SAS was just named No. 2 in Fortune magazine’s Great Places to Work rankings. So, I think this is a good time to share the Top Ten Reasons Why The Blind Guy is Absolutely Spoiled Rotten by SAS …

 #10 - SAS has an official 35 hour work week.  Are you wondering why I set this item at #10? It's simple, really. Ed loves his work so much that, even if he hits 35 hours by Wednesday, he keeps right on truckin’. On the weekends, the family and I have to hide his laptop, iPad and iPhone so we can have our kind of fun. (It isn’t hard to hide stuff from Ed because he’s blind—you know what I’m saying?)

#9 - SAS is located on a beautiful 900-acre campus. It’s full of rolling hills, green grass, and trees that need to be watered by yours truly. I try to hit as many as possible whenever Ed and I rush across campus for meetings.

 #8 - SAS has an amazing Recreation and Fitness Center (RFC). It includes an indoor pool, exercise classes, tennis courts, soccer fields, indoor basketball courts, running trails, volleyball courts… Whew, the list goes on and on. When I start taking laps around Ed’s office, he knows it’s time to tear himself away from the computer and head over to the gym to get in a workout. 

#7 - SAS has great programs for families. For example, once a week Ed’s kids come to SAS after school to work with their junior FIRST Lego League team. It’s really cool …  First- and second-graders are building robots out of programmable Lego components.

 #6 - SAS has a wonderful on-site Health Care Center (HCC). Ed’s a pretty healthy guy, but he’s reaching the age when he needs a regular check-up on all the plumbing. The HCC is a mere 10-minute walk across campus.

#5 - SAS has child development programs available to the new Moms and Dads that work here. Ed says that’s where we grow to recruit young talent for SAS R&D. No joke! A member of the SAS accessibility tribe joined SAS when she was only six weeks old … in the on-site nursery. At 16, she began her computer science career as a SAS R&D summer intern. Last year—at the tender age of 20—she became the youngest member of her family to apply for a patent.

 #4 - SAS closes for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. I mean--the whole company shuts down; nearly all employees get a full week of real downtime. Ed and I love spending those days with family. We return to work totally fired up each January.

 #3 - SAS recently renovated the café in the building where Ed and I work. Oh, boy! It is gooooood stuff! Five star dining at lunch every single day. I’m not really supposed to eat human food, but Ed gets distracted, you know. It takes vigilance to maintain a clean space beneath his table—but I am up to the task.

#2 - Ed loves the coffee bar in our building.  Each morning, he gets all jacked up on caffeine and sugar. By 10am, he’s hammering on the keyboard like he’s playing Whack-a-mole at the N.C. State Fair. I gotta say—it’s hard for a fella to take a nap with all that racket.

And the #1 reason why Ed is absolutely spoiled rotten by SAS …

#1 – Ed gets to work with thousands of seriously bright people. They're all passionate about innovating technologies that make the world a better place. That’s why Ed jumps out of bed every morning fired up and ready to get to the office.  The other reasons are just window dressing.