The list of employers requiring COVID-19 vaccines continues to grow — and we continue to cheer them along!
JB has now made vaccines mandatory for all teachers and healthcare workers statewide (thanks bud!), but a few folks were doing it before it was cool. Northwestern Medicine had already required the vaccine for all employees, shortly after requiring it for all university faculty and students. DuPage Medical Group did the same, as did NorthShore. Even Lori Lightfoot was on the right side of history, requiring all city workers to get the vaccine. Yes, that includes cops. No, they aren’t taking it great.
Delta Air Lines isn’t requiring vaccines, but it is charging unvaccinated employees $200 a month. An idiot tax is appealing in a base sort of way, but allowing your wealthiest employees to opt out of the public good … that’s what they already do implicitly! Don’t make it explicit!
In news that truly made us go “Holy shit,” then giggle at our dad joke, the Archdiocese of Chicago is requiring vaccines, very clearly saying that your religious exemption is bullshit. This includes the Catholic Charities and Misericordia, so you can roll down that car window for candy with a little less fear in your heart.
Despite the fact that we’re resorting to fining people who do not get a life-saving, FDA-approved vaccine that protects the general populous, companies are still absolutely electrified by the idea that they may be going back to the office soon and eager to acquire space. Cryptocurrency company Coinflip is joining Cisco in signing a lease in the Old Main Post Office. In classic crypto-hubris, it’s a 12-year lease — so just a bit longer than Bitcoin has existed at all. In exchange for a promise to keep 137 employees and add 30, Illinois has promised Coinflip $1.68 million in tax credits. JB! We didn’t even make it a paragraph before you fucked up!
Expert-on-demand company Tegus is expanding its Chicago headquarters, planning to hire 100 people before the year’s out. It’ll store them in space it’s subleasing from CareerBuilder, which doesn’t sound like great news for CareerBuilder.
And just in case you need more office space, enemies of the newsletter Sterling Bay are moving forward with plans to build an 11-story office building in Fulton Market. The optimism rages on!
Even in non-pandemic times, though, the majority of employees don’t actually work at a desk. Anthill raised $3 million to help HR teams reach the people in retail, manufacturing, agriculture and any other job not entirely tethered to a computer.
Just like leases, funding continues to flow undeterred. Electric truckmaker Rivian has just filed for an IPO (not a SPAC thank god), looking for roundabout $80 billion. Now would be a good time to remind you that the state of Illinois is looking into new incentives to convince Rivian to build its second factory here. Oh no JB, you did it again! The corporations are supposed to give states the money, in exchange for things like roads and an educated hiring pool. It doesn’t make sense the other way around. Don’t make us take back our pandemic praise!
Hyatt and Walker Sands both threw some cash around this week to beef up — Hyatt by dropping $2.7 billion to buy resorts company Apple Leisure and Walker Sands by buying Boston-based PR firm March for an undisclosed sum. And while they’re not acquisitions per se, large cannabis companies are finding their way into the Illinois market via “partnerships” with individuals who meet the social equity goals for distributing licenses. It’s gotten bad enough that rejected applicants are calling for an investigation into how major, white-owned corporations gamed the lottery. JB. Come on.
If you’re even tangentially related to logistics at this point, you can cash in. Trucking insurer HDVI just raised $32.8 million on the promise that it can use “real-time data” to offer cheaper premiums. Meanwhile, freight automator Loadsmart is planning to use its 232% year-over-year revenue increase to hire another 200 people to build out it’s “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning.” OK.
Plenty of startups got their shot these past two weeks. Betsperts (ugh) raised a $6 million Series A round of funding to build out its sports betting platform. The company is counting on its social media capabilities to really help it succeed.
In a different form of online gambling, FranShares raised $1.42 million to help all the newly minted consumer investors move on from GameStop stonks to invest in franchises.
In more promising news, Clinify raised $3.1 million to help independent physicians treat Medicare patients more cost effectively. The software is essentially meant to help doctors figure out which patients need preventative care most, so they can prioritize their outreach. Because Medicare doesn’t actually pay them enough to provide everyone with the care they need, especially people in underserved communities.
Some good news for the hourly worker — Collectivo is now unionized, with five shops in the Chicago area. It’s the largest unionized coffee chain, pretty cool, even if owners did fight it tooth and nail. Just … if you’re going to call your company Collectivo, maybe expect collective bargaining?
Maybe they can join the workers at Mondelez flexing their union muscle by walking out of the Addison bakery and distribution center looking for a new contract.
Jobs, Glorious Jobs
Senior Reporter at Ad Age
Rare beat treat to cover food, beverage and restaurant marketing. The position is remote now then NYC or Chicago someday. More than ever, if you're a Chicago journalist, Crain pubs are some of your safest bets.
Manager of Digital Experience at GenderCool
Help lead digital strategy at the nonprofit focused on shifting the national narrative and mindset about transgender young people. Create social and email campaigns, handle community management, work with remarkable teens to develop content, do a little video, learn about paid media. Note this is contract to full time.
Director of Marketing and Communications, Marketing Technology and Digital Marketing Manager, and Media and Communications Project Manager at Illinois Action for Children
Use your marketing and media skills to help the 52-year-old nonprofit provide and promote equitable access to high-quality childcare and early learning programs.
Inspiration of the week
“The world is violent and mercurial — it will have its way with you. We are saved only by love. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.”
—Desperate for something to make us feel motivated, we asked our friends what inspired them this week. After getting back a half-dozen variations on “um, nothing?” our friend Emily, founder of Italic Type, shared this Tennessee Williams quote. When pressed, she defended it: “There’s an answer to the existential angst! At least there’s an answer!”
So if you, like us, are feeling the late summer ennui and the late capitalism existential angst, take heart. This perpetually burning building still holds things worth saving.
Forward this email to anyone who needs to escape a fire. They can sign up here to get twice-monthly guidance on how to get out.
Got a tip on an excellent job? Or maybe just a more inspiring inspiration? Reply to this email, send us a new one at hey@gethustl.in, or reach out on Twitter.