B6| Thursday, November 14, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
MANAGEMENT
staffers.
But in today’s tight labor
market, the battle to retain
talent and a sharper focus on
workforce diversity are reviv-
ing interest in the job-sharing
practice—and in positions
with career-growing potential,
companies say.
In a typical job-share, two
colleagues divide duties nor-
mally performed by a full-
timer and overlap one day of
their three-day weeks.
Ms. Coffey and Mr. Man-
oukian each work four days a
week with full benefits. Both
usually are in the office Tues-
days through Thursdays. Be-
cause they are committed to
working 36 hours a week, each
earns 90% of their position’s
full-time salary. They each av-
eraged 45-hour workweeks be-
fore job-sharing.
Ford doesn’t tally how
many of its several hundred
U.S. job-sharers are managers
but says the practice is grow-
ing at higher levels.
“We are going to see a lot
more Julies,” predicts Kiersten
Robinson, its chief human re-
sources officer. “Your career
doesn’t stall just because you
choose to work flexibly.”
Other major companies also
employ managerial job-sharers.
At Target Corp.’s Minneapo-
lis headquarters, about 100
staffers share jobs, including
some in management, the re-
tailer says.
Two high-level managers at
Unilever PLC jointly command
U.S. marketing of Hellmann’s
mayonnaise, a brand with $1
billion in U.S. annual revenue.
How do you turn the uncon-
ventional setup into a career
booster? The experience of
successful job-sharers sug-
gests you need a savvy mix of
collaborative planning, sup-Job-Sharers
Steer Into
Leadership
Some colleagues find
the flexible setup, long
a rarity, can now lead
to joint executive roles
KATHERINE STREETERJob-sharing started as a
way to help working mothers
juggle jobs and family. Nowa-
days, some potential execu-
tives are using the 2-for-1 job
arrangement to climb the
leadership ladder.
Jolanta Coffey and Raffi
Manoukian are one such duo.
Last year, the senior engineer-
ing managers
landed a new as-
signment to-
gether at Ford
Motor Co., help-
ing run key aspects of product
development world-wide. It
was their second promotion
since first splitting a manage-
rial role at the car maker in
2012.
The two hope to next gain
an executive title, inspired by
colleagues Julie Levine and
Julie Rocco.
In 2018, those partners
landed their third advance-
ment together, becoming the
company’s systems engineer-
ing director—and the first job-
sharers to join Ford’s execu-
tive ranks.
The setup works because
they make sure “no one should
have a burden because we job-
share,” Ms. Levine says.
Employers introduced job-
sharing decades ago, but it
never spread widely and often
was limited to roles consid-
ered “mommy-track” jobs with
little upward mobility. In a
2016 survey of 920 U.S. em-
ployers, 18% said they allowed
job-sharing for at least certain
BYJOANNS.LUBLIN
YOUR
EXECUTIVE
CAREER portive superiors and exten-
sive networking.
Job partners also must
share a similar work ethic and
a willingness to share the
limelight.
“Be bold and be visible and
document your progress as a
team,’’ says Melissa Nicholson,
founder of job-sharing con-
sulting firm Work Muse.
Wanting more time with
their children, Mr. Manoukian
and Ms. Coffey proposed shar-
ing a managerial role after 22
years and 16 years at Ford, re-
spectively.
They knew each other well
because he had previously su-
pervised her.
“Our immediate manage-Talent-retention
and diversity efforts
revive interest in the
division of duties.The 162-year-old company,
which publishes 30 newspapers
around the country, including
the Miami Herald, Charlotte
Observer, Sacramento Bee and
Kansas City Star, said it would
be unable to make a required
$124 million contribution next
year to its pension fund.
“The amount due greatly
exceeds the company’s antici-
pated cash balances and cash
flow given the size of its oper-ations relative to the obliga-
tions due and creates a signifi-
cant liquidity challenge in
2020,” the company said in its
third-quarter earnings report
filed Wednesday.
For the quarter, the com-
pany reported a net loss of
$304.7 million, largely due to
a noncash impairment charge
related to the valuation of its
assets. On an adjusted basis,
McClatchy reported a loss of
$1.3 million compared with a
loss of $23.8 million in the
year-earlier quarter.
McClatchy shares fell 12.6%
on Wednesday, according to
FactSet.
As of March, McClatchy’s 75-
year-old pension fund was un-
derfunded by $535 million, the
company said. McClatchy said
it is now in talks with the U.S.
government’s pension insurer,
the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corp., for the agency to assume
control of the fund’s assets and
its obligations.
The agency was created in
1974 to keep afloat private-
sector pension funds at strug-
gling companies. It receives no
taxpayer funding. It is financed
by insurance premiums paid
by pension plans and money
earned from investments made
by the pension plans it takes
over. Congress sets the pre-
mium rates and structure.
McClatchy’s pension fund,
which has $1.32 billion in as-
sets, is responsible for paying
pensions to 24,000 people. The
company froze participation to
new participants in 2009. Mc-
Clatchy said it believed that a
transfer of the pension to the
PBGC “would not have an ad-
verse impact on qualified pen-
sion benefits for substantially
all of its retirees.”
The PBGC said it strives to
keep companies and pension
plans together, “which can in-
clude discussions to help them
determine the best way to keep
their pension plans going.”
“When that isn’t possible,
we stand ready to step in and
ensure that current and future
retirees continue to receive
their pension benefits,” the
agency said.McClatchy Co., the third-
largest newspaper publisher in
the U.S. by circulation, said it
has begun talks with its credi-
tors and federal authorities
about a possible government
takeover of its pension fund as
it tries to relieve considerable
liquidity pressure due to its
pension responsibilities and
debt load.BYLUKASI.ALPERTNewspaper Chain McClatchy Wants
U.S. to Take Over Its Pension Fund
ment was very supportive,”
Ms. Coffey says.
Ford approved their job-
sharing arrangement because
“we could take on a wider
scope of assignments as well
as be retained as long-term
employees,’’ she adds.
From the outset, they
crafted a map of possible in-
ternal moves together.
“In an ideal world, I would
get to be a Ford vice president
in a job-share partnership,”
Ms. Coffey says.
The pair say they use their
complementary strengths to
solve problems together.
She prefers to act quickly,
while he spends more time de-
liberating.
They keep communication
seamless by being available
for quick calls outside normal
work hours, Mr. Manoukian
says.
They trust each other so
much that “I find it relatively
easy to make decisions on our
behalf,” she says.
A decade older than Ms.
Coffey, the 55-year-old Mr.Manoukian wants to continue
job-sharing until retirement.
So he has encouraged her to
pursue broader joint assign-
ments. “Do what you need for
the long term, and I will go
along with you,” he recalls
telling her.
Their latest promotion
came soon after they showed
their boss their career map.
At Unilever, Sarah Hammer
and Mimi Su encountered re-
sistance at first over splitting
the Hellmann’s position in- Job-sharers had never
led marketing for a nationwide
brand at its U.S. unit.
“We were charting new ter-
ritory,” says Russel Lilly, their
initially reluctant boss.
“Would this create inefficien-
cies or delays if they didn’t
see eye to eye?”
He says he was persuaded
after seeing how the women’s
leadership styles meshed.
“Sarah is great at details and
making sure we are executing
as planned,” Mr. Lilly says.
“Mimi is very comfortable
with strategy and being able
to deal with ambiguity.”
Alix Ainsley and Charlotte
Cherry successfully shared a
U.K. managerial post in human
resources at General Electric
Co. before looking outside for
an executive-level joint posi-
tion. Knowing their setup
would require some persua-
sion, they spent a year build-
ing bonds with HR leaders
elsewhere.
The extensive networking
worked. In 2016, Ms. Ainsley
and Ms. Cherry became the
first executive job-sharers
hired by Lloyds Banking Group
PLC.
Their contacts also opened
doors at their current em-
ployer, wealth-management
provider Quilter PLC, where
they share the title of talent
and culture director.
“With job-sharing still an
uncommon practice, your in-
ternal and external contacts
are important factors in ad-
vancing your management ca-
reer,’’ Ms. Cherry says.
“They can advocate for
you.”BUSINESS NEWS
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