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Masculine? Personal relationship where you remember their daughter's wedding is coming up and the tickets to the baseball game for the sales manager and Phil on the factory floor has your personal phone number sound more like the soft feminine skills. Emotional labour, no? 😁
But I'm not surprised by the story. The small local guys are too small to try moving operations outside of where they are so they settle for being "biggest parts maker in the tri-state north-eastern autumn quarter area" and do a reliable job on quality and price, the big top guys are using their legacy reputation and pivoting to be "yes you'll pay top dollar but we're the luxury brand that delivers on high quality" while the middle has all been indoctrinated in "shut down the plant that is the major employer in Booniesville, move production to Mexico or China where the costs and labour are one third the price, stock price goes up, bonuses for the C-suite all round!" so now they can't Make It Here anymore.
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