This content originally appeared on Ethan Marcotte’s website and was authored by Ethan Marcotte
Note: This post gets into recent American political events. If that’s not your cup of tea, or if that’s a stressful topic for you, please feel free to skip this one.
Two weeks ago, 18F was abruptly and suddenly shut down. Around midnight on March 1st, the entire staff was informed via email that they were being placed on “administrative leave.” No chance to notify clients, no chance to wind down the flurry of projects they’d staffed — no chance for friends and coworkers to say goodbye to each other. Just one email, sent under cover of night, telling roughly one hundred hardworking people they weren’t welcome in government any more.
This isn’t my story to tell; I’d left 18F before this happened. Instead, you should read an open letter from the affected 18F staffers; Christian Crumlish and Matt Henry both wrote valedictions for 18F, as did Lindsay Young, 18F’s former executive director and longest-serving employee.
What I do want to share is that before it was shuttered, 18F’s regular all-hands meeting was called Team Coffee, held at the end of every other Friday. Now: if you noticed “all-hands meeting” next to “end-of-day Friday,” your eyebrow may have raised the same way mine did during my first week. I’ve worked in this industry for well over two decades, and I’ve rarely been excited about an all-hands meeting. But I always, always looked forward to Team Coffee. This was mostly because the humans of 18F were just, well, darned good people to spend time with. But it was also expertly run and moderated. It was a meeting filled with and focused on work updates, sure, but smartly peppered with jokes and visits from kids and cooing at adorable animals. Also? Jokes. (Good jokes? Well, sometimes. But the groaners were my favorite.)
Almost exactly one week after 18F’s closure, I heard that the entire team decided to hold another Team Coffee, right on their usual schedule. I found out about the call a few hours beforehand — if I’d had any conflicts on my calendar, I would’ve canceled them.
I almost started crying when I entered the video call, and seeing my old coworkers’ faces again; I definitely started crying when team leads started reading out names of their reports, and thanking them for their service. I just thought I was going to have so much more time with these people: more projects, more discussions, more good/terrible jokes at Team Coffee. I’m trying to be grateful for the time I did have with them, while also wishing it hadn’t been taken away from me. From all of us.
But at least for a couple hours last week, I got to sit alongside my coworkers one more time. Whatever happens next — for me, for them, for all of us — I’ll be grateful for that.
Here’s to what was, and to what’s still to come.
This has been “Commencement.” a post from Ethan’s journal.
This content originally appeared on Ethan Marcotte’s website and was authored by Ethan Marcotte
Ethan Marcotte | Sciencx (2025-03-10T04:00:00+00:00) Commencement.. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/03/10/commencement/
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