At Automattic, you get to change your work laptop after 18 months. The old one can be bought by yourself or your family or friends, or you send it for resell. You then spec your own replacement and get it ordered. It’s an Apple, unless you have a good reason for choosing differently.

At my previous employer, they had a policy of doing it every 5 years. It was usually 7. Even by 5 years, it’s slow and buggy and really impacted your work capability.

Anyway, once you’ve been at the company for 4 years, you get a special “anniversary” laptop (assuming you order a laptop) – this goes away to a third party company to have one of the company logos (you choose which one) etched into the lid, with a backlight put behind it, much like the old Apple Mac lids of yore. When it’s due for replacement 18 months later, it’s yours to keep.

Now at Automattic for over 4.5 years, I now have mine and it’s a thing of beauty. And, yes, I chose the VIP logo…

The light does look a lot better than this photo shows.

I’ve since stickered the lid in true geek style.