Fortune Magazine's list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For is back and many of the Bay Area companies you hear local workers raving about fared well in the rankings. Google was again our top local offering, landing at number 4 with their Utopian campus modeled after the ideal Junior College experience (free cafeteria food, a climbing wall, people on scooters, a climbing wall). Meanwhile, the Sunnyvale-based NetApp, who topped last year's list, dropped a bit to number 5, but they still offer free fruit on Tuesdays to all employees. Not that they couldn't afford the fruit - according to Fortune, even hourly assistants make over $75 grand a year (before their bonus!).
Other Bay Area firms floating around the Top 100 were Cisco Systems at No. 20 and Genentech slipped from No. 19 to 35. Intuit (who makes your TurboTax software) and Intel (who makes the computer chip that runs it) both moved up a couple notches while Adobe and Brocade both slipped. Not even a free trip to Hawaii for top salespeople could keep Salesforce.com from slipping out of the top 50 to number 52.
The Chronicle's Business Report blog also mentions the Redwood City construction company DPR Construction does "a lot of celebrating" - which we think means they get to drink on the job a lot, and explains how they jumped all the way from 57 to No. 22.
Making their first appearance on the list is locally-based hotelier Kimpton Hotels, whose employees are allowed to bring Fido and Fluffy to work if their pets are well-behaved.
Finally, two grocery store chains made the top 10 - including Woodland, CA's Nugget Markets. We've never shopped at a Nugget Market, so we can't speak to the general disposition of the staff, but this guy seems to love it there.
