When I log into my GNOME session, I get a notification pop-up telling me that I'm connected to the wired network, but the applet's icon isn't visible in the panel. The notification seems to happen before the panel has rendered itself. If I kill nm-applet, icons move around in the panel -- as if it was there but taking only one pixel. Restarting nm-applet shows me the icon correctly.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 298691 ***