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Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

businessinsider.com

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Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#271

Post by ghaff »

packetlost wrote: post #227
coldpie wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm 7 months into being forced to WFH and I still hate it. I like the work/life separation going into the office brings. I actually liked my commute since I took the bus, so it was time to read and decompress. I like seeing and talking to my coworkers. I like having the variety of simply being out of the house. I like not having work stuff at home, so when I'm home, I don't have the temptation to do work. I'm g…

Same, been in semi-forced WFH since late March, and don't like it. It'd probably be fine if I could go to a cafe or had a proper office. As it stands I barely leave the house except to occasionally grab food, and that's not nearly enough. Honestly the last time I felt this bad was my summers in high school where I didn't have a way to go anywhere, or money to do anything with.

WFH is fine for me. WFH without my usual extensive travel and without the ability to otherwise mix up my schedule is tiresome. And I have a good home setup and have been working remote to greater or lesser degrees for around 15 years or so.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#272

Post by crayboff »

didip wrote: post #187

I don't understand the negative responses here. At least for me, I want the company to treat me as an adult and trust that work can still get done well regardless where I am sitting. This is a good move and upgrades Dropbox in my mind.

It's for the same reason why people are negative about companies that require working from the office without any WFH. There are people who are established with their jobs and their teams who don't need to can just sit down at home and go. There are others who prefer the interaction and find themselves more efficient in a non-personal setting like an office.

The negativity is that many of these companies may start trending to a required work from home model as opposed to an optional/hybrid approach.

There is also a smaller worry that these companies will offload a lot of the cost to their employees (i.e. not paying for internet, space, food, etc) without compensating them for these perks that were otherwise promised/expected.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#273

Post by packetlost »

ghaff wrote: post #271
packetlost wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, been in semi-forced WFH since late March, and don't like it. It'd probably be fine if I could go to a cafe or had a proper office. As it stands I barely leave the house except to occasionally grab food, and that's not nearly enough. Honestly the last time I felt this bad was my summers in high school where I didn't have a way to go anywhere, or money to do anything with.

WFH is fine for me. WFH without my usual extensive travel and without the ability to otherwise mix up my schedule is tiresome. And I have a good home setup and have been working remote to greater or lesser degrees for around 15 years or so.

Yeah, I think the combination of not being able to realistically take breaks or travel is having the larger effect. My home setup would be fine if I had the room to put my desk somewhere not in my bedroom (it's arguably more comfortable than my office) but the routine of: roll out of bed, make coffee, desk, make lunch, desk, make dinner, couch/desk, desk, roll into bed sucks a lot.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#274

Post by oblio »

bob33212 wrote: post #88
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…

I have done this for years. I have seen that some people don't like it for the following reasons. 1. They prefer a predictable schedule. 2. They don't like being at home ( family or workspace issues) 3. They are good at or enjoy office politics. 4. They are incompetent managers and they don't know how to manage engineers other than looking over shoulders and taking attendence.

5. They enjoy socializing with coworkers.

Even in tech, not everyone is an introvert.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#275

Post by tayo42 »

leetcrew wrote: post #131
geerlingguy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to think of the junior engineers, who might not have a ton of disposable income. In the before times, they would be put at a workstation with a $2-3000 desk, a $500+ chair, reliable Internet and power, and usually a new(ish) computer, monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Those engineers don't have the income to get all those pieces for home use; they'll get a cheap Ikea desk and chair, a middling-quality monitor and…

you don't need a $2-3000 desk just to hold a computer and some monitors. you can get a large desk with electronic height adjustment from ikea for about $400. I'm a junior engineer and I already happen to have a nice chair, computer, and monitor at home. my desk is a piece of trash from walmart, but it gets the job done. altogether, it's about $3500 worth of stuff if bought new. I wouldn't be happy to pay for all that…

The expensive standing desks are only 6-800.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#276

Post by somekyle »

loco5niner wrote: post #267
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…

The better solution is to not have empty lives outside of work. I realize that's a hard problem to solve, but it's worth solving, and maybe WFH will help spark that change.

It's a harder problem to solve when you've moved across the country (or world) to work for years at companies that actively cultivated a world of "work and play at work"/"hang out after hours" with legitimate professional incentive to participate. There's a real sense in which Bay area tech companies invested in social infrastructure to make living in a place where you have no real personal connections sustainable, so if they stop providing that benefit, it can be a real problem to those with less social resources.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#277

Post by choppaface »

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…

Am curious what sort of metrics and studies that Dropbox HR plans to do to assess this change. The current COVID-mandated WFH atmosphere is a lot different than how things were pre-COVID. In particular, there's the impact of children at home, and for ICs there's a special stigma (due to COVID) to support isolation. However, Dropbox's culture has always been uniquely supportive of IC independence during pre-COVID times despite the fancy office, "Michelin Star" cafeteria, etc. Curious to see how the change is assessed, even if the detailed hypotheses supporting it are never fully explained.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#278

Post by x87678r »

geerlingguy wrote: post #23
jopsen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I somehow don't feel sorry if overpaid tech workers, like me, have to buy a desk and chair. It's not like you need new office furniture very often.

I tend to think of the junior engineers, who might not have a ton of disposable income. In the before times, they would be put at a workstation with a $2-3000 desk, a $500+ chair, reliable Internet and power, and usually a new(ish) computer, monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Those engineers don't have the income to get all those pieces for home use; they'll get a cheap Ikea desk and chair, a middling-quality monitor and…

I've been a dev for 20 years and I have a second hand Ikea table that works great and a $60 chair from staples which I'm thinking of upgrading to Steelcase from ebay that is a few hundred. My old PC is much quicker than my crappy PC I used to have in the office.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#279

Post by ghaff »

stetrain wrote: post #251
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"…

See also all the posts about "I had to work from home during a pandemic, with forced restrictions on other activities and social gatherings, while also home schooling my children and dealing with an inordinate amount of stress and disruption to my life, therefore I hate work from home and would never consider it given the choice." The last 6 months isn't really representative of why we should or should not be encoura…

There's an in-person CIO Symposium event I usually go to and this year it was spread out into a series of short virtual events. One very common theme is that necessity made them do things that they were skeptical about, thought would take too long, would be really hard and... the world didn't end and, in fact, things turned out better than expected. A lot of experiments that people were afraid to perform were performed for them and things turned out not bad. Or even well.

Of course, WFH is a mixed bag and I expect 100% remote to be rare but I do expect a lot more flexibility at many companies.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#280

Post by haswell »

tidepod12 wrote: post #233
Def_Os wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ag…

> 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.

I hadn't considered this angle before reading your comment, but the psychological impact of this alone is huge. As any therapist will tell you, working through frustrations and integrating negative experiences instead of bottling them up is crucial.

This is something I already struggled with prior to COVID, and I've been seeing a therapist for years now for this (and many other) reasons.

The thing about bottling things up is that it kind of "works" for awhile. Until it doesn't.

So we probably haven't even started to see the longer term impact this will have over time.

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