Best Companies

Shine United(Madison，Wisconsin)

In the past five years，this Wisconsin­based advertising agency has shared more than$500,000 in profits with its employees through the company's ShineShares program.The agency partnered with the University of Wisconsin's oncology department to develop the Ride，a biking event that benefits cancer research.Employees also get snacks every day，“Beer Thirty”on Thursdays，and Summer Fridays，a program that lets employees leave at noon.

GroundFloor Media(Denver，Colorado)

The key for workers at this midsize public relations firm in Denver is that employees work anytime，anywhere.Headquarters are in a former warehouse downtown，near Coors Field.The offices are spread around the central space that doubles as a wet bar every Thursday when the company's   “beer club” brings in a new brew.

Ergodyne(St.Paul，Minnesota)

The St.Paul­based company has grown to operate out of a retired storehouse with plenty of natural light.Rules about dressing？“Wear something.” Its purpose? To create cool，comfortable, and tough safety workwear for those who need it to get the job done.Ergodyne has around 50 employees, who enjoy hot­dish cook­offs, tickets to sporting events, and at least one happy hour every quarter.

Southwest Michigan First(Kalamazoo，Michigan)

It's family first at this Michigan economic development advising agency.CEO Ron Kitchens says that in the past year，the company has made a push to go green，initially started by the millennial employees who make up half the agency's workforce.A new staff position was created for the purpose of making sure every employee is able to balance working and cheering at their kids' sporting events or going fishing.

We can have conflicts with our important persons like friends, relatives, workmates, etc. But the conflicts doesn’t necessarily mean that the relationship will be destroyed. In fact, sometimes conflict helps people to let out their silent feelings, allowing them to free their suppressed emotions. However, when in a conflict, we usually get angry and say or do things which aren’t linked to the problem at hand. Therefore, it is important that we should try to avoid conflicts through effective communication.

In a heated argument, we usually say things that aren’t related to the real problem, and even use rude words to make sure we gain an advantage over the other person. Then the whole situation goes badly. So we should separate(隔离) the root cause of the problem and build our discussion around it. This ensures that there are no rude remarks and   the situation moves in a positive direction.

It’s easy for us to think we’re right and if something isn’t working out, it surely must be someone else’s fault. However, if you aim to solve a conflict, first of all, you should show some respect and allow the other party to express themselves. Using remarks like, “I understand your concern on this” or “I know you’re right at your end”, would make the other person feel more appreciated.

Sometimes some people get too excited and may behave in the wrong way or say something others may not appreciate. This can cause a worse situation. Actually, they should control their emotions and keep calm. This has to be learned through self-control and observing behavior of other people.

The tips mentioned above are useful for most situations. However, we don’t rule out the possibility that there are some people always want to create some sort of trouble for others. You can tell them from others, and putting in an effort to resolve a conflict with them may just not be a wise idea. The best way to deal with these people is to forget them. A famous saying can help you and that is: “You should never fight with a pig; you both get dirty and only the pig likes it.”

“I like photography because it captures amazing things that you might not see again,” Timmy Walsh says. He takes pictures of flowers, sunsets and road signs. But those photos don’t usually end up in a scrapbook(剪贴簿) or on his bedroom walls.

When Timmy was five, he found out that his aunt Bev had lung cancer. He wanted to do something to help her. His first idea was to sell his photos from a lemonade--type stand in front of his house in Pennsylvania. “My mom said it wouldn’t work because we were not on a busy street,” Timmy explains.

His next idea was to have an art show. Timmy decorated his home with candles, flowers, and white lights. Then he arranged his photos. Timmy’s mom, Sheila, remembers: “Our dining-room table was filled, the living room—everything was filled with photos.” Friends, family, and Timmy’s teachers came to the show. He raised more than $300 for cancer research that night. Aunt Bev was “very happy and excited,” he says.

After a local newspaper wrote a story about Timmy’s photos, a volunteer offered to help him set up a website. As people learned about his cause, called Camera for a Cure, Timmy began receiving invitations to sell his pictures at art galleries and fund-raisers. Since then, his work has appeared in more than 20 shows.

When Timmy is at a show, he greets each customer and talks about what he was thinking when he took his photos. And he always shares facts about lung cancer. Sometimes donations and sales are slow, but that doesn’t bother him. “It doesn’t matter how much money we made because we just raised awareness,” he says. Timmy knows that finding a cure for lung cancer will take time and effort. So Timmy will keep doing his part by shooting and selling photos of the things he sees.

The more hours young children spend in child care, the more likely they are to turn out aggressive and disobedient by the time they are in kindergarten, according to the largest study of child care and development ever conducted. Researchers said this correlation(相关性) held true regardless of whether the children came from rich or poor homes, were looked after by a relative or at a center, and whether they were girls or boys.

What is uncertain, however, is whether the child care actually causes the problem or whether children likely to turn out aggressive happen to be those who spend more hours in child care. It also remains unclear whether reducing the amount of time in child care will reduce the risk that a child will turn into a mean person. What's more, quality child care is associated with increased skills in intellectual ability such as language and memory, leading some academics to suggest that child care turns out children who are "smart and naughty".

The government-sponsored research, which has tracked more than 1,300 children at 10 sites across the country since 1991, is bound to cause the debate over child care again: How should people balance work and family? And how should parents, especially mothers, resolve the demands that are placed on them to be both breadwinners and supermoms?

That debate was already on display at a new briefing yesterday, where researchers themselves had different opinions about the data and its implications（含义）. "There is a constant relationship between time in care and problem behavior, especially those involving aggression and behavior," said Jay Belsky of Birkbeck College in London, one of the lead investigators of the study who has previously annoyed women's groups because of his criticisms of child care. "On behalf of fathers or mothers?" interrupted Sarah Friedman, a developmental psychologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and one of the other lead scientists on the study. "On behalf of parents and families," responded Belsky.

"NICHD is not willing to get into policy recommendations," said Friedman, contradicting her colleague. "There are other possibilities that can be entertained. Yes it is a quick solution—more hours in child care is associated with more problems. The easy solution is to cut the number of hours but that may have implications for the family that may not be beneficial for the development of the children in terms of economics." In an interview after the briefing, Friedman said that asking parents to work fewer hours and spend more time with their children usually meant a loss of family income, which adversely（不利地）affects children.

Scientists said that the study was highly reliable. But the researchers said they had no whether the behavioral difficulties persisted as the children moved to higher grades.