【B1】 [br] 【B4】 [originaltext] The social effects of job-sharing are likely t

The social effects of job-sharing are likely to be beneficial, since it attempts to match work opportunities to a wider variety of lifestyles. The combination of one full-time and one part-time spouse might become much more common：which was the husband and which was the wife would vary according to taste，time of life and career requirements.  
     What exactly is job-sharing? The Equal Opportunities Commission defines it as“a form of part-time employment where two people voluntarily share the responsibility of one full-time position. ”Salary and benefits are divided between the two sharers. Each person’s terms and conditions of employment are the same as those of a full-timer. If each works at least 15 hours a week, then they enjoy certain employment rights that ordinary part-time workers do not have.  
     Part-timers usually earn less per hour than a full-timer, and have fewer benefits and less job security. They have virtually no career prospects. Employers often think that working part-time means hat a person has no ambitions and so offer no chance of promotion.  
     But job-sharing bridges that gap and offers the chance of interesting work to people who can only work part-time and that does not mean just married women. As Adrienne Broyle of“New Ways to Work”—formerly the London Job-sharing Project points out：“There are various reasons why people decide they want to job-share and so have more free time”.  
     “A growing number of men want to job-share so that they can play an active role in bringing up their children. It allows people to study at home in their free time，and means that disabled people of those who otherwise stay at home to look after them, can work. Job-sharing is also an ideal way for people to ease into retirement”.