Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 490 posts

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#231

Post by ghaff »

wffurr wrote: post #215
rogerkirkness wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a Powerline and ethernet adapter for your laptop. Won't link here due to spam, just search 'Ethernet Powerline' on Amazon.

Unless you're on an AFCI circuit or split circuits in your house. Or have old wiring. I tried one in my old place and it was really poor - much worse than congested WiFi (dense neighborhood in a large apartment building).

It can work. I installed one in my dad's old house and it worked like a charm. But when I went to put one in my house a few months ago, I did get it to work, but I had to try various locations of ethernet jacks and power plugs to find a combination that both worked and usefully extended my WiFi.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#232

Post by Solvitieg »

randomsearch wrote: post #182
michaelt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I'm concerned, saving an hour of commute each day more than covers the costs of a desk and using a bit more electricity :)

Hate this argument, because many of us deliberately live close to workplaces - and often for environmental reasons.

Yup.

In Canada, those who are overleveraged with massive mortgages far away form the office, are rewarded with mortgage deferrals and low interest rates.

Those who save money, rent, and made sacrifices to live close to work, are the ones to are losing.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#233

Post by tidepod12 »

Def_Os wrote: post #190
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #121

I guess it's not surprising but I am super disappointed by some of the comments here that show a total lack of empathy for people who aren't like you. I mean, you love working from home? Congrats, more power to you. But the number of comments stating that "only people who are good at office politics like going to the office", "only incompetent managers need to see you in person", "your co-workers aren't your friends"…

I recently pinged 2 co-workers for Friday afternoon remote "water cooler calls". I could send the relief when they had some informal time to vent and freely chat. I can recommend it wholeheartedly.

I've noticed this too. I've made it a point now to call up some of my team members at least once a week for no purpose other than to have a venting session.

I don't think I ever realized how much of this venting must have subtly happened in person, but since COVID I think most of it gets bottled up and people get very frustrated when they can't casually talk through these issues in person. My team has collectively agreed that these "venting calls" are great if only for the reason that they make you aware that you're not the only one with frustrations, and I think that really helps morale.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#234

Post by asdff »

whoisburbansky wrote: post #123
derefr wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> collaborative work in "studios", basically reimagining the offices into collaborative/convening spaces that you go into from ~once/week to once a quarter depending on team/role. I’m forgetting their name for them, but IBM has been doing this for decades now. They buy up office space in every major city, and then, rather than permanently stationing any teams there, essentially make all such spaces into private-acces…

Isn't that exactly what WeWork's business model was?

Sorta, but WeWork would be like a middle man parasite compared to leasing directly from the landlord. So not nearly as efficient.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#235

Post by ghaff »

gdulli wrote: post #205
FlyingSnake wrote: post #3

Companies who go permanent WFH must be saving a fortune on leasing space costs. If these savings don’t make it to the employees who’re using their private space for office work for free, then it’s really bad.

It's not like the commercial leases all ended overnight. By the time many of those leases are done, the world will be on track towards normalcy instead of away from it, and people will be dying to get out of the house and interact with other people regularly again. Permanent WFH will eventually become an artifact of covid time like mask usage.

>Permanent WFH will eventually become an artifact of covid time like mask usage.

Lots of us were remote before this, even if we were commuting distance from an office.

But, in general, I don't disagree. I expect a lot of people will move back to being in an office at least 1-2 days a week.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#236

Post by ghaff »

MAGZine wrote: post #161
blakesterz wrote: post #6

here's the orginal: https://blog.dropbox.com/topics/company/dropbox-goes-virtual... This was interesting: "Next, we’re embracing what we call “non-linear workdays.” We’re setting core collaboration hours with overlap between time zones, and encouraging employees to design their own schedules beyond that." I've been WFH for about 8 years and have found this just happens naturally. At least for us it did. My team is in…

Depends how you build your teams. I'm working with people across the globe, no doubt a circumstance of a thousand small decisions. Scheduling some meetings is 100% impossible, and often times it involves taking meetings early (7-8AM) or late (7-9PM) in order to make things work. Even if you carve out time during the day to compensate for those, it's not what I would describe as "practical."

I see up to about 6 hour time difference works pretty well for regular meetings. More than that and people are taking calls outside regular hours which isn't great on an ongoing basis. (Though execs, etc. do it all the time.)

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#237

Post by wuunderbar »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #121

I guess it's not surprising but I am super disappointed by some of the comments here that show a total lack of empathy for people who aren't like you. I mean, you love working from home? Congrats, more power to you. But the number of comments stating that "only people who are good at office politics like going to the office", "only incompetent managers need to see you in person", "your co-workers aren't your friends"…

> I am super disappointed by some of the comments here that show a total lack of empathy for people who aren't like you.

I've noticed as of late HN has been riddled with comments such as: here is my extremely strong thoughts on X with my personal anecdotal experience Y, and therefore this is how the world should work.

> I believe it will be especially bad for those early in their careers

Agreed. I think it can be equally has bad for someone midway into their career who is thinking about taking on more leadership opportunities.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#238

Post by jjice »

puranjay wrote: post #31

As someone who has worked from home for a decade, I predict a mental health apocalypse in the near future. Working from home permanently requires support infrastructure not everyone has access to. It also requires a different approach to work altogether which, again, not everyone is capable of adopting. If you have family, work from home is great. But if you're single, staying cooped up alone at home can be a disaste…

I can only speak from my experience, but being a single man living alone in a one bedroom after moving to a new city in January was absolutely awful. After spending two months in a new city, everything was immediately shut down and I was stuck working at home in my 13x13 room I rented.

The room I slept in was my office and my dining room as well, not to mention my entertainment room. Instead of seeing all my coworkers (who I was fond of) every day in the office, I now saw my small team during our 15 minute stand ups, which would only occur about 2 or 3 times a week. I saw the gas station clerks more.

I hated it, and I didn't really have a support system. I'm in my final year of university now (that work experience was an internship), and I will definitely look primarily for places that will have an actual office environment.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#239

Post by occz »

swalsh wrote: post #73
dhouston wrote: post #33

To be clear (if you only read the headline :)), not entirely remote. Solo work at home, collaborative work in "studios", basically reimagining the offices into collaborative/convening spaces that you go into from ~once/week to once a quarter depending on team/role. Remote-only cuts out the in-person experience entirely, which is problematic for building teams and culture; and ad hoc "WFH whenever you feel like it" ge…

This really is the way to do it in my opinion. Collaboration is one of the hardest parts to do remote (though I think VR could make this better)

>This really is the way to do it in my opinion. Collaboration is one of the hardest parts to do remote (though I think VR could make this better)

Give 'screen control sharing' (for lack of better name?) software a try, two variants I've used are USE Together and Tuple. Being able to have two sets of input devices for the same screen is actually fantastic for collaboration - the pair-programming experience is arguably better than being there in person.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#240

Post by jedberg »

ghaff wrote: post #225
jedberg wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also for tax reasons. If they reimburse you $1000 for equipment, you don’t have to pay income tax or any other tax on that $1000 and neither do they.

Not an accountant but I think "reimburse" is the key word there. If it's a spend how you will stipend, that's just like salary I believe.

Yes, there needs to be receipts that you give to your employer.
Post reply on HN