After a week spent calmly (and not so calmly) explaining to people that we have not yet reached the singularity, it is disheartening to start this off with news that Northwestern startup Mattiq has raised $15 million to let AI smash a bunch of chemicals together in the hope of finding new sustainable chemical materials. We would love to see more sustainable fuels, absolutely! But it is hard not to get the impression lately that everyone is giving up on ideas and instead turning creation over to a proverbial room full of monkeys on typewriters.
Meanwhile, baby startup Stride has raised $750,000 to replace mentoring and career development programs with, basically, a chatbot for Slack and Teams. It’s a good idea! A great idea even! But my god trying to achieve personal growth via Slack widget is an incredibly bleak thought. Anyway, Stride is hiring.
And that’s good, because a lot of companies are extremely not hiring right now. Medical equipment manufacturer Baxter is planning to lay off up to 3,000 people worldwide after a messy acquisition of hospital bed maker Hillrom. It’s joined by Boeing, which plans to cut around 2,000 finance and HR jobs — though since Boeing decided to move its headquarters from Chicago last year, that’s sounding like a Virginia problem.
Same for electric truck maker Rivian, which is planning to lay off 6% of its workforce, though no one in its downstate Illinois factory. A brief reprieve for manufacturing workers.
Healthcare consultancy Evolent Health dropped more than 450 jobs in January, and State Farm plans to layoff another 450 at the end of March. Bet it’s going to be a fun February over there!
Groupon is planning to drop 500 employees from undisclosed global offices at an undisclosed future date, after shedding 500 jobs last year. Raise your hand if you remember when people wanted to work at Groupon.
Even logistics is hurting, with Uber Freight laying off 150 people, or about 3% of the workforce.
Worried you might be next? Consider a union! They really are for everyone. And if even Crain’s is forced to acknowledge that, you know it must be true. Notable exploitation organization the Catholic Church, however — not that into ’em, and fighting an ordinance to make it easier for nonprofit workers to unionize. Now, we’re no branding experts (yes we are), but if we were in the position of the Catholic Church, we might go ahead and shut the fuck up, hoping to keep our head down and hang onto our increasingly perplexing tax-exempt status. But hey, they have a gospel to preach, and that gospel does frown on small groups of people organizing against power in hopes of a better way of life.
CVS is dropping $10.6 billion to acquire Chicago-based primary care provider Oak Street Health, motivated by Medicare incentives that favor integrated care (and reward additional diagnoses). Both CVS and hometown hero Walgreens have been trying to figure out how to move further into healthcare, and this is a huge step for CVS. It’s also a boost for the still-unprofitable Oak Street Health, though we can’t say we feel particularly good about any of this.
Speaking of ick, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot — may we retire that phrase on Feb. 28 — is looking for a new “cheerleader” for the city now that Ken Griffin has left the state. Our own Jamie Dimon if you will, a spokesghoul for the business community. Setting aside the profound damage that Ken Griffin did to Illinois while he was here, and Jamie Dimon’s own craven campaigns for New York, what does she think that is going to accomplish? “This rich man says Chicago’s the place to be!” Babe, that’s J.B. Pritzker. Anyway, if we need an economic mascot, I’m pretty sure the city has already supplied one. His name is Scabby.
Also, as good a place as any to remind you to vote in the municipal election this month, and specifically for union fave Brandon Johnson, a candidate who actually understands who it is he’s meant to represent.
Jobs, Glorious Jobs
Director of Content for The Obama Foundation
We have seen this role pop up before, and we’re generally wary of any job offered by a “cool” brand — which make no mistake, is exactly what The Obama Foundation is. But the listed salary range is strong, and if it does treat workers badly, you can at least threaten a little scandal.
VP of Global Marketing and Communication for Northwestern University
Or, go big trying to make a snoozy brand less snoozy as the lead of a 70-person team. This role would work directly with the president and the board of trustees, so the egos would be mighty. That means the pay should be too.
Inspiration of the Week
“Imagine if we tried to expand the number of kinkeepers, even a little bit, by respecting this work as work. As vocation.
Imagine if we didn't consider it a trick.”
—The great Ann Friedman, on male academics once again realizing that relationships are actually really super important? Any eldest daughter will be happy to tell you that kinkeeping — the act of nurturing these relationships and networks — is WORK, and work that does not lend itself to shortcuts. Though we do thank TikTok for making it easier to connect by sending personalized memes with absolutely no context.
Family, however you define it, is how we survive in an economy and political system that does not care about us. We don’t need academics to tell us that. We need academics to recognize the people who are already doing the work of keeping those families together, and to propose systems that accommodate that labor.
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