Hot Job Market, Cool Workplaces

Austin American Statesman, September 2, 2000 (excerpt)
If the new workplace is hiding a corporate titan's insidious plans, you won't hear anyone complain at the People's Revolutionary Design Gulag. That's what Web designers Billy Hylton, Barron Fujimoto and Chris La Cava call their office at Works.com, an Internet purchasing service for businesses in Northwest Austin.

The office is more like a dorm room, with skateboarding posters, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" action figures, a Nerfball hoop and kitschy tropical lights.

After work, hanging out in the company game room on Fridays, having a beer and shooting eight ball, it all feels strangely like being out with friends at a bar, Hylton said. "That's the kind of stuff I look for after work," he said.

Hylton, 25, moved here in September from Kentucky. La Cava, 26, fled New England winters for a cool tech job here a year ago. And 31-year-old Fujimoto came here in early 1999 after a stint in Japan.

They're like many knowledge workers - young, new to town, looking for an instant life. And work is where they find it.

La Cava said that's what he wants. He's dedicated to the company's mission, to help small and medium-size businesses save money on their purchases. This fast-growing business was, for him, one of the country's last "Wild West opportunities."

For now, other parts of life - marriage, family - can wait. "I think I gravitate more towards the job because, at this point, I don't feel like I want a wife or a kid," he said.

Maybe the job is filling a void in the rest of his life, he muses. But work didn't create his desire. "This is my job," La Cava said, "and I'm going to etch it out the way I want."