Best companies to work for

Another great article  Look for the great stories in the news - they are out there, but the media wants us to believe it's all bad.  Keep looking for the good

Part of the story is here:

There's a new No. 1 in town: tech powerhouse SAS. Yes, even in a tough job market, some employers dole out perks like on-site saunas, discounted massages and more.

Employees at SAS certainly feel kneaded. Every week, several dozen of them get massages at the on-site 66,000-square-foot recreation and fitness center.

You have to pay, but it's only $55 for an hour, and that's with pretax dollars. And the convenience is priceless: right up the stairs from the gymnasium, weight room, billiards hall, sauna, hair salon, manicurist, and aqua kickboxing in the Olympic-size pool. (Posted etiquette rules: "A bathing suit is required" and "No cellphones in class.")

There's classic massage, Swedish massage, orthopedic massage, and myofascial release -- all designed to make workers "more aware of their bodies, move with greater ease and freedom," and "have increased energy, reduced feelings of pain, and feelings of relaxation and well-being."

More at CNNMoney.com: See the Complete List of Best Companies to Work For, 2010

Though companies in Silicon Valley get lots of press about perk-friendly workplaces, it's here in the less go-go South that employees reign supreme. SAS is not only the world's largest privately held software business -- with revenues of $2.3 billion, it's about the size of publicly traded Intuit -- but also the paragon of perks.

In fact when Google, a SAS customer, was putting together its own campus freebies some years ago, it used SAS as a model. SAS (pronounced sass) has been on Fortune's list of Best Companies to Work For every one of the 13 years we've been keeping score. But this is the first time SAS is in the No. 1 slot.

While its pampering of employees might give corporate scrooges a coronary, CEO Jim Goodnight says the policies make estimable business sense. "My chief assets drive out the gate every day," Goodnight likes to say. "My job is to make sure they come back."

His motives aren't charitable but entirely utilitarian, even a bit Machiavellian. The average tenure at SAS is 10 years; 300 employees have worked 25 or more. Annual turnover was 2% in 2009, compared with the average in the software industry of about 22%. Women make up 45% of its U.S. workforce, which has an average age of 45.

—  David A. Kaplan, Fortune Magazine