Employees say these are the best companies for work-life balance

It is the increasingly valuable — and often elusive — asset that people look for in a job: flexibility. As the pandemic has altered our attitudes toward the workplace, polls show many employees are seeking a healthier balance between work and life. And when it comes to creating that environment, some companies are decidedly better than others.

According to a new ranking from career website Glassdoor, digital storage company Dropbox does the best job of providing a culture that lets people juggle the demands of work with their needs beyond the cubicle. The company earned a score of 4.83 out of 5 based on employee feedback on the site, with Glassdoor calculating the scores by taking the average ratings of companies with more than 1,000 workers. 

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As COVID-19 was ravaging the U.S. in 2020, Dropbox in October of that year declared that it was transforming into what it called a "virtual first" company, making remote work the default for all workers. The company said in a blog post at the time that its policy gave workers "freedom and flexibility" while still preserving "human connection and company culture." 

To that end, for instance, Dropbox introduced "nonlinear" workdays that allow workers to handle responsibilities and complete assigned tasks on a schedule that works for them. 

Perhaps it's no surprise that Dropbox is the leader of the pack, given that its software tools enable virtual collaboration. 

"Dropbox's virtual first policy gives employees the flexibility to choose where they want to work, so the company's policies emphasize the importance of flexibility," Glassdoor chief economist Daniel Zhao told CBS MoneyWatch. "In the last two years since the pandemic began, flexibility has become even more important for employees and so companies that have invested in changing how they work to allow more flexibility have have been the ones to excel at work-life balance." 

Identity security company SailPoint Technologies ranks No. 2, with a work-life balance score of 4.77 out of 5. "Such a great work life balance, as a mum, I have not found a company so accommodating until I joined SailPoint," read one employee review of the company on Glassdoor. Other companies to win high marks:

• MathWorks
• Asana
• Box
• Zeigler Auto Group
• Atlassian
• CoverMyMeds
• Cornerstone Home Lending
• eXp Realty

Glassdoor's findings underscore just how profoundly the pandemic has reordered people's priorities on the job: Employee mentions of "mental health" in their company reviews jumped 91% compared to 2019, the firm found.

"People are more comfortable talking about mental health now than they were a few years ago," Zhao said. "Often the discussions are positive, where an employee says the company does care about mental health or they offer mental health services as a benefit." 

Mentions of "burnout" in reviews rose 42% from 2019 to 2022. 

"Most people who talked about burnout were using it in a negative context by talking about how burned out they were," Zhao said. "And the fact that we're seeing so many people struggle with it means employers really need to figure out how to address burnout in this new normal so it isn't an issue moving forward."