January Fast Company Article "Sanity Inc." by Charles Fishman, Pages-99.

SAS Institute is a very competitive and cutting edge software company in Cary, North Carolina. SAS analyzes agriculture research, manages freguent vision programs, develops new drugs, calulates the Consumer Price Index, as well as a variety of other softwares.

SAS Institute is involved in national and international changes. Out of 100 companies in the U.S., 98 of them use SAS Institute Inc. Yet it is a company that many have not heard of. SAS is noted for its productivity and also its retention of employees. The turn-over rate last year was 3.7% and it has never been highter than 5%. That is really hard to believe.

SAS employees do not have stock options and receive average salaries. So what makes this work? Jim Goodnight, founder of SAS Institute Inc. and John Sall, Co-owner, says their focus is employees, customers and product.

Emplyees work in a relaxed, beautiful environment, unlimited sick days, child and elder care center, health clinic, fitness center, laundry care, and family mealtime. All of these are a part of their work facility. Employees have a sense of freedom and flexibily.

I can relate this to my job as an Nutrition Education Assistant. The job is flexible with excellent health insurance. I feel my fellow NEA's are very productive and caring people. They want to do a good job and will work as long and as hard as it takes to get the job done. We all enjoy our work environment and strive to do the best job possible.

I shared this with my daughter. She is a computer programmer at Schwans. She enjoys her job. She works hard and has to stay on task. The benefits are tremedous. At Schwans, You produce--you get benefits. My daughter says,"Some people can not take the stress of production--so thats when we have some turnovers.

I have made an assumption that when people have found their "spot" in the world they can preform and produce. Is this true?

-- Anonymous, November 16, 1999