Sad. There was a day when it would have never missed such a ranking over companies like Lowes, Bank of America, and Duke Energy.
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Maybe that had layoffs, but they never had a CEO who said publicly that their company didn't need to do layoffs. Funny how when that changes, it isn't acknowledged out loud.
Why are you surprised? The only best of lists where SAS is featured are piddly ones. Not the ones that matter.
Many of the benefits that used to be a differentiator are merely average now. The rest of corporate America caught up to SAS while SAS rested on their laurels.
The work culture at SAS has also greatly shifted. It has shifted to a culture of everyone for themself from a culture of collaboration.
A good analogy is that putting SAS up for sale is like putting your car up for sale. Less caring about treating it right and more skipping of the preventative maintenance. The people who are still at SAS and were also there during the glory years, certainly recognize this contrast better than most. Maybe that is one reason the old timers are offered incentives to leave?
@dh+1k4dca6tf I don’t think that is it at all. While people here talk about layoffs all the time the reality is that there been minuscule numbers in the few layoffs that actually happened.
I just looked at the Forbes list and did a few searches (Google and the layoff) on random selection of those companies and every one of the, had layoff conversations.
@bj Agreed. Also, in years past when SAS regularly made those lists, they weren’t laying off.
@b0+1k4dca6tf
Companies may not pay, but they do spend an awful lot of money compiling the evidence that Forbes and other "raters" use to determine the relative rankings of companies, and that is used to justify their position on the list. Forbes does not reach into a company and "pull" that data, and it's not based on public statements about the company like Glassdoor or Indeed reviews. It is primarily a PR campaign, and the fact that SAS has fallen off the list is probably because the company can no longer compile glowing internal employee survey responses into a compelling narrative, and is actively reducing real benefits. The onsite Montessori school run by SAS employees was a real differentiator for SAS. Now it's onsite contracted child care, which is still a benefit, but doesn't really distinguish the company from many of its peers. Same with the cafes, HCC, gym, natatorium, etc. Fewer people are using those benefits since there's fewer people on campus, so there's less glow up. At this point you're probably just as likely to hear from somebody who never uses those benefits, but who doesn't get a discounted gym membership and so wants to complain about the "Cary headquarters lifestyle", or someone complaining that they never use those benefits and wishes the company would just pay them more so that they have more money to spend to join their gym of choice, etc.
Forbes says that companies don’t pay:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelpeachman/article/how-we-make-forbes-best-employers-lists/
These things are literally just PR stunts. Companies have to pay to enter and be assessed and a lot of hours go into taking part. Just because SAS doesn’t appear on it doesn’t mean it’s not a good place to work. IMO these things are a con that any big company can buy into.
It does seem disappointing, but IIRC these rankings are predominantly driven by PR campaigns rather than serious evaluations. Perhaps SAS PR decided to direct its efforts elsewhere and/or no longer has the staff to bother with such things.