We’re #32
Yesterday Fortune Magazine released their list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2008, and Rackspace made the list at #32! Fortune requires that companies have at least 1,000 employees to enter the competition, so this is the first year Rackspace has been eligible. What’s amazing is that we could simply jump on the list at #32 with our first entry into the competition.
What’s also interesting is the list showing top companies by projected job growth. Rackspace comes in at #4 with 38% - a number that is simply huge when you think about it. To put that in perspective, we have something like 2,100 people this year while last year we had fewer than 1,000.
We’re all excited, and I’m not kidding when I tell people this is a great place to work.
And NI is at #79! Yay! (although projected job growth of 3% = not so good)
What’s kind of funny about our growth is that Fortune says we have 1,736 employees which I’m sure was true when we filed the application. When I checked this morning, we have around 2,100.
Now NI has 2,353 employees in the US and a really nice big fancy building (I love the blue windows). Rackspace has two story Frankenstein building that was meant for a smaller organization and is so incredibly cramped right now. Finding parking in the morning is almost impossible. We bought a shopping mall in northeast San Antonio which we’re renovating into our new corporate headquarters that will let us grow even more, but we won’t move for another several months. All the while, we’re growing jobs at 38% a year.
The moral of the story is that high growth can cause problems, too.
So long, walls.
If you haven’t already reached that point.
Say hello to my friend the cramped folding picnic table. No kidding. At least I get my own and don’t have to share.
Oh, very classy.
I guess I won’t complain. I’m sharing an office, but at least I face away from my new office partner. And he’s a Corrosion Engr who’s not on the phone nearly as often as I am.
And I have a legit desk and all.
Supposedly everything gets better when we move to our new shopping mall. We’ve been told that great effort is being made to make it look like a corporate headquarters and not like the inside of a Dillard’s. However, by popular demand, the escalators will remain in place.
Oh, man.
Escalator envy.