The company, which specifically built a bar for relaxing in its downtown Houston office building, always has beer on tap. The kick-back lounge also has a pool table so employees, frustrated in their attempts to come up with a software solution, can relax and play a game or two. Once a month and sometimes more, the company hosts a cocktail party starting at 4 in the afternoon.
Employees mix up pitchers of margaritas and whip up nachos and chili con queso.
Next to the staid oil and gas world, which still gets excited about casual-dress Fridays, Akili's party habits are offbeat. But in the macho world of software development, keeping beer on tap is a popular fringe benefit. And that's important at a time when software specialists get frequent calls from headhunters. Consequently, there is no official vacation, holiday or sick leave. Employees take what they want as long as they bill 450 hours a quarter to clients, which works out to a 35-hour workweek.