07/16/2025
Some people who keep the same job for a lifetime say it’s because their coworkers have become family to them. And that’s true of Mary McCoy, who has worked at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital for 43 years.
But McCoy also had another incentive to stay: a work “marriage” that lasted more than 30 years and enabled her to be there for her three daughters as they grew up.
“That was important to me,” McCoy says.
The idea of a “work spouse” isn’t uncommon – someone with whom you collaborate, share celebrations, spend as much time with as your own family. McCoy’s “marriage” was slightly different than that.
She and Sally Chmielewski literally were each other’s second (work) half – sharing one job between them, for decades.
In 1987, McCoy had returned from maternity leave to a part-time clerical position in Human Resources– when Chmielewski, the secretary to the department director, came to her with a proposal. She had just had her first child and wanted to work part-time too.
“She asked if I would job share,” McCoy says. “I said, ‘But I’m not a secretary.’ She said, ‘Oh, you’ll be fine.’ I said, ‘Ok, why not.’”
They presented the idea to their manager who endorsed the new approach. Sometimes they'd work one day on and one day off and talk every morning to fill each other in. Sometimes they’d work alternate weeks and talk every Friday.
“It got to be like a marriage,” McCoy says. “Sometimes you’d get along really well. We had ups and downs but mostly it was very good. We worked out the kinks.”
Needless to say, they got very close.
Indeed, Chemielewski was pregnant with her second child when she began having pains at work that McCoy recognized as labor. “I told her she was in labor and walked her to the delivery room.”
“She came to my daughter’s wedding. I went to her daughter’s wedding.”
“She helped me through some difficult times. She knows more about me than almost anyone else and I know more about her.”
Their work relationship enabled them to strike a work-life balance, because they had the flexibility to be there for their children.
“My daughters played soccer in high school,” McCoy says. “I was able to make their games. Whatever they were involved in, we were able to be there.”
“It worked for me while my kids grew up and that’s what mattered to me,” McCoy says.
When their children got older, McCoy and Chmielewski returned to full time work in separate jobs.
A few months after Chmielewski retired in 2022, McCoy transferred to a job at Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation in Elkins Park.
“I work with a great group of people here,” she says. “I have no plans to retire any time soon.
“It’s good. It keeps your mind busy.”
She is still in touch with Chmielewski; they text and talk and meet for dinner on occasion.
McCoy is still going to soccer games – this time for her grandchildren – with Steve, her real-life spouse of 43 years.
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