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Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

businessinsider.com

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Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#461

Post by derefr »

easton wrote: post #393
fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The advantage of working primarily on a thin client is that turning off the client doesn’t stop the computation. Also, the worst part of modern IT tech is messing with projectors/keyboards/etc. for presentations and meetings. I’d much rather swipe my card at the projector and have my current desktop automagically broadcast to the projector. (AirPlay is pretty close to this, I guess). Anyways, the killer feature is a…

You can buy this precise thing from Citrix/VMware (I used it with a password, other people used it with smart cards). It’s extremely common in healthcare.

Or from Amazon — their offering is called Amazon WorkSpaces. (I say this to point out that “cloud workstations” aren’t just a legacy offering for legacy companies; the vertical is healthy and growing.)

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#462

Post by derefr »

texasbigdata wrote: post #309
ViViDboarder wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IBM calls it hotelling. You can book a desk and check in at any office.

Sounds good. Who plugs in your monitors and other tools? :)

To actually answer your question — these coworking spaces do have IT staff. They’re mostly responsible for maintaining the shared infrastructure, but they’ll help you out with your needs as well, if you ask. If you reserve a cube for months at a time, you can certainly bring in a full workstation setup, and they’ll help you to wire it up. (Not that you’d need much help; both power and Ethernet drops are right there for the taking.)

It’s really the socialism to WeWork’s capitalism: because everyone there is, in the end, working for the same employer, enabling the people who come to work there to succeed at their jobs is part of the job-description of the stationed office staff. They aren’t just exchanging money for doing the letter-of-the-law of your SLA contract with them, with your job as an opaque thing that takes up a room. Office staff are more like a college librarian is to a college student: a resource paid to help however they can.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#463

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

ashtonkem wrote: post #460
bitdotdash wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something that might bear considering, is what is the office providing you that can't be served some other way? Socializing can be served outside of work (friends, hobbies), Work structure or a dedicated work space can be created without requiring a company office (pay consideration for co-working space or re-allocate commute costs/proximity premiums to a larger living space with a dedicated room for work). For most…

Americans have increasingly depended on work for connection and meaning as various non-work social institutions have withered. It is probably a bad thing that work is a core social network for a lot of us, and we should all attempt to diversify our networks.

It's tough to have lots of non-work social networks, especially when you work full time and have children/a family.

It's completely understandable that work has taken such a central place in many people's lives. It's probably not ideal, but it is completely understandable.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#464

Post by ghaff »

ashtonkem wrote: post #458
ghaff wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teams schedule conference rooms. Even fully remote, teams will presumably get together physically a few times a year. Whether you're "fully remote" (and maybe have to fly to a get-together) or schedule weekly/biweekly office time will be a function of how a team/company wants to operate.

There’s a huge difference between a few times a year and once every 1-2 weeks, both on the company and the employee. At once a quarter we can just rent a coworking space and fly in, but at once a week everyone needs to live within ~90min of the office and the company needs to maintain some level of excess office capacity in order to seat these workers 1x a week. To my eye remote 4x a week forfeits most of the benefit…

I don't necessarily disagree and, in fact, you're describing the way that my broader group is organized albeit with some subset of people normally going into an office.

That said, there are plenty of people who want to go into an office semi-regularly and, if you tell them they're going to be 100% remote--even if financial arrangements are made to subsidize a co-working space in some manner--they're probably not going to like it and will probably leave for a more office-friendly company.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#465

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

phamilton wrote: post #397
haswell wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about conversations that might take all day, or days. Breaking down enormous problems. Deep collaborative work. Can you do this in a virtual room? Yes. Will you achieve the same outcome? Early results (in my case) seem to indicate the answer is "no". I want the ability to pace around the room at times. Look my collaborators in the eye. Pick up on non-verbal cues that are often impossible to see remotely.…

What you are describing is what we did with a half remote team at least once a quarter. Fly everyone in, have collaborative meetings during the day, team bonding at night.

I do think one of the core issues with the current Covid situation is that companies which are now completely remote can't do the normal bonding things that remote companies used to do.

Given the ability to do so, I do wonder how much of the concerns around remote work could be resolved.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#466

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

nullsense wrote: post #357
jarjoura wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first 2 months of lockdown, I was crazy productive, working till midnight every night. Then little by little I'm slowly finding it harder and harder to concentrate. My productivity has fallen enough that my manager has called it out. So, at this point the commute and my eating habits have been the only thing that has significantly improved from this WFH lifestyle.

Working until midnight will probably do that to you.

Unless you are some kind of super-human (which unfortunately most of us are not), I'd replace probably with definitely.

Also, long hours are not equal to productivity, and believing that they are is a quick route to burnout (which sucks, and you should try to avoid).

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#467

Post by phamilton »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #465
phamilton wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are describing is what we did with a half remote team at least once a quarter. Fly everyone in, have collaborative meetings during the day, team bonding at night.

I do think one of the core issues with the current Covid situation is that companies which are now completely remote can't do the normal bonding things that remote companies used to do. Given the ability to do so, I do wonder how much of the concerns around remote work could be resolved.

Yeah, though even simple efforts yield big dividends. We schedule about 20 minutes after our company all hands to 'zingle', which sometimes includes breakout rooms to just hangout with a dozen people in an unstructured way. We do weekly "pub trivia" and other social activities. I've gotten in the habit of booking social lunches with coworkers, where we just hop on a zoom and catch up over lunch.

I won't say it's a perfect substitute, but not doing those things would be a disaster.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#468

Post by renewiltord »

thebean11 wrote: post #448
renewiltord wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of these things are productivity improvements. And I'm sure any company would buy them if I cared, but $200? It's a rounding error. And it liberates me from any choices they'd make.

IntelliJ Ultimate is $500 for a commercial license I believe (and you need a commercial license to do work for a company over a certain size, even if you pay for it yourself). Sure it's not going to affect my finances either way but: 1. The 2 minutes it takes to file an expense report is a good trade for $200 (I don't make $6,000 an hour at my job) 2. It's the principle; they should pay for it, not me.

No, you don't have to do that¹. Where did you get that info? I don't want to argue your personal value calculation and I accept that you feel the way you do, so let's set that part aside.

I've been using my IntelliJ licence at multiple jobs on my own and AFAIK if I don't get it reimbursed I don't need a business licence.

¹ https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240855-Can-...

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#469

Post by dlandis »

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…

Well it's not necessarily a bad thing if the pay cut isn't too severe. Totally depends on what the adjustment is, and whether it's fair.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#470

Post by confidantlake »

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…

There is already a disaster in being forced to go into the office for some of us. For those of with social anxiety issues, being forced to come into the office every day is incredibly stressful. I haven't had a single panic attack since we went remote for Covid. My mental outlook changed from struggling to get through the day to enjoying life.
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