Graduation day

Less than a week ago our whole team at 18F found out we were fired. The past week has been amazing.

It was immediately clear that they could not break us, they could not divide us, and that we will win. I said at some point that the power we have discovered is stronger than the wrecking ball.

Someone else, one of our courageous leaders, said that we came here to make websites and be nice to each other. So what did we do when they deleted 18F? We made websites and we were nice to each other.

Every other week at 18F the whole team would gather for a video call referred to as a team coffee of varying sizes. Today we held a team coffeeshop.

We shared what we had all learned so far about HR procedures, administrative leave, job, searches, how to keep in touch, and so on.

…but mainly we held commencement. At 18F there’s a tradition when you leave that you’re given a certificate of appreciation. I’ve made a few for some in my short time here. But when they deleted us in the dead of night a week ago, there was no one left to hand out certificates.

So colleagues spent a few hours that weekend generating them all, and we handed them out at our graduation day team coffeeshop.

18F chief of staff emeritus Alan Brouilette always says that we don’t just ship product, we ship culture. This has always been true. People have always graduated from 18F and gone on to do great work beyond. This is just our largest (and final) graduating class.