First and most importantly, chips. The workers of El Milagro have announced a series of concessions from management including wage increases (yay!) and an end to 7-day workweeks (which were already illegal so WTF?). There’s still further to go — management is not yet agreeing to sit down and negotiate with the organizers directly — but this is proof that coordination can go far, even without a union drive. Also, it means we can mercifully return to El Milagro instead of these weird lime-infused chips that are objectively not as good.
Now we can turn our attention to Hyatt, where a former employee alleges illegal payment practices and racism at the Chicago Athletic Association.
Layoffs are happening at PepsiCo — in this economy?! The drinkmaker is planning to close its Barrington R&D plant, eliminating 78 positions and moving the remaining 212 employees around to other offices. Most businesses, however, are in a hiring state of mind. Mars Wrigley is turning right around and investing $40 million in a new R&D facility on Goose Island, all the better to improve our candies. When it opens in 2023, it should add 30 jobs.
United is also desperate to hire, finding it difficult to get people interested in the aviation industry. Odd. What could have happened? Anyway the airline is looking to fill so many roles it’s resorting to good old-fashioned job fairs.
Speaking of questionable employers, the Department of Defense is opening up an innovation office in Chicago — its fifth, behind Silicon Valley, Austin, the Pentagon and Boston. Dude. We should at least come before Boston. The DoD will be looking to hire people who can help it identify new technologies, and looking to partner with Midwestern startups that may have useful products. Love to see the money, hate to see it go to the war machine. Yes yes yes, the DoD has funded many important innovations, including, uh, the network across which you’re reading this letter. But still. There are other jobs.
Like all the new jobs working for law firms in Chicago! OK, maybe not saving the world, but two firms have announced expansions in the past two weeks. Norton Rose Fulbright is opening up a Fulton Market office for 11 attorneys, mostly working on tech, intellectual property and employment. And Willkie Farr & Gallagher is doubling the Chicago office it opened at the start of the pandemic, adding a floor to space that now holds 60. Then there’s Skadden, which is looking to move its office and shed half its footprint. The firm wouldn’t say whether fewer square feet correlated to fewer jobs, or just more flexibility.
Milwaukee Tool is also opening a new Chicago office, for tech. The new space can hold as many as 250 people, all of who would no doubt be focusing on how to make those big red tools neater.
Fortunately, the youth will have more interesting opportunities. The city announced a plan to hire 15,000 young people this summer, mostly to work for city agencies like the park district and library. Ah, to be young, sunburned and responsible for 10-20 kids, with no prior training.
At least it’ll keep the kids from competing with us for the best jobs.
Jobs, Glorious Jobs
Digital Marketing Director for Sur La Table
Not to out ourselves as the bougie women we are, but all those gorgeous pictures of kitchens and our Sur La Table Instagram ads are just text? Come on now. No wonder the retailer, which is based in Seattle but hiring remotely, is looking for someone else to take over its digital marketing spend.
Senior Digital Strategist for Jasculca Terman
If you were a little too attached to the West Wing, first, seek therapy. Then, consider working for this communications firm, which works on many lefty political causes … and also with BP and Cresco Labs. Balance?
Senior Communication Specialist-Digital at Molson Coors
You’d be responsible for internal-facing video and external-facing corporate social. Different mediums and different audiences, but it’s all storytelling, right? Right. Though Molson is a good place to work through your beer career fantasies.
Inspiration of the week
“I have abandoned the notion of ambition to chase the absolute middle of the road: mediocrity.
I want to ‘just be, man,’ and won’t let concerns like success or climbing the corporate ladder stand in my way. The new dream is simply no goals, just vibes.”
—Been holding onto this aspirational opening paragraph from Amil Niazi for a minute. What has your ambition done for you lately? And worse, what has it done for all of your bosses, who were happy to have the extra work without the extra pay?
When you do that math, why not give vibes a shot?
Forward this email to anyone whose ambition is to stop. They can sign up here to get twice-monthly reminders to lean out.
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