List: The happiest places to work (based on circumstantial evidence)

By Claire Zulkey
Costco
Costco Flickr/InSapphoWeTrust
Costco
Costco Flickr/InSapphoWeTrust

List: The happiest places to work (based on circumstantial evidence)

By Claire Zulkey
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Costco (Flickr/InSapphoWeTrust)
The other day my husband and I were stopped at a red light alongside a UPS truck.
“Do you think UPS drivers like their jobs?” I asked Steve.
“They usually seem pretty happy,” Steve said.
We have a small shared crush on our UPS guy. He’s good-looking, friendly and efficient, always with a nice word or joke but never lingering.

Then we started thinking about other places where people might like their jobs because their employees tend to seem happy. All we could come up with was Jimmy John’s. I brought this up with some girlfriends at drinks and they shared a few anecdotes about the almost psychotic levels of happiness displayed by some Trader Joe’s employees.

I opened this up to Facebook: sure, reports come out all the time about the best places to work, but based on simple observation, where do employees tend to seem like happy people? These were some of the most popular and interesting responses I received:

Nordstrom

Chik-Fil-A (2 votes)

Publix (2 votes)

Caribou Coffee (2 votes)

Zappos

Whole Foods (2 votes)

Mariano’s

Home Depot

Pinkberry

In-N-Out (2 votes)

USAA bank (2 votes)

Costco (3 votes)

Southwest Airlines (3 votes)

PNC Bank

Now you: based on your anecdotal evidence, which companies seem to have the happiest employees?

Follow Claire Zulkey @Zulkey