Qualifications
Oh we absolutely love to see it: More than 630 truck drivers, office workers and manufacturing floor employees are going to get between $20,000 and $800,000 when garage door maker C.H.I. Overhead Doors sells for $3 billion. This is not a story about a mom-and-pop shop passing out equity and making good, however. The reason employees own stock in the company at all is that private equity firm KKR gave employees a free chance to participate when it bought the company out in 2015. That benefit, plus $1 million in annual factory improvements like air conditioning and breakrooms, contributed to a fivefold increase in value in the 7 years KKR held the company — its highest return on investment in 30 years.
Employees are only seeing a taste of the profits — a bit over $360 million, to be precise. But they will see some of the money they helped to earn, and for many of them, it will be life-changing.
Speaking of cooperative ownership models, Ace Hardware will be moving into the old McDonald’s campus, with a plan for growth here and a profit share there. …
Some office moves are not so exciting, like cryptocurrency exchange FTX US relocating to Fulton Market from its headquarters in Nassau, Bahamas. The new office will house 70 employees. The company is also promising to provide $500 a month in supplemental income to 100 Chicagoans as part of a new city of Chicago program. Great! Only concern there is the additional “financial literacy education” tacked on. Nope, no thank you, do not need that from anyone invested in crypto.
A better investment: the $52 million raised by Chingona Ventures, all of which will be invested in women- and minority-led early-stage startups. Or the $30 million raised by Azumo, which makes a thin film that allows LCD screens to be lit from the front instead of from behind, using less energy. Or the $1.7 million Visual Feeder raised to expand its business projecting ads into vacant storefront windows. There are … a lot of those right now, so someone ought to benefit. Visual Feeder plans to use some of the seed funding to hire more people.
We cannot say the same for Redbox, which is meeting a very era-appropriate end in a sale to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. The company plans to keep the DVD vending machines while building out its streaming platform (best of luck!). To be fair, it does take toxic optimism to believe Redbox will ever be successful, and if anyone has that, it’s the makers of the Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise.
Some optimism we support, however, like the non-tenure-track faculty at the School of the Art Institute looking to unionize. School and museum employees have already successfully unionized, and we hope non-tenure-track faculty — who provide the bulk of the education at SAIC and most universities — will be the next ones to benefit.
OK, OK, maybe 5 jobs doesn’t exactly qualify as news you can use, but how cute is it that Merz Apothecary is buying candle company KOBO and moving production to Chicago? If River North smells like chocolate, will Avondale start smelling like pamplemousse?
Jobs, Glorious Jobs
Reporter or Senior Editor for the Racial Justice Reporting Hub and Writers Room at The Chicago Reader
Fresh off a battle to save itself, The Reader is looking to hire for two meaty jobs in a city as racially fucked as Chicago. True, The Reader is now both:
A nonprofit
A newspaper
… and the pay will likely reflect both of those facts. But you’d be joining a team capable of incredible work, and getting a chance to contribute to that legacy.
Editorial Manager, Audience Engagement, Senior Technical Writer and Editor in Chief at Morningstar
If the above sounds like too much risk, Morningstar is giving editorial vibes — along with great benefits, unlimited vacation and paid sabbaticals.
Connections Strategist at Whirlpool
Or you can help sell people appliances! This incredibly vague job title is tasked with “building the future of marketing” as part of the cross-divisional and creatively codenamed “Project X” team. A skosh overwrought, but it would be an opportunity to try new methods and new tools and potentially get yourself some proof points you could ride to a job higher in the organization, or to a new role elsewhere.
Inspiration of the week
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Remember, if you’re here and you’re not a white man, you’re already qualified. And if you are a white man, it’s cool, you genuinely don’t have to do anything to succeed.
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