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Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

businessinsider.com

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Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#331

Post by e40 »

haswell wrote: post #257
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"…

Thank you for highlighting this. As others have said, I could not agree more. As a Product Manager, working remotely 100% of the time is absolute hell. And I say this as someone who was already working from home ~70% of the time before (and I was mostly ok with that). I also wanted to pick on a few of the categories you mentioned: > "only incompetent managers need to see you in person" Some of the best work I've done…

Why can't you brainstorm in a virtual room? I've been part of that many times over the years, and it works, too.

The only thing I miss is taking walks with coworkers. That is where the real value was for me. Something about walking and talking that is so beneficial.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#332

Post by ghaff »

steelframe wrote: post #324
packetlost wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’ve just started nuking entire two-hour blocks of time out of the day, which is always pre-filled with back-to-back half hour crap meetings, so that I can go out on a bike trail. Most of the time people don’t seem to care, but on occasion when someone asks me why I wasn’t at their precious half-hour crap meeting, I respond that I had some kind of “carers” issue, and if there is anything relevant they need from me to…

I'm fortunate to have a forest/river trail I can walk to. So long as the weather is halfway decent I do at least a mile or two (and can do up to about seven) every day. And there's basically never anyone on it.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#333

Post by maerF0x0 »

jjmarinho wrote: post #22
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 a zero sum game. WFH can simultaneously save money for the company and for the employees.

The complaint is the distribution of that savings particularly in a highly leveraged scenario like COVID. Employee power is at an all time low.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#336

Post by serverholic »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #292
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 agree that the comments you've cited are a bit ridiculous. But it's also important to acknowledge that pre-Covid, only a tiny fraction of jobs were remote at all. People who preferred remote work had very little choice in the matter. Our society assumes that commuting to work and sitting in a cubicle (or worse) is fitting for 99% of the work force. So what I mainly see here aren't the comments you cite, but a "ugh…

It's also time for us to raise our voices and be heard. If we pro-remote people don't say anything then companies could easily think that everyone wants to go back to the way things were.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#337

Post by ndfbdf »

throwaway98az8 wrote: post #179

Context: I was in the interview pipeline before/when this announced, so I've gotten some additional clarification on the logistics. I think this is strictly worse than providing employees with the option of where to work (office/remote/some WFH). Something missing in this announcement is that you still need to live in one of the main cities with offices (SF, Seattle, Austin, Dublin) in order to receive full pay. Movi…

You can be within 100 miles of a main hub city and be paid within the same band. 100 miles from Seattle is quite a lot of options for instance that are not expensive.

And "full pay" is relative to the cost of employment for each area. For instance the adjusted amount you would receive in say Kansas still is quite a lot for the area.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#338

Post by hinkley »

Silicon Valley got started because a bunch of people with too much free time were in the same town with people they could poach.

I've been imagining a scenario where a bunch of WFH people collectively pick a random town near a decent CS college, move there, and once they have settled in, begin cooking up their own startups.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#339

Post by TillE »

ccktlmazeltov wrote: post #318
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"…

Commuting is destroying cities (we give up space for cars, noise pollution, pedestrian streets, etc.), people (how much time do you lose in commute?), and the world (pollution). Cars were invented in an era where cities were not as dense, and where jobs were mostly done in person. With the advent of the internet and personal computers, this is changing, that you want it or not.

This is a problem all over, but it's 100x worse in America, where it's basically impossible to survive in 99% of the country without a car.

Redesigning cities is glacially slow even with a clear political will, but taking a bunch of people off the roads at peak times is quick and relatively painless.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#340

Post by serverholic »

ghaff wrote: post #284
Smithalicious wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people who thrive working from home have been forced to work in the office for their entire career and are now VERY driven on defending their improved working conditions.

Yes. And the flip side is you have people who hate WFH (especially in the current situation) who liked the everyone in the office model really fear that, even absent 100% remote, the in-office experience will be much reduced with many of their co-workers coming in seldom. And meetings will all still be on Zoom. There are a lot of incentives to stake out positions. People don't really want to be fully remote at a comp…

So basically anti-WFH people are sad that they can't hold pro-WFH people hostage anymore.
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