512: The State of Job Sharing
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Have you seen an increase in requests to job share? In this episode, we delve into the increasingly common practice of job sharing, where multiple caregivers collaborate on a pet's care. We discuss the reasons behind this trend, such as more pet sitters entering the market and clients seeking cost-effective solutions. We also highlight the challenges, including communication issues and varying standards of care, emphasizing the importance of clear documentation and agreements. Finally, we cover practical advice, stressing the need to know when to trust your gut and when to decline job sharing requests.
Main topics:
Job Sharing Overview
Reasons for Job Sharing
Challenges and Risks
Best Practices and Recommendations
Main takeaway: It's all about having that continuity of care and how comfortable you are with that.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitter, client, person, pet, visit, care, sharing, job, day, requested, feel, walk, services, people, share, company, scooped, professional, litter box, situation
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin
Meghan 00:02
Hi, I'm Meghan.
Collin 00:03
I'm Collin,
Meghan 00:03
and we are the hosts of pets that are confessional and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you also to pet sitters associates and our Patreon people for supporting this show. A Patreon member is a listener who loves the show, and once it to keep going for a long time. If that sounds like you, you can go to pet sitter confessional.com/support. To see all the ways that you can help out over the 500 Plus episodes that we have recorded, we have discussed a lot of things, but something we have not yet covered is job sharing. So that's what we wanted to do on this episode, we have both experienced and seen a lot of other people talking about job sharing this year, and especially in the years following COVID. We think that's for a few reasons. The first one being that there are more pet sitters than ever, it seems like everybody is wanting a little bit of extra money and to pick up a side gig. Also clients are looking to save money. Inflation is super high right now and the economy is a little tumultuous. So people are looking to pinch a penny whenever they can. Clients are also looking to build a very specific care routine for their pet that potentially a single center or company cannot provide depending on your services and their needs. So when we say job sharing, we are talking about where you and someone else are working on the care of a pet while the client is away. And this could look like a lot of different scenarios. For instance, it may mean you and another pet sitter that provides a service that you don't do for instance, overnights, they provide overnights, but you don't. Or it could mean you and someone else, either a pet sitter or a neighbor tag teaming visits, you do the early morning and the late night, but the other person does the mid day or vice versa. It could even mean that the other person does the first few days of the visit, but then they hand it off to you to do the rest. Maybe they are only available for the first five days and the client wants you to do the rest of their vacation. The client may request additional care from another pet sitter or a person on rover or wag or neighbor or family member or friend. We are seeing a lot of clients now wanting to start relying back on their neighbors and friends. I
Collin 02:12
think for a long time, there has been a status in the industry to not job share in many, many companies, many centers have policies that are just straight up against job sharing. But unfortunately, it doesn't mean a whole lot if the client doesn't disclose it. And it's become increasingly difficult to enforce with the popularity and with the frequency of which things are being discussed and requested by clients. One thing you could do is you could book and you could review all of the bookings that were requested by a particular client, and then ask questions when they look weird. So hey, I just want to reach out about your recent request, I noticed a few days that you don't have morning visits, is this correct? It takes you having to be on your toes and to really know your clients and feel comfortable reaching out in those situations. Because the other alternative is you take whatever bookings are asked of you and you don't ask any questions, you just show up on who you're told to. And it can put us in a very particular situation of feeling uncomfortable about asking those situations or feeling like we're getting too involved in a client's life or what they're asking of us. But at the end of the day, we've got to do what we're comfortable with, and make sure that the clients are getting the care that they actually need. Yeah, because
Meghan 03:29
the situation that comes up a lot for us is the cat gets fed two times a day. But we are only coming over once a day. And we reach out to the client, we say, hey, we noticed this inconsistency. Can you tell us more about this and they go, Oh, well, I'm having Marcia down the road, check on them in the morning, and you're doing the afternoon visit.
Collin 03:49
So again, really taking the time to review that information and make sure that the services requested match up for the care that they have typically requested or is reflected in the information you know about their pet. And there's a lot of different reasons to have policies against job sharing. And right off the bat, we have to say that the reason these policies exist is not because insurance won't cover us. This is simply not true. Unfortunately, this is a pervasive excuse that a lot of people use and it needs to stop. If you've never done this physically call your insurance provider and ask them straight up. Will you cover me if another person is also taking care of the pets during the time period that I am going to be servicing them? We've yet to see an insurance that would say, No, this kind of excuse can lead clients to begin to believe that our insurances don't actually mean a whole lot if they're not willing to cover this kind of liability. But it has been and continues to be used as an excuse when a pet sitter doesn't want to just tell the client no we feel like many times we have to rationalize or explain or give more weight to the reason for why we do things when it's simply personal preference.
Meghan 04:59
Well It can be uncomfortable knowing that somebody else is in the house touching the same things while you are also providing care. Are they going to do things to your standard? And are they going to do the work that they have signed up for? Or
Collin 05:13
it just makes you feel uncomfortable, and many people just don't want the headache and frustration of dealing with another caregiver. I know, it's happened to us before where I came into a visit and noticed that there was a bowl of treats set out for some cats that I didn't set down the day before. And honestly, it really freaked me out when this happens. So I took photos of that, and sent it to the clients. And hey, just wanted to let you know, I found this on the ground, what's going on? And the client did respond and say, oh, yeah, I'm having my parents come by as well to check on the cats too. And, and when we get to the situation of talking about two job share or not two job share, I know what comes up frequently in that discussion is we'll just have a waiver, have people sign waivers so that you're not held responsible for anything. But unfortunately, having a waiver doesn't do a whole lot to prevent the problems all the waiver really does is catches problems on the back end. So a sample waiver could read something like this, you know, I the clients name acknowledge that I have agreed to a job sharing arrangement for the pet sitting services provided by insert your name of your company here, and this other third party. By signing this waiver, I agree to the following conditions, I recognize and accept that the company cannot be held responsible for any incidents, injuries or damages that may occur during the job share period, I understand that the company, my insurance policy cannot be held liable for any issues arising from the involvement of multiple caregivers. I also agreed to hold harmless the company from any claims, damages or expenses that may arise during the job share agreement.
Meghan 06:42
Now something like that is fine. But again, it doesn't prevent you from walking into a flooded basement because the other person left the faucet on again, are they going to do the same things that you would do at the same professional level that you would well, probably not unless they're another professional pet sitter. And that could be also in your job sharing agreement of I will only work with other professional pet sitters. This company, this company in this company. So it could also even be you operate Monday through Friday, and this other professional company operates during the weekend and you so you're kind of tag teaming back and forth. And you have this network of petsitting companies that can come alongside this client. And you all generally operate the same way, and provide the same excellent level of service.
Collin 07:25
So that's certainly one option is to make sure that you know who the other person is. But in most cases, the big problem with job sharing is that you just don't know what the other person is, or is not going to do. Are you going to walk in and find that the litter boxes haven't been scooped in multiple days? Who knows. So if you find yourself in a situation where you are potentially being asked to Job share, ask for that other person's name and contact information. But again, that's only relevant if a problem comes up. Unfortunately,
Meghan 07:53
clients are under no obligation to reveal exactly who is going to be in their home. And at what time even if you have a question on your form of Are there any other people going to be in your in or around your home? They could still not be truthful with you?
Collin 08:08
Yeah. And so if you find that out, what's your response? Will you deny service to that person for all future visits? Will you immediately cancel our services that you originally scheduled to do? These are questions that we have to work through because they're becoming more and more likely, as things come up. And as people look to save that money, as people look to have more flexible kind of care options for their pets. Another issue that may come up during job sharing is that you're also you just will be putting yourself between the relationship of the owner and the other person because statistically, it's more likely that they're going to be using a friend, family neighbor, or an acquaintance somebody who they already have a relationship with. This
Meghan 08:48
actually happened to us, a girlfriend had a boyfriend doing the first set of visits, we took over care after that and found that the litter boxes had not been scooped. It had been three or four days and they hadn't been scooped at all. So when we went to scoop the litter, we always take a before and an after photo to show that it's been cleaned. And this didn't exactly reflect well on the boyfriend. We felt like we were snitching on him and tattletaling but ultimately we had to do the job. We are professionals and we needed to say this is what we walked into, this is what we did, and everything is clean.
Collin 09:21
And in these scenarios. Don't be surprised if your client chooses their friend their family over you right they're going to have an initial and in an end an inbuilt trust with that person are going to typically believe their side of the story on these things. It's our job to stay professional, stick to our policies and stick to our procedures and just accept that sometimes people aren't going to believe us and when these things come up
Meghan 09:47
whether your job sharing or not something you definitely need is insurance. As pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members and that's why pet sitters Associates is here to help for over 20 years they provided 1000s of members with quality Pet Care Insurance. Because you work in the pet care industry, you can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom in running your business. Learn why pet sitters Associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote at Pet Sitter llc.com. You can get a discount when joining by clicking the membership Pet Sitter confessional and use the discount code confessional when you go to check out check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again at pets it llc.com You may also find yourself cleaning up a literal and figurative mess. Maybe you walk in and you find the food bowls are empty and the police hasn't been swept. In days, packages haven't been brought in and trash was knocked over on the floor. And oh, the back door was wide open. When you take on the liability of job sharing, you have to figure out what you're going to do and what your response is going to be in these situations. Some would say that as the professional in this situation, you need to take over responsibility and take care of everything. And this is obviously why some people just choose to not job share at all, because they want to be the sole ones that scoop the litter box and touch the food. It's
Collin 10:59
all about having that continuity of care and how comfortable you are with that. What lengths are you going to to ensure that that you are protected? And how comfortable are you knowing that somebody else is in there? Because others would say Well, in this case where you walk in and the doors open and the trash has been knocked over. And it's completely filthy. You know, it's not your problem, you didn't do that. And you just need to get in contact with the emergency contact with the other sit or the other person if you have their information and have them take care of it and you just remove yourself entirely. Maybe you even charge for to do that kind of extra work if you have to do that. But is it worth it in the end to know okay, well, I walked in and the litter hadn't been scooped in four days. So I'm going to charge for an extra visit during this time is that worth the headache and the stress that it's placing on you and your already busy schedule. To make that extra money, you have to decide that and know this before these things come in. I feel
Meghan 11:55
like we've been pretty harsh on job sharing, mostly because we personally don't really like to do it. But there are some considerations if you choose to do it. Maybe you know and trust the other person again, I talked about earlier that network of professional pet sitters, you say I will only job share if these are the people that I work with because I know them I built this network and they are going to do quality work. You may also say yes to drop sharing, if you have a good long term client who is trying to save a little bit of money, you may also say yes to job sharing, if you have a good long term client who's trying to save money for a
Collin 12:28
bit, or maybe their care needs have changed for for their pet, where they are needing a bit more intensive or needing to have different people come in to provide a level of care that you yourself can't provide. And you're okay with that. Because you even know those people, you have recommendations for that person. Because you also may have no interest or ability in providing all of those services requested. The other person is may just be doing overnights but can't do the mid day walks, this happens, we get these kind of requests an awful lot, maybe the pet needs insulin shots twice a day. And you're really good at that, but you can't do the midday walk. So you offer a suggestion to help job share with that, again, knowing that this is a good client or you have that connection that network already built in. Additionally, just very practically here you may choose to Job share, if the area that you are operating in has a very tight market with lots of other sitters out there. At the end of the day, money is green and we have bills to pay. Okay, you are it is worth the risk to take on these job sharing opportunities for you because you need the business. And it's just that what the market is demanding in your area.
Meghan 13:38
But that doesn't mean you need to go against your gut. And if your gut says, Oh, I probably shouldn't take this on because of whatever reason you feel uncomfortable or you don't think the other person is going to hold up their end of the bargain or the client isn't willing to give you their phone number or for that other person to be the emergency contact. Go with your gut, trust your gut, because you definitely don't want to get into a situation where you are being blamed for what the other person did.
Collin 14:01
Yeah. You already know and can think through right now people on your client list who are maybe more complicated kind of visits. Maybe behaviorally they have some concerns are some issues that you're working on. Or maybe the client has exacting specifications and requirements for how the house is to be cared for. Or maybe the medication resume is pretty complicated for how that's taken care of. Those visits are not ones that I would personally want to Job share on because I know that there are very exacting specific requirements for that it's very complicated visit that not everybody can just jump into. And so knowing that maybe that's somebody that you say no to job sharing with but a visit that's a little bit less complicated with some of the other things we've already talked about. That may be more readily available to you.
Meghan 14:48
I think you and I have gone around at around about this because we personally aren't that interested in doing this. We feel like it's a huge liability, but almost feel like we have to because a lot of our clients are are asking us to do this. And I feel like if we said no to all of them, we would be out of business.
Collin 15:06
Yeah, more and more recently, in the last two, three years, I think the requests for job sharing have become way more prevalent than they ever were. And that really puts us as business owners and operators in a very tight spot knowing well, if I say no to this, I'm you losing out on all of that opportunity and the potential that I can increase my services directed at this person. In the future, if I can start by doing mid days, and somebody else is taking over the overnights or doing the first and last visits, well, there's the potential that down the line, I'll be able to take those over as things open back up, or as I prove myself, trustworthy and reliable. Those are all bets that we have to assess whether it's worth taking or not, and just how comfortable we are in doing this. Because there's so much tied up into this, there's the very practical aspects of again, continuity of care, I keep coming back to that, because it's so important as a professional, we really like knowing exactly, not just what will happen at the next visit. But what happened at the previous visit, what happened before we walked into, that makes us really uncomfortable in those instances where it's going, I don't know what the status of the house is going to be when we walk in, who knows if somebody else has been there, and we have no control over that, that really puts our minds at ease, when we can assume all of the visits and go, there's a 100% assurance and guaranteed of how we left the home. Because here's the documents, here's what this did. Here's our policies, here's our procedure, and what we live up to and our quality of care,
Meghan 16:34
there's also been a big prevalence of companies going to strictly dog walking and trying to cut out the pet sitting side. And if you are doing that, you are almost certainly going to be job sharing. So in those instances, you kind of have to strip away all of the other responsibilities that you would have and say I am strictly here for the dog walk, I don't do feeding, I don't do medication, that is the responsibility of the other person. And the client knows that I am just here for the dog walk. And
Collin 17:00
that's a hard mind shift to make in in our in our businesses as well of going I used to care for 100% of the needs of the pet and the home. And now my responsibility is to talk walking. So at the end of day, it doesn't matter who else is there, I show up at the middle of the visit today to do my visit to do my walk, and I put the dog back. And then it's on the owner it to make sure that the care outside of my walk is taken care of if you
Meghan 17:28
decide to Job share, we recommend taking the following steps. And we've mentioned a few of these already. But we wanted to mention them again because they are important. First one is Document Document Document. It's really the theme of this topic before and after photos, so that the client knows will get what you walked into what you left, and hopefully cleaner than you found it. But if there's more than just your company caring for this home and these pets, they the client has to know exactly what's going on. So take photos or videos of the place each time you leave the status of the doors, the food bowl, the thermostat, the cleanliness of the litter box, the trash cans, this can really start to feel overwhelming. It's not that you have to send all of these to the client, but it's mostly covering your butt saying No, I definitely closed the kennel and latched all three latches, because
Collin 18:12
here's a photo and you can see it reflected in that. And then get the name and contact information of the other person or the other company who's going to be doing the visits, and really need this up front. Don't let that client leave on their trip before you have this information. Because this is going to help you know how do I coordinate care with this? Who do I reach out to for extra questions above and beyond the emergency contact that the client has listed. And once you have that person's name, as you're working with the client on this, outline all of the expectations and responsibilities that each person is required to do, do not just let the client tell tell you what you're supposed to do get in writing the information and the expectations for the other person as well. And make sure that that person has that same information so that nobody can come back and point fingers and go, you should have known or you are supposed to do this. Because you can say, Here's the list of the expectations that you had placed on me and what my requirements were for my visits, you had said the other person and here's that in writing, they were supposed to be taking care of this, it was not my responsibility,
Meghan 19:20
which is why you need to make sure that it's part of your signed agreements and waivers by the client that everybody on all sides of the table knows exactly what the expectations are, so that nobody is let down. If you have thought about job sharing, or are currently doing it or stay very far away from it, we would love to hear your opinions on this you can email us at petsitter confessional@gmail.com. Or you can give us a call and leave us a voicemail at 636-364-8260. We're also on Facebook and Instagram at Pitzer confessional. Thank you for listening to this today. We hope it's been helpful. Thank you also to our Patreon people and pet sitters associates for sponsoring today's episode. We will talk with you next time. Bye
