Our 100 Best Companies project turns 18 this year, quite a milestone not only for the magazine but for the many companies and employees who have participated in the survey. In just the past eight years, 190,000 employees from 936 companies have taken the free, anonymous survey that ranks their satisfaction with their workplaces.

Our March issue is dedicated to the practices that make a great workplace, so this month we asked readers about what is important to them in their jobs and how satisfied they are with various workplace issues.

Josh Collins took over as CEO of Portland-based Blount International just after the worst year in the company’s 65-year history. Business had dropped off by 20% in 2009, forcing widespread layoffs. “We were looking down into the abyss,” Collins recalls. “I was observing from the board level and we were nervous. You just didn’t know how bad it was going to get.”

Pierce Lamb met Daniel Starling online, splattering each other with digital paintballs at the ripe age of 13. They remained digital comrades, but only met in real life last year, at Portland’s Open Government Hackathon. It was at the Hackathon where they conceived and began building their new company, BarBird.

The film industry in Oregon has been growing steadily over the years, with film and television productions pouring into Portland and the Coast. Now Southern Oregon is getting in on the action.

Erickson Air-Crane is hoping that a key deal to ship five helicopters made in Oregon to China will rescue its bid to become the state’s first business to go public through an initial public offering since 2004.