6 ms·

They even had a full-scale replica of the Oval Office there https://twitter.com/harrymccracken/status/710956599477534720?lang=en https://twitter.com/harrymccra

They even had a full-scale replica of the Oval Office there https://twitter.com/harrymccracken/status/710956599477534720?lang=en https://twitter.com/harrymccracken/status/710956599477534720...

kmtrowbr 4y ago
On the seal: "melius simul quam solus" means: "better together than alone." On the scale of extravagant perks and celebrations of success it is a fairly minor and inexpensive one.
- ushakov 4y ago
  The original seal said "United Meritocracy of GitHub", until they removed it after a backlash https://readwrite.com/github-meritocracy-rug/#awesm=~otS2MwnaJJiJKB https://readwrite.com/github-meritocracy-rug/#awesm=~otS2Mwn...
  - Aeolun 4y ago
    [flagged]
    - renewiltord 4y ago
      Oh, that was removed by the famous Julie Ann Horvath who made allegations of sexism and discrimination against Github (who hired an investigator and said they did not find grounds for the claims).
fnordpiglet 4y ago
Uh wtf I want to have something more useful to say to contribute meaningfully here. But my brain segfaulted.
- ushakov 4y ago
  [flagged]
- harveywi 4y ago
  They got angry when Trump was elected so they forked the Oval Office.
  - grepfru_it 4y ago
    The office was not there during my onboarding in 2018
  - JW_00000 4y ago
    This is a photo from March 2016, while Trump was only elected in November 2016.
    - gre 4y ago
      They had the oval office replica in Sept 2013 before the office officially opened. They also had a huge well-stocked bar, a secret room that you open by pulling a book or similar, a cowboy themed room....
splatzone 4y ago
This is the kind of needless extravagance that makes people cynical about the tech industry
- lanstin 4y ago
  And that makes tech people realize some of these execs really believe their own BS.
- jahewson 4y ago
  Wait until you hear about the Chrysler Building.
  - WC3w6pXxgGd 4y ago
    [dead]
  - twelve40 4y ago
    what about the Chrysler building?
- dntrkv 4y ago
  That's not really extravagant. I'm assuming it's just a meeting/work room with an oval office theme. It's a very cheap imitation of the oval office. They would have had to buy a lot of the same furniture pieces either way. They just had some fun with it.
  - ProfessorLayton 4y ago
    I was at their offices back then too. They had and entire section of the office for printing custom t-shirts and an animation room — yes an actual room for 2D animation with the backlit light boxes for paper animation. Also a fully decked out broadcasting room for streaming. They also had grab-and-go apple products on the walls, like mice, keyboards etc. (Memory is foggy on if they had bigger ticket apple products too).
    - 4y ago
MarcScott 4y ago
The dojo was cool, and the roof garden, plus the Western themed poker room and the Victorian drawing room with secret book cases that led to other rooms. It was the most extravegant place I ever visited, and as stated, it was almost empty. Still I got to have a couple of free beers and walk off with branded t-shirts, hoodies and even a baby-grow.
- ushakov 4y ago
  There is no reason to have this. Imagine how many lives they could've improved if they just donated a chunk of the money that allowed them to have offices like this to charity
  - roflyear 4y ago
    You're right, absolutely. It's cool but the money they spent here is pretty ridiculous
    - scottbruin 4y ago
      Or you can view it as marketing spend. Getting lots of attention online from SWEs circa 2016 is far from a bad thing for a dev tools company.
jrochkind1 4y ago
wait... why? I would have assumed that tweet was a joke. Because... why?
- gtowey 4y ago
  That oval office replica was the entrance to the office. The reason they gave publicly was that since it was people's first impression they wanted to make it grand. And since the admin employee was the first person to greet visitors, they felt it was the most important job in the office and wanted to give them a badass desk to do it from.
  - dalyons 4y ago
    it worked on me! i was super impressed. and then you leave the oval office and it turns out it was floating in a much larger room. Cool effect, best office i've ever been to. I think they got rid of the desk (or made it not the entrance) when trump got elected
sneak 4y ago
There is also a very fancy whitehouse-inspired conference/war room nearby. And a padded leather whiskey library. The level of extravagance there was amazing.
brasic 4y ago
My favorite room was the "secret room": a wood-paneled library which was only accessible via a hidden door: https://twitter.com/cbrasic/status/1623879372116529155 https://twitter.com/cbrasic/status/1623879372116529155 And it wasn't even the most impressive library in the office...

They even had a full-scale replica of the Oval Office there https://twitter.com/harrymccracken/status/710956599477534720?lang=en https://twitter.com/harrymccracken/status/710956599477534720...

kmtrowbr 4y ago

On the seal: "melius simul quam solus" means: "better together than alone." On the scale of extravagant perks and celebrations of success it is a fairly minor and inexpensive one.

ushakov 4y ago
The original seal said "United Meritocracy of GitHub", until they removed it after a backlash https://readwrite.com/github-meritocracy-rug/#awesm=~otS2MwnaJJiJKB https://readwrite.com/github-meritocracy-rug/#awesm=~otS2Mwn...
- Aeolun 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - renewiltord 4y ago
    Oh, that was removed by the famous Julie Ann Horvath who made allegations of sexism and discrimination against Github (who hired an investigator and said they did not find grounds for the claims).

fnordpiglet 4y ago

Uh wtf I want to have something more useful to say to contribute meaningfully here. But my brain segfaulted.

ushakov 4y ago
[flagged]
harveywi 4y ago
They got angry when Trump was elected so they forked the Oval Office.
- grepfru_it 4y ago
  The office was not there during my onboarding in 2018
- JW_00000 4y ago
  This is a photo from March 2016, while Trump was only elected in November 2016.
  - gre 4y ago
    They had the oval office replica in Sept 2013 before the office officially opened. They also had a huge well-stocked bar, a secret room that you open by pulling a book or similar, a cowboy themed room....

splatzone 4y ago

This is the kind of needless extravagance that makes people cynical about the tech industry

lanstin 4y ago
And that makes tech people realize some of these execs really believe their own BS.
jahewson 4y ago
Wait until you hear about the Chrysler Building.
- WC3w6pXxgGd 4y ago
  [dead]
- twelve40 4y ago
  what about the Chrysler building?
dntrkv 4y ago
That's not really extravagant. I'm assuming it's just a meeting/work room with an oval office theme. It's a very cheap imitation of the oval office. They would have had to buy a lot of the same furniture pieces either way. They just had some fun with it.
- ProfessorLayton 4y ago
  I was at their offices back then too. They had and entire section of the office for printing custom t-shirts and an animation room — yes an actual room for 2D animation with the backlit light boxes for paper animation. Also a fully decked out broadcasting room for streaming. They also had grab-and-go apple products on the walls, like mice, keyboards etc. (Memory is foggy on if they had bigger ticket apple products too).
  - 4y ago

MarcScott 4y ago

The dojo was cool, and the roof garden, plus the Western themed poker room and the Victorian drawing room with secret book cases that led to other rooms. It was the most extravegant place I ever visited, and as stated, it was almost empty. Still I got to have a couple of free beers and walk off with branded t-shirts, hoodies and even a baby-grow.

ushakov 4y ago
There is no reason to have this. Imagine how many lives they could've improved if they just donated a chunk of the money that allowed them to have offices like this to charity
- roflyear 4y ago
  You're right, absolutely. It's cool but the money they spent here is pretty ridiculous
  - scottbruin 4y ago
    Or you can view it as marketing spend. Getting lots of attention online from SWEs circa 2016 is far from a bad thing for a dev tools company.

jrochkind1 4y ago

wait... why? I would have assumed that tweet was a joke. Because... why?

gtowey 4y ago
That oval office replica was the entrance to the office. The reason they gave publicly was that since it was people's first impression they wanted to make it grand. And since the admin employee was the first person to greet visitors, they felt it was the most important job in the office and wanted to give them a badass desk to do it from.
- dalyons 4y ago
  it worked on me! i was super impressed. and then you leave the oval office and it turns out it was floating in a much larger room. Cool effect, best office i've ever been to. I think they got rid of the desk (or made it not the entrance) when trump got elected

sneak 4y ago

There is also a very fancy whitehouse-inspired conference/war room nearby. And a padded leather whiskey library. The level of extravagance there was amazing.

brasic 4y ago

My favorite room was the "secret room": a wood-paneled library which was only accessible via a hidden door: https://twitter.com/cbrasic/status/1623879372116529155 https://twitter.com/cbrasic/status/1623879372116529155 And it wasn't even the most impressive library in the office...