The commitment and loyalty Management has shown to SoftLayer has reflected to the employees. There is a saying “Treat your employees just like customers or even better.” SoftLayer understands that and therefore one of the biggest assets of the company is the employees. The company offers employee break rooms with refrigerators, microwaves, and a various assortments of drinks and snacks. The satisfaction and motivation encourages employees to do a better job which translates into customers being more satisfied as well.

SoftLayer also honors employees who have done an outstanding job for that year and offers a few fun awards for their hard work.

Since we are growing and doing very well in the industry we feel that supporting the community is a key initiative. We recently donated to the Haiti Relief Fund then engaged the employees to get involved also by offering an additional company match.

As previously noted in a few blogs we are also a firm believer of being “green” and not only in the Data Centers. A recycling bin is put in each break room and the employees are encouraged to use them. Employees are also encouraged to print as little as possible to save paper and if they must print they must recycle the paper rather than throwing it away. Except for that really secure SAS 70 affected top secret stuff that must be shredded.

SoftLayer is growing at a rapid pace and who would not want to work for a company that is growing? I feel privileged to work at SoftLayer and embrace the “challenging but not overwhelming” mantra.

I went to a luncheon recently. The topic was “The Next Generation of IT Delivered Through Innovations.” The speaker was Scott Garvey, Director Enterprise Solutions from Microsoft. Scott brought up a good statistic; most companies only survive on “top”, nowadays, for about 12 years when the timeline used to be 75 years. He spoke about the different ways Microsoft plans to stay one step ahead of their competitors. He stated that his company spends billions of dollars on Research and Development a year. While SoftLayer is not quite to the point of spending that much, it still made me think about how we are keeping one step ahead of our competitors.

We are constantly rolling out new features, certifications, products, and partnerships. While we are not quite on top yet, we will get there. We are only three months into this year and we have already rolled out five new features, one certification, and two new partnerships. This is one reason we are growing so fast; but, even better, we are staying one step ahead of our competitors.

To register for one of these luncheons go here .

I think the best part about starting right before the holidays is getting to share the holiday cheer with all my new co-workers. As most people know, most companies get busy around the holidays which can cause tension and stress in the workplace. Coming into SoftLayer one of the major things I liked is that no matter how busy we are there is still a sense of peace and calmness; this is a great asset in a workplace.

As most would know, when you first start out at a new company you need to do research to learn about your new company and the industry it is involved in. These first few days I have been reading a bunch of different articles and websites to learn more about what SoftLayer does and to get a feel for the industry. I have to say I am still rather confused. There are so many technical terms and Wikipedia doesn’t pick up on all of them (ha ha). The more research I do, though, the more I pick up on certain things. I still have more to learn but I am eager and excited to learn more about SoftLayer and the industry. Now off to do more research!