If you have caught yourself thinking “Hmmm, I am working just as hard or harder, and I don’t seem to be materially benefiting. In fact, I don’t even get the snacks in the breakroom anymore,” well, yeah, you’re right. The Washington Post did a little investigating, a.k.a. listening to what companies were saying and looking at what companies were doing, and wow wouldn’t you know it profits are doing just fine. In fact, “45 of the 50 most valuable publicly traded U.S. companies turned a profit,” while “at least 27 of the 50 largest firms held layoffs.”
Cute!
Be wary the cries of recession. Much like the 2008 crisis, it’s only a recession for the people out of power. At the top, things are looking rosier than ever.
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy, and here’s a great article on why: By fighting unions and pushing down pay, Amazon is gutting a whole category of what used to be middle-class jobs. Offering more than the minimum wage today is just promising subsistence, not comfort. Something to think about as people celebrate Discover planning to open a 1,000-person call center in what used to be one of the few big-box retailers serving the south side.
The rich though, they have money to burn. That’s why the Pritzker Foundation is planning to put $10 million behind diversifying the tech industry. As if adding a few millionaires of different colors and genders will do the trick.
Not diversifying millionaires: The weed industry. Verano is planning to go public at a valuation of $2.9 billion, via an arcane and somehow not illegal workaround onto the Canadian stock exchange. We went looking for images of their board/investors/anyone who stands to profit, but weirdly they would prefer to use stock photography of leaves on the site. Huh, wonder why?
Jobs do seem to be stabilizing: United has said it probably won’t lay off anymore people, in what’s sure to provide holiday comfort to any employees left. Meanwhile, Walgreens is gearing up to hire 25,000 people to help distribute the COVID-19 vaccine to clinics all over the country.
Which is a reminder: The vaccine, it’s coming. Some of our friends have already gotten it. There is something to look forward to.
Jobs, Glorious Jobs
Director, Corporate Social Responsibility & Diversity Marketing at Bain
There’s something deeply funny about being responsible for selling Bain as an ethical employer. One, you literally share a name with a Batman villain and two you gave us Mitt Romney. But we can’t deny that it would be a well-compensated and interesting job. Sort of like literally being a devil’s advocate, you can convince people that Bain’s money-making capability is a net good.
Director of External Communications and CSR at CNA
See the above, helping an insurance company burnish its reputation, at a time when insurance companies are pretty universally saying “Whoop, not my bad” to COVID-19 claims.
Managing Director of Innovation for Feeding America
If you’d rather use your skills to do a good thing, instead of reducing the harm of corporations, consider helping Feeding America find new ways to get food to people at a time when hunger is rising.
Inspiration of the week
Look there are still two weeks left of this cursed year, so we don’t want to go taking anything for granted, but we’re inspired by all of you who are still standing — literally or metaphorically, we’re not going to judge if you’re reading this from a prone position. This is a year where you count yourself lucky if the only things you’re dealing with are a global pandemic that’s killing thousands of people a day and a society that’s painted support of Black lives as a radical stance. We should take some time to recognize how fucked that actually is.
It feels self-indulgent to mourn parties, shows, holidays, travel, etc. But what we’re really mourning is the loss of pleasure, connection, release, joy. So much of what we quite literally live for is unavailable. And we’re not getting it back. The world may reopen, but there’s no making up the last nine months, or the months to come.
If you are empathetic at all, it can be hard not to brush off your own suffering to recognize someone else who has it worse. That’s a good instinct — if there’s someone you can pull up to meet you, do it. But you can also take some time to wallow in your own shit too.
We can’t fill our cups up with champagne and sequins this year. So be gentle with yourself. We don’t know who needs to hear this (we do it’s us), but self-compassion is an action. If it makes you feel a little bit better and doesn’t actively hurt someone else, do it. These next two weeks are our last chance to get anything positive out of 2020.
Forward this email to anyone who can see through the illusions. They can sign up here and get an email that cuts straight to the cold, hard facts.
Got a tip on an excellent job? Reply to this email, send us a new one at hey@gethustl.in, or reach out on Twitter.