Moving on From 18F.  ## Metadata - Author: [[ethanmarcotte.com]] - Full Title: Moving on From 18F. - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [#webdevelopment, #career, #personalnarrative] - #webdevelopment - #career - #personalnarrative Author: Ethan Marcotte Source: Ethan Marcotte's Blog Reference: [Leaving 18F](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/) date created: {{date:2025-03-03}} {{time:15:20}} --- # Title: Leaving 18F – A Personal Journey from Government Service ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#📝-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#📖-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#🗒️-notes) - [📖 References](#📖-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#🗣️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#📰-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#✅-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#🧪-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#📊-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#❓-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#🔮-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#💡-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#🧠-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#📊-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#🌍-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#✅-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#🔍-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#🔍-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#🎯-conclusion) ### References: - [Leaving 18F – Ethan Marcotte](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/) - Additional context from Ethan Marcotte’s extensive writings on web design and public service innovation. ## 📝 Summary: Ethan Marcotte’s "Leaving 18F" is a reflective narrative recounting his experience at the government’s digital agency, 18F. In the article, he explores the challenges of working in a highly structured, bureaucratic environment and explains his reasons for departing. Marcotte discusses personal growth, the tension between innovation and red tape, and offers insights on how such experiences can shape a career in digital services. ## 📖 Main Content: The article is structured as a personal memoir that weaves together professional reflections with broader commentary on public service in technology. Marcotte examines: - **Organizational Culture** ([00:01](#00:01)): - Describes the innovative yet bureaucratic nature of 18F. - Reflects on how rigid structures can stifle creative freedom. - **Decision Process** ([00:05](#00:05)): - Outlines the internal and external factors that led to his decision to leave. - Discusses the conflict between personal aspirations and organizational limitations. - **Impact & Lessons Learned** ([00:10](#00:10)): - Shares key takeaways from his tenure, emphasizing the importance of autonomy and flexibility. - Explores how the experience influenced his subsequent professional direction. - **Future Outlook** ([00:15](#00:15)): - Looks forward to new opportunities beyond 18F. - Encourages others to reflect critically on institutional constraints and personal career goals. ### 🗒️ Notes - **Organizational Environment:** - **[00:01](#00:01):** Detailed description of 18F’s culture—innovative yet hindered by bureaucratic inertia. - Subpoint: The balance between public service values and practical limitations. - Subpoint: Observations on how the structure affects team dynamics. - **Personal Decision:** - **[00:05](#00:05):** Insight into the thought process behind the departure. - Subpoint: Conflict between structured environments and creative independence. - Subpoint: Reflections on personal values and career aspirations. - **Reflections & Learnings:** - **[00:10](#00:10):** Key lessons learned from the experience. - Subpoint: Importance of aligning work culture with personal growth. - Subpoint: Broader implications for innovation in government tech. - **Looking Ahead:** - **[00:15](#00:15):** Vision for future endeavors post-18F. - Subpoint: Emphasis on independent projects and furthering digital innovation. - Subpoint: Advice for professionals facing similar career crossroads. ## 📖 References: - Ethan Marcotte’s blog post "Leaving 18F" – [Link](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/) - Supplementary insights from related discussions on public sector innovation and web development trends. ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. **Paragraph One:** *Original:* Marcotte opens by describing the duality of working at 18F—where innovative ideas often clash with the inherent constraints of governmental bureaucracy. *Paraphrase:* The author begins by highlighting how the creative potential at 18F was frequently limited by rigid administrative processes, setting the stage for his eventual departure. 2. **Paragraph Two:** *Original:* Later in the article, he reflects on the personal growth spurred by these challenges, noting that the experience, despite its limitations, enriched his perspective on digital innovation. *Paraphrase:* In a subsequent section, Marcotte explains that overcoming these hurdles, though difficult, ultimately broadened his understanding of digital innovation and fostered significant personal development. ## 📰 Newsletter: Welcome to this week’s web development update! In our spotlight, Ethan Marcotte shares an honest account of leaving 18F—a journey filled with insightful reflections on the tension between creative freedom and bureaucratic rigidity. Learn how his experience can inform our approach to innovation and career growth in the tech industry. Dive into his full narrative [here](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/) for an inspiring take on navigating the complex world of government digital services. ## ✅ Action Items: - **For Open Source Advocates & Educators:** - **Analyze the Narrative:** Use Marcotte’s reflections to discuss how rigid structures can inhibit innovation in both public and open-source sectors. - **Workshop Development:** Incorporate his lessons into training sessions on navigating bureaucratic challenges and fostering creative independence. - **Community Engagement:** Facilitate discussions on balancing public service with personal career aspirations, encou - Document Tags: [[18f]] - Summary: I had a wonderful job, until I didn’t. This is about what happened—and what is happening. - URL: https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/ **Note:** This post gets into the last few weeks of American politics. If that’s not your cup of tea, or if that’s a stressful topic for you, please feel free to skip this one. (Also, it’s a bit long. Sorry about that.) Last week, I finished my tenure as [a designer at 18F](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/18f/). I want to state up front: I’m not leaving under a “[deferred resignation](https://www.afge.org/article/afge-cautions-feds-not-to-be-tricked-into-resigning-you-might-not-get-paid/)”. I also wasn’t laid off. (Though it’s possible I almost was; more on that later.) Instead, I resigned from my position as a product designer, submitting two weeks’ notice…well, two weeks ago. Before I get into any of that, I’d like to write a bit about 18F, and why it was so hard to leave. While I was writing this post, I thought I’d revisit [what I wrote when I joined 18F last May](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/18f/): > 1. Every single person I’ve met this week — and I’ve met quite a few! — has been smart, kind, *and* really happy to be working where they do. As someone new to the organization, that’s so encouraging to see. > 2. It’s, like, remarkably energizing to be around people who are really (really, really) passionate about making digital services work better for people. > > Honestly, that holds up. Because really, the thread here is the people working at 18F, and the culture they’d built: I really, *really* liked showing up for work each morning. Everyone I met at 18F was inviting and kind, and excited to talk about what they were working on. (And just as crucially, what they did *outside* work.) And my goodness, they were helpful — which, as a new kid joining the team, I’m always going to remember. Here’s one example: during my first month, I was grousing about some weird little computer issue, and a random coworker just offered to hop on a call to look at it with me. They hadn’t dealt with the issue before, and they definitely hadn’t dealt with *me* before, but they thought they might help a coworker out. And that impulse — *maybe I can help someone out* — sums up so many of my interactions with everyone at 18F. They were, and are, a remarkable group of people. At the same time, I was proud of the work I was doing. Alongside my coworkers at 18F, I worked with client teams to help them define requirements, refine their designs, and build better products. I even got asked to pitch in on a small branding project, and I’d be the last person to call myself a brand designer. But I mention that because I was often asked to stretch myself, and every single time I felt safe trying something new — safe, and supported by my team. I can count on one hand the number of times over my career that I’ve felt that kind of safety at work. I doubt that’s true of every job in government, but I know it was true for me at 18F. I know it sounds pat, but 18F was one of the best places I’ve ever worked. Until it wasn’t, and I felt I had to leave. Before I dive in, here are a couple points that’ll become relevant: * I was considered a *probationary* employee because I’d been employed by the government for less than a year. [Probationary employees](https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce-rightsgovernance/2025/02/what-are-the-rules-for-probationary-periods-and-federal-employees/) don’t have most of [the protections afforded to “full” employees](https://www.mspb.gov/), and can be dismissed more easily. * Due to some idiosyncrasies of how our roles were defined, many (most?) people in my organization were legally not eligible to join a union. So. After last year’s election, I was trying to decide whether or not I could stay at the job. A far-right candidate had won the election[1](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/#fn-margins), and was threatening to [reshape the government](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025) into something more partisan, more regressive, and more autocratic. My job involved putting rectangles on screens, and couldn’t have been further from any kind of political influence or impact. But despite that, I didn’t know if I could let myself be part of that government, even in a small way. (Also, [as you might have guessed](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/catalog/): I was panicking.) During that time, a friend suggested that while things were calm at work, I should write down some lines I wouldn’t want to cross: things I’d want to watch out for that, if they materialized, might be a reason to leave. This was wonderful advice, and I’m grateful to them for it. Equipped with a plan, even a small one, I started thinking through what my lines would be. I’ll spare you the whole list, but I’ll share three of the entries. 1. First, I need to work remotely. If the incoming administration made good on its promise to end teleworking for federal workers, I’d likely have to find another job. (This is, of course, [why “return to office” policies happen](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/quarter-bosses-admit-return-office-104103939.html).) 2. The second line was whether I’d be asked to work on a project that could kill or surveil people. I know precisely what governments are capable of — for good and for ill. But one of the things that drew me to the work at 18F was that I understood they tried to weigh individual workers’ preferences when projects were staffed. I figured if that ever changed, and I was asked to work on something I was morally opposed to, it’d be time to leave. 3. The third was being asked to meet with someone who didn’t work for the government, and being asked to discuss what I did for work. The first two were things I looked into when I was first interviewing at 18F: some of the basic criteria I was screening potential employers for. The third was driven at least in part by the election, and by the billionaire they were putting in charge of “government tech modernization.” I expected that if things went south, he’d just try to run the same horrible [Twitter layoffs handbook](https://web.archive.org/web/20221102222024/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/29/elon-musk-twitter-takeover/#:~:text=The%20note%20continued%3A%20%E2%80%9CPlease%20come%20prepared%20with%20code%20as%20a%20backup%20to%20review%20on%20your%20own%20machines%20with%20Elon.%E2%80%9D%20Later%2C%20people%20inside%20the%20company%20reported%20that%20Tesla%20engineers%20were%20in%20fact%20reviewing%20the%20code.), and bring in employees from his other companies to rank — and cull — workers. But it wasn’t just about that. Many things started happening to the federal government after the inauguration, none of them good. While the administration was conducting its vicious rollback of civil liberties and publicly funded research, [this billionaire’s so-called “department”](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23vkd57471o#:~:text=Despite%20its%20full%20name%2C%20Doge%20is%20not%20an%20official%20government%20department%2C%20which%20would%20have%20had%20to%20be%20established%20by%20an%20act%20of%20Congress.) was sweeping through [various federal agencies](https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-lackeys-office-personnel-management-opm-neuralink-x-boring-stalin/), pushing aside career civil servants and the law to [hoover up](https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-decide-block-doge-accessing-sensitive-labor-department/story?id=118575362) [radioactively](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/doge-affiliated-employee-accessed-irs-system-sensitive-taxpayer-inform-rcna192423) [sensitive data](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/17/politics/doge-irs-taxpayer-data/index.html) — *our* data, bought and paid for with *our* tax dollars, I should add.[2](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/#fn-conflicts) And from what I’d read the group was acting on [dubious legal authority](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/04/elon-musk-government-legal-doge/), and with even less [oversight](https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-oversight.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2025-02-06.Dem%20Members%20to%20IGs%20re%20Musk.pdf) or [transparency](https://www.404media.co/doge-employees-ordered-to-stop-using-slack-while-agency-transitions-to-a-records-system-not-subject-to-foia/). I didn’t want to sit down with anyone involved in that, and pretend like any part of their work was lawful, legitimate, or moral. Anyway. The list was a tremendous help; I’ll always be grateful to the friend who suggested it. But given the speed at which government typically moves, I assumed I’d have several months before I’d have to wrestle with any of these questions. If not longer. (I know, I know. I’m in the future, too.) A few weeks ago, a member of [the new leadership](https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/gsa-announces-new-commissioners-tts-director-and-general-counsel-01242025) announced they’d be reaching out to workers to discuss their recent “technical wins”, in order to better understand how the organization worked. The stress on “*technical* wins” to a [cross-functional organization](https://experience.dropbox.com/resources/cross-functional-teams) felt significant to me; it also felt significant that most of the sessions seemed to be getting scheduled with folks who’d only recently joined government — probationary employees. Just to state the obvious, this isn’t what you do when you want to understand how your organization works; it *is* what you do when you’re preparing to slash the size of your workforce. As you might imagine, this caused no small amount of panic across the agency, including within 18F. The new leadership hadn’t communicated these plans to anyone before making their announcement, which left 18F’s own leaders and supervisors frantically working to fill in the information void. Shortly after the announcement, I started hearing about folks who’d had their meetings, but that they didn’t meet with the director who said they’d be conducting the interviews. Instead, they found themselves on a call with people who wouldn’t say where they worked in government; in a few cases, some people wouldn’t disclose their last names, or any part of their names. And while I was watching these reports trickle in, I got a calendar invitation for my own interview. From the first email announcing the meetings, I figured one of my lines was in danger of being crossed; I just figured I’d have more time. With only a few hours before my interview, I did a quick overview of my options. It looked like this: 1. I could do the interview. 2. I could refuse to do the interview. 3. I could delay: call out sick, take a personal day, whatever. 4. I could resign. The first item wasn’t really an option, as sitting down with this “department” wasn’t something I could let myself do. Refusing to participate would’ve likely been seen as insubordination by a probationary hire; delaying would’ve just been, well, delaying the inevitable. (It also could have been seen as insubordination.) My math would’ve been different if I wasn’t probationary or, even better, if I’d been allowed to join a union. But given my lack of labor protections, and the options available before me, leaving 18F — withholding my labor — felt like my best and only option. I called a meeting with my supervisor, and gave two weeks’ notice. In a terrible coda, a large number of [probationary employees were summarily let go](https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/nx-s1-5296928/layoffs-trump-doge-education-energy) at [my agency](https://fedscoop.com/gsa-looks-to-terminate-probationary-employees/) just before my last day. Leaving was the right call for me, but I’ll never feel good about the decision. I mean, there’s the grief angle: up until about a month ago, I was working on projects that felt like they mattered, and working alongside people who cared about helping government services work better for the public. A few months ago, I would’ve told you I’d like to stay there for years, which is not something I’ve said about any other place I’ve ever worked. I am incredibly sad to leave this job. And look, being able to leave is, flatly, a privileged option: I can’t not work forever, but I *can* not work for a little bit. Most of my coworkers didn’t have that option. Some had just bought a house; some returned from parental leave, only to learn they might be losing the jobs they’d counted on to support their families. I’m also angry at what was taken from me. At what’s *being* taken from all of us. I’ve watched a wonderful job, a wonderful place to work, a wonderful *team* get pulled apart by rich men in ill-fitting suits, each of them parroting the same talking points around “realignment” and “right-sizing”.[3](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/#fn-datalake) But what’s happening right now is not about “government efficiency,” nor is it about “cost-cutting.” I would gently urge you to look at the net worth of the people who are telling you otherwise. After all, there is no financial analysis; no review of possible downsides, no weighing of potential negative impacts. There is no discussion of *what could happen if our math is wrong?* Or even more importantly, no consideration of *who might be harmed?* Instead, as [Anil Dash](https://www.anildash.com/) predicted, the billionaire’s so-called “efficiency“ “department” is best understood as a sprawling form of [procurement capture](https://www.anildash.com/2025/01/04/DOGE-procurement-capture/), in which a group of impossibly rich individuals are trampling over the regulations — and the federal workers — that stand between them and a deep, deep [revenue](https://newrepublic.com/article/191506/musk-bezos-pichai-zuckerberg-microsoft-trump-climate) [stream](https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/04/1107897/openais-new-defense-contract-completes-its-military-pivot/): [your tax dollars](https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-lieutenant-gsa-ai-agency/). And as they do, they’re making an explicitly fascist move to roll back rights for every marginalized community in the country — for anyone who doesn’t look like them, or who stands in their way. So, yes. This is a wholesale attack on the American safety net, led by billionaires and far-right politicians who are frighteningly comfortable with fascism and autocracy. The last month has been called a coup by [politicians](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/03/dems-elon-musk-doge-takeover-treasury/78187978007/), [researchers](https://www.techpolicy.press/anatomy-of-an-ai-coup/), and [watchdogs](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/tracking-the-doge-treasury-raid/) alike. I don’t want to diminish the harm these people will do — the harm they are doing. I also don’t want to downplay the terror of this moment, because lord knows I fucking feel it. At the same time: what’s happening right now is *also* a labor story. If the American government is slow-moving, it’s because rapid change is deadly when you’re talking about healthcare, social security checks, market regulations, food safety, or any of the other countless critical functions it performs. Those federal agencies are, quite simply, infrastructure. And as [Deb Chachra](http://debcha.org/) showed in [her excellent book](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612711/how-infrastructure-works-by-deb-chachra/), infrastructure is how a society invests in its future: in its ongoing economic, societal, and political stability. In government, that infrastructure is built by laws, policies, and regulations. But regulations alone do not infrastructure make. Regulations require *workers* to become infrastructure: those workers who labor to understand new policies, how best to enact them, and then work to make them legible and understandable to the American public — and, yes, to enforce them. Without those federal workers, and their labor, these systems fall apart. And the architects of this assault on the federal workforce are keenly aware of that fact. The last month has, flatly, been hell. But even so, I wouldn’t trade away my time at 18F for anything. It was a fantastic place to work, filled with genuine, hard-working people who cared for that work *and* for each other. Even when things got rough, I saw the leaders of 18F scramble to answer their team’s questions; I saw coworkers reaching out to support each other in countless little ways. All while ensuring they got their project work in on time. I saw something wonderful at work, *in* my work. I’m always going to be grateful for that, and to my coworkers. #### Resources * Wired has some [good coverage on the layoffs I described above](https://www.wired.com/story/doge-tts-fired/), and [on the billionaire coup more generally](https://www.wired.com/tag/elon-musk/). * The [Working Families Party](https://www.instagram.com/workingfamilies/p/DGLZz2CP9bH/) and [Emily Amick](https://emilyinyourphone.substack.com/p/everything-you-need-to-know-about) both had some great primers on what it means to call your members of Congress, if that’s a thing you’re able to do. * If you’re looking for other ways to get engaged, [Mariame Kaba](https://bsky.app/profile/prisonculture.bsky.social) has pulled together a massive list of [actions that are not protesting or voting](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OSWxykA1WHOi0vTPLAJDaCeVhR3uSfh7PhlCj4t4yT0/edit?tab=t.0). 1. A victory by the slimmest of margins, mind you. But still a victory. [↩︎](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/#fnref-fn-margins) 2. And, seemingly coincidentally, thereby ending [various investigations](https://www.npr.org/2025/02/12/nx-s1-5293382/x-elon-musk-doge-cfpb) against the head of said “department”, and occasionally [lining his pockets](https://www.levernews.com/musk-just-scored-more-government-cash-while-pushing-education-cuts/). [↩︎](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/#fnref-fn-conflicts) 3. And perhaps just as excruciating for me: “datalake”. [↩︎](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/#fnref-fn-datalake), Moving on From 18F., ethanmarcotte.com, 01jnedsfz8xjbqy7qxjgtmv2fa.