Marcia Porter

Louise Tipple and Sharon Leonard have known each other for quite some time, since they were students together at the School of Nursing (SON) over 40 years ago. They graduated the same year, in 1975; they celebrated their wedding showers together in 1975; they got married the same year, in 1975.

And now they're both happily retired after satisfying careers that included a 27-year run as job-sharing community health nurses.

Ms. Tipple and Ms. Leonard are proud grandmothers, and proud SON graduates, busy these days planning and organizing their 40th reunion as Class of '75 alumni.

Back in the day, though, these two were pioneering professionals; among the very first nurses in the province to try out job-sharing. It's rarely heard about these days, and wasn't very common back in 1986 either.

Job sharing is an arrangement that splits one full-time position down the middle, divvying up equal hours and creating two part-time jobs for two employees. In 1986 it was considered forward-thinking HR practice!

It was the perfect arrangement for Ms. Tipple and Ms. Leonard, who had been working in casual positions following the births of their first children in 1981.

"In those days if you wanted to take more than six weeks off after having a baby you had to give up your job," said Ms. Leonard, which is what both women did to have more family time.

"It was hard because you'd get a call at 7 or 7:15 in the morning to come to work, and you'd have to scramble to get kids to the babysitter. We (Louise and I) thought that if we had some kind of regular routine we could do babysitters easily and have some kind of life in between."

They knew of one other job sharing situation and thought, "If they could do it, we could give it a try."

So when a full-time position opened up in what is now Eastern Health, the two friends submitted an application and were accepted.

"It was meant to be a short-term thing until our kids got big enough to look after themselves," said Ms. Tipple. "But we just kept on doing it because it was such a nice lifestyle."

They continued to job share for 27 years!

"What we did find was that when you came back to work you were recharged and ready," said Ms. Leonard. "I would do my work and she (Ms. Tipple) would do exactly the same work. We shared the clients, we shared the workload, and it was our work together. The patients really enjoyed it.

"And it worked for us family wise," said Ms. Leonard. "You were never gone for more than three days at a time, and you never did five in a row unless you wanted to, so it gave us the best of both worlds."

Senior managers kept an eye on how things were going for the pair; they were a little cautious because it was an arrangement that created extra paperwork, etc., but they were also intrigued.

"We were very conscience that we were being evaluated and more than we ever knew," said Ms. Leonard. "Because there were times when we'd have a review and they'd (supervisors) say things like, 'We've noticed how devoted you are to your work and how good your communication is with each other,' and things like that."

During holidays and in case of illness, Ms. Tipple and Ms. Tipple would cover for each other, and their example led the organization to approve three more full-time job-sharing positions for six other nurses.

The two women hadn't realized how their job-sharing arrangement made an impression on their children.

"My daughter Jennifer works with women in business and says, 'Mom you don't realize how many women are out there trying to make it in the workforce, juggling competing demands and a very stressful job at the same time. Wherever I go I always promote the fact that my mother was a job sharer and had been since the 80s. Women even now have such a hard time in the work force," said Ms. Tipple.

Ms. Leonard's daughter practices medicine in Ottawa, and works four days a week.

"She takes every Wednesday off. She does not plan to work five days in a row and says, 'Mom after seeing your work schedule I'm starting right now and having a day with my daughter every week.'

"You don't even think of these things at the time, but it really was a good life."