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Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

blog.dropbox.com

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Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#801

Post by [deleted] »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #780
jjnoakes wrote: post #685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation please, about Dropbox training models with customer data?

The article Lammy linked is indeed the correct one. When that bit of news came out I checked my account, and it turned out that Dropbox had added and enabled the toggle without my consent. I was a paying customer mind you, I paid like $120/yr for my storage. After they pulled that crap I started working on setting up Nextcloud hosted in a VPS. It's more expensive, but Dropbox permanently burned my trust when they did…

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#802

Post by jjnoakes »

Lammy wrote: post #761
jjnoakes wrote: post #685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation please, about Dropbox training models with customer data?

I think this is what people are talking about? RE: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38684252 https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-settings-dropbox-... > “For eligible accounts, […] The Third-party AI toggle is turned on” I just logged in and checked and don't have the "Third-Party AI features" tab, but I only have an old free account and am probably not at the tier where this appears.

That feature doesn't train the model on customer's data though, unless I'm missing something.

I agree it's annoying it was enabled by default in places, but I'm trying to either correct the incorrect "for AI training" part, or find a citation that shows they are actually doing AI training with it.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#803

Post by aworks »

trod123 wrote: post #798
nradov wrote: post #762

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually we all get fired. It shouldn't come as a shock. This is why people working in volatile industries subject to boom/bust cycles should live below their means and keep at least several months of living expenses (including health insurance premiums) in low-risk, liquid investments. I do understand that it can be challenging to save for young people with student debt starting out in a HCOL area. But I see older…

> Eventually ... Yes, but the problems start in severe economic crises. Specifically, when those several months turn into years. Many filters during the hiring process, prior to interview will discard those candidates who have gaps since last employment regardless of circumstance. They may use AI as a third-party company to review and obscure the fact that they aren't hiring anyone over 40, female, or otherwise prote…

US President Harry Truman: "It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours."

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#804

Post by zaphod12 »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #779
Quothling wrote: post #750

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a CEO takes full responsibility for these things it doesn't mean that they submit themselves to the punishment that internet users might want. It's the CEO telling their impacted employees that, no matter how well you did as an employee, you would still have been impacted. It's the CEO showing you empathy for the hurt they cause you for having failed to steer the company in a viable direction. These messages are…

> It's the CEO showing you empathy for the hurt they cause you for having failed to steer the company in a viable direction. There is no empathy whatsoever involved when someone says "I take responsibility" and then faces zero consequences. It's just a slap in the face.

I think a lot of people misunderstand the statement 'I take responsibility.' They are not actually taking responsibility for the company's situation. They are owning the decision to make these layoffs.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#805

Post by trod123 »

teractiveodular wrote: post #799
trod123 wrote: post #798

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Eventually ... Yes, but the problems start in severe economic crises. Specifically, when those several months turn into years. Many filters during the hiring process, prior to interview will discard those candidates who have gaps since last employment regardless of circumstance. They may use AI as a third-party company to review and obscure the fact that they aren't hiring anyone over 40, female, or otherwise prote…

> This is a great depression No, it's not even close. Unemployment in 1933 was 25%.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Unemployment calculations from data recorded during that time have since changed. The same unemployment numbers are not the same mathematical objects being compared.

At this point, we can never know the true scope of unemployment to make any comparison definitively, because the measurements no longer accurately collect the necessary information for such a comparison.

You don't see engineers turn sampling data into an average rate of change, and then use it for safety-critical applications that require instantaneous rates of change.

In my previous response, I said unemployment today isn't counted after 18 weeks, so you should be aware that these objects are not the same.

Just because you have no visibility on a problem doesn't mean there isn't a problem especially when objective measures indicate there is a problem.

No definitive comparison can be made objectively, claiming its not even close would involve delusion when no external objective comparison can be made, definitionally.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#806

Post by pclmulqdq »

anon291 wrote: post #505
pclmulqdq wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

COBRA can be good if you are on a platinum plan and have a lot of foreseeable health expenses. HDHP COBRA makes no sense at all.

Please check though, because my kids qualified for medicaid despite my six-figure income. The state of Oregon qualifies by week, so even if you made $10 million / year, if your expected income in the week is $0, you qualify for that week (yes, I literally asked them this question, and he said yes, that is how it works). According to our DHS, there is no upper limit on yearly income that would mandate a clawback of be…

That is interesting to know, and does seem to be true if that $10 million is the lottery and is truly random income and is truly instantaneous. If you are working on a company that you sell, it may not be the case.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#807

Post by JumpCrisscross »

trod123 wrote: post #805
teractiveodular wrote: post #799

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a great depression No, it's not even close. Unemployment in 1933 was 25%.

You are comparing apples to oranges. Unemployment calculations from data recorded during that time have since changed. The same unemployment numbers are not the same mathematical objects being compared. At this point, we can never know the true scope of unemployment to make any comparison definitively, because the measurements no longer accurately collect the necessary information for such a comparison. You don't see…

> Unemployment calculations from data recorded during that time have since changed. The same unemployment numbers are not the same mathematical objects being compared

We can look at the number of people on payrolls and the number of people claiming unemployment.

You are in a deep tech bubble if you think we're in a recession let alone depression. (What we are in is a cost of living crisis.)

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#808

Post by spinmax »

jeffbee wrote: post #148
brk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The employee pet name shit is just really tired at this point. It's as bad as the job postings still looking for Rock Stars or Ninjas or whatever. They're not Dropboxers, they're not associates, they are employees. Pretending otherwise is foolish on both sides.

Dropbox was where I first encountered the infantilization of the workplace, with animated emojis all over your biannual performance review. It was a shock, having come from a real company run by adults. Now everyone thinks this is normal, at least at companies that use Slack where 40% of the traffic is animated emojis.

Exactly how I felt working at Google with their “open concepts”. Thankfully I am back at the University of Washington in a cubicle now, away from the yuppy babies. God knows where people get these ridiculous ideas.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#809

Post by stoniejohnson »

stoniejohnson wrote: post #620
not_your_vase wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> high tech salaries Are they really high? They are not that different from UPS driver salaries. Just the other day I clicked on the website of some random law firm's career page. I wasn't happy with what I saw (in the context of my own career). Some researchers with 1 year of experience with starting salary of 450k+... tech salaries look high as long as you don't check other professions.

They were high in 2013.

Revisited this, and while it was tongue-in-cheek, it feels a bit ungrateful.

A lot of tech roles are intellectually stimulating and have a wage in the upper distribution of salaries. I think we have a very nice situation going for us.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#810

Post by JumpCrisscross »

firesteelrain wrote: post #729
xeromal wrote: post #653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I make a decent salary as a programmer (150k) but my house only cost 250k and my mortgage is about 1400. How I see it, if I have to flip burgers to keep my house, I can pull it off. I can't imagine have a mortgage that's 10gs a month.

> my house only cost 250k I find it hard to believe you can flip enough burgers to pay that mortgage and still survive. Not many fast food places will pay over 30 hours a week to burger flippers. Managers yes. You would barely survive.

> find it hard to believe you can flip enough burgers to pay that mortgage

To keep a $1,400 within the 28/36 rule [1] you need to make $60,000 a year. That's around the median wage for a fast-food manager [2].

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/twenty-eight-thirty-six...

[2] https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/fast-food-manager-salary-...

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