian is aware that his children identify both him and his wife equally as their primary carers.

He feels that both he and his wife have managed to achieve a balance that has allowed them avoid the guilt trap, experienced by many of his colleagues who work full time and have family responsibilities.

Brian's organisation has benefited from a pair of job sharers who have diligently managed their responsibilities for almost seven years. Brian has actively modelled a way of working that has influenced other men in the organisation to think about the option of job sharing. Financially he has not found it too burdensome as the combined saving in childcare costs and reduced taxation has meant that the financial aspect has been marginal.

Concerns
The issue of promotion had to be faced. From time to time Brian has had to decide if he would go for promotion when a senior job was advertised as a full time position. Each time he decided to stay in his current role to retain the job sharing benefits for himself and his family. Organisationally perhaps there is a loss in not thinking about advertising promotion positions for job sharing staff. Brian feels that organisationally one is not considered to be as committed or attached as a full time worker.

In conclusion it is clear from speaking with Brian that the personal benefits and enjoyment that he and his wife have derived from putting their family needs as a priority has resulted in a stable employee and a very content and happy family.  In his own words

"I would do it all over again for the family life it has given me."

Note: Information in relation to discrimination and family friendly / work life balance working arrangements and in relation to promotion for job sharers are available on this website.

Chris - part time worker - private sector SME - North East

Currently Chris is attending a full time degree programme and is also working 28 hours a week. Before leaving school he started to work part time for his local supermarket. Now that he is in university he uses the income from his supermarket job to support himself at college. He is different from most of his friends who do not work while they are at college. Chris says,

"I love my college course."  

He is now the most experienced part time employee at his workplace. The academic time frame is 9a.m.- 5p.m. almost every day. Part time work is carried out in the evenings and at the weekends. 

The Organisation
His employer has an equal opportunities policy and relies heavily on part time staff to carry out the work. According to Chris and his boss the supermarket operates a part time and reduced hours policy. Staff choose the hours that they are willing to work and the store works the needs of the operation around the staff's availability. This can change from week to week, where a person may work ten hours one week and twenty hours the second week. While some staff have the same rota each week Chris operates a flexible system. Time off is also respected once an employee makes their request a week in advance.

Chris has proved himself to be a reliable and experienced worker. He has a good relationship with his boss. Now and then he needs a break to finish an academic project or do his exams. His boss is supportive of Chris at these times and he is not assigned to work while he dedicates himself to his studies. Chris would call this unpaid leave.

Benefits
This flexibility is a feature of the management of the store and one which has clearly benefited Chris, allowing him to achieve his goals of full time education and sufficient money to support himself. The demonstrated flexibility is clearly benefiting the store and the employee.

Another benefit to Chris is that the store is close to where he lives and in his very busy schedule this is a huge help. He also confesses he would miss the store and the camaraderie of his workmates if he were to give it up.

Concerns
Chris has heard his academic teachers say that students are advised not to work while at college. He is aware that as he moves through the four-year degree programme the demands on him to produce academic work will increase. He is concerned as to how he will balance the reality of his financial needs against wanting to achieve his academic goals. This means that he will continue to need his job. Grant assistance is a possibility but Chris is clear that it will not meet all his budgetary needs. Another concern is the pressure that can be exerted by a manager asking him to come to work on his precious free time. In his personal life, Chris has very little time for his girlfriend and his other friends.

In conclusion, Chris has demonstrated that he has found a way that allows him learn a lot about the reality of work, while at the same time pursuing his academic goals. He has an understanding of the nuances of management already which will give him a head start in joining the full time work force in a few years time. He has already had a good experience of fair play in action and has learned that flexibility and the freedom to negotiate around one's personal needs can be managed. Thus a very busy enterprise can achieve its goals in a way that allows an employee also achieve their personal goals. 

Note: Information on legal protections for part-time workers is available on this website.

Brenda - tele-worker - private sector - South

Brenda is a research scientist for an Irish private sector company. She has worked for them for almost eight years since leaving university. In that time she married a farmer.  Her employer is located in a medium sized Irish town. She made her decision to seek an alternative arrangement to working at the company premises after the birth of her first child.  She also wanted to establish a work arrangement that could include the possibility of a second child to be born close in age to their first. She admits that she had always had a desire to work from home, not just for family reasons but also for professional reasons. Firstly, she wanted to reduce her travelling time to and from work.  Her home is about thirty-five miles from the company's premises. Secondly she wanted to carry out the kind of research that could be managed using information technology.

The Organisation
At the time she approached her employer to discuss this idea they had, as an organisation just begun to examine equal opportunities as it affected them. One of the issues which the organisation was concerned about was attracting quality researchers. The relatively rural geographical location of the firm together with the increasing buoyancy in the economy made this a live issue for the firm.

Brenda approached her supervising manager with a well thought out plan. 

"Basically if they were unable to meet my request, I was considering becoming a freelance researcher from home."

She hoped that she would not have to resort to this plan B as she enjoyed working for her employer. 

"When you have just had a baby, you don't want to have to start setting up a new business as well."

Her employer agreed that she could work from home on a pilot basis at first. This was some years ago now.  Brenda was a pioneer in that she helped the formalisation of tele- working in her organisation. Indeed this private sector firm now operates a range of family friendly arrangements available to all staff, developed and agreed with the co-operation and support of the trade unions.

Benefits
Brenda has benefited because she has been able to achieve her goals, to start her family and carry out the kind of research work in the way she had always wanted. Her employer has benefited in that she is still working for them and contributing to the development and success of the firm. 

Concerns
While the arrangement at first sight presents an idyllic picture, that of a young mother working for a go ahead company from home in the midst of rural bliss, in reality there have been things that were learned in the light of experience. 

"At first my friends thought that if I was working from home it meant  I  was available for a chat and a coffee at any time of the day This was hard at first and then I realised if I did not lay down the ground rules to friends and family, no work would get done."

In the eyes of friends and family, being at home was interpreted as being available for socialising. 

The second issue was that of having lots more time with the children. Cutting out the travelling helped, but it soon became clear that reading and writing for work was at odds with parenting. So Brenda brought the children to a minder, who lives close by.

Finally there is the isolation. While Brenda feels she is suited to work that involves a lot of solitude, she still needs human contact. Thus she now arranges to meet family and friends by appointment, just as if she were at work in town.

In conclusion, Brenda has had to work to develop this method of working. On balance she feels, however, that for her particular circumstances tele-working has given her the freedom to achieve her goals, both personal and professional.

Sheila - career breaker - job sharer - full timer - public sector

Sheila has availed of a range of working arrangements that span the history of work in Ireland for the past twenty-seven years. She was a recipient of a marriage gratuity, a payment made to women who were obliged to resign on marriage. The marriage bar, as it was referred to then, was removed in 1973; the gratuity payment continued to be paid to women for some years after that. 

She left her organisation, on a permanent basis in her own view, to get married and raise a family. Ten years later, however, she needed a job as her marriage had ended and she now had three children under ten to support.   

"This was in the eighties when jobs were very scarce."

She was reinstated in her organisation, and began to work full time in the junior grade she had vacated ten years before. After a short time she realised that it was difficult to get the balance right between full time work and being a single mother. She considered resigning again. She did not have to go this route. She was able to benefit from job sharing. 

Later in her time in the organisation she needed time out again for personal reasons. She opted for a career break for one year. When she returned she was able to take up job sharing again. This she continued to do until her two eldest children had left secondary school. Sheila now felt free to return to work full time, or in her own words,

"to begin full time work for the first time in a long time."

She has now achieved promotion and has requested and been granted a transfer to another part of the organisation to expand her experience and skills.

The Organisation
Sheila's organisation in agreement with the trade unions had just introduced job sharing around the time she was seeking it. 

The organisation also began at that time to develop other arrangements to support staff with their family responsibilities. These new facilities include, career breaks, flexi time, and unpaid leave. Emergency leave was also improved. 

Benefits
Sheila has benefited from the existence of a range of family friendly policies provided by her employer. She has been empowered to maintain her job while raising her family. She has been able to maintain a standard of living for her children, which while not affluent, was adequate. She has maintained and developed her self-esteem by going to work. Job sharing was particularly important for her self-esteem.

"This (job sharing) made life so much more manageable. It brought out the adult in me at work. There I was being mother and father to my three children, while at work because I had a junior position, I think they (the managers) thought I was a child myself.  When I became a job sharer and had to discuss the work with my job share partner to ensure a clean hand over I came into my own."

She is now an experienced member of the workforce and has a lot more to contribute as a result.

The organisation has benefited from retaining a mature and experienced member of staff who is courageous, stable and committed. Now that her family is reared she is in a position to contribute in a new way to her employer. She feels that she has been generously supported by the organisation and is now in a position to begin to repay this generosity in kind.

Concerns
The only concern expressed by Sheila was that she was worried she may find full time work difficult. This has not happened. 

"The day just flies by and I am learning so much in my new job."

In conclusion, it can be seen that both Sheila and her employer organisation are winners.

Jean - career breaker - private sector

Jean is on leave from work to care for her parents. She has worked for more than twenty years for her employer.  In the past two years she has noticed that caring for her parents had begun to take more and more of her time and energy.  At first it was just a weekend or an occasional evening. However, within the first year of her father's ailing health she noticed that it was taking a lot more of her time. This also meant that her workday was often disrupted by a call from her parents' home to deal with an ever-increasing number of needs. Indeed it was her immediate supervisor who suggested that she think about one of the firm's family friendly options.

The Organisation
The organisation has a range of family friendly policies, which include job sharing, reduced working hours, e-working and tele-working as well as unpaid leave options, all implemented with the support and agreement of the trade unions. 

Following Jeans' supervisor's sympathetic response to her plight, Jean discussed her ideas with her siblings, who all live abroad. They agreed to help with the financial cost of Jean giving up her salary for the duration of her unpaid leave from work. This allowed her to decide to make the application for a two-year career break. While she was unsure as to how much time she would actually need, her employer agreed that she could apply to return to work before that should her caring arrangements for her parents change in any fundamental way.

Benefits
The value of being able to devote her time fully to caring for her parents has ironically meant she has more time to pursue some of her own personal hobbies. 

"After twenty five years working, it is a joy to take time out and find I can devote myself to caring for Mum and Dad but also catch up on things I had neglected for myself."

While on career break she is pursuing further education courses in her local college. This is an unexpected bonus.  She does know that the care of her parents will increase as time moves on but now she has time to access all the support services. While she was at work she did not have the time to phone the various organisations that offer advice and help with older people. She also says the stress of taking time out of the workday and leaving in the middle of meetings to respond to a distress call is gone.

"It was neither fair on me or my colleagues or my boss."

The organisation is benefiting because this employee is deeply grateful to have an opportunity to care for her parents. She also has the security in knowing that she has a place in her organisation at the end of two years.

Concerns
Career breaks are mostly taken up in this organisation by very young employees, who tend to take time out to travel the world, and by those with younger children. In other words, the majority are employees at the beginning or early middle stages in their career. Jean is aware that she is already past the mid career point at this time. This may have implications for any further promotion as well as having an impact on her pension entitlements.

In conclusion, however, she is aware of these issues and realises that the benefit of the career break has been not just to give her precious time with her parents but also to allow her space to think about how she might like to develop herself on her return to work.

Note: Information on legal entitlements to paid leave for carers, information in relation to discrimination and family friendly / work life balance working arrangements and in relation to promotion for job sharers are available on this website.