Good days ahead for Leggett & Platt?
This article shares the state of manufacturing in America right now, and there’s reason to be optimistic. After a decades-long decrease in jobs, 600,000 have been added over the past four years. Part of the reason is increased wages in China and other emerging countries, leading many companies to bring jobs back to the U.S. Here are a couple interesting numbers: the average annual pay and benefits for U.S. manufacturing workers in 2012 was $77,505, whereas the number for all U.S. workers is $62,063; and 80% of manufacturing jobs require at least an associate’s degree or 12 months of training. Incidental note: one of my favorite words, “sanguine,” is used late in the article.
Why U.S. Manufacturing Is Poised for a Comeback (Maybe) – Wall Street Journal
What can a twentysomething teach a company executive?
This isn’t the first article about “reverse mentoring” that I’ve linked to, and that’s because I think it’s an important subject. I understand how reluctant an “older” employee would be to reveal their social media and/or technology weaknesses to a young employee – or any colleague, for that matter – so I can see how some would resist. For work purposes, there are obvious benefits to becoming more savvy with social media, but for the 50-year-old executive mentioned in the article, I can’t help but think that his increased involvement with social media has made his life more harried. He stated that he spends time thinking about potential tweets, and now sends out about 50 a month.
Pairing Up With a Younger Mentor – Wall Street Journal
Ditching the L.
The NFL announced that for the 50th Super Bowl in 2016, it will eschew the Roman numeral of 50 – L – and instead just use the 50. Evidently, some designers were having trouble creating a nice logo representation with the L. When I saw the tease for this story, I eagerly read it to see if they were getting rid of Roman numerals for good, which is something I have wished for a long time. (Mind you, it’s not a major preoccupation, because that would make me odd.) Alas, they are not. It’s just a one-year thing.
NFL: It’s Super Bowl 50, not L – ESPN
Here’s the logo for the second Super Bowl – before the NFL spent gobs of money on marketing:
