Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#101

Post by vundercind » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

pizzathyme wrote: post #43

lifeisgood99 wrote: post #2

"As CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision" Oh hey another one that takes responsibility by taking on 0 consequences.

Unpopular opinion, but I don't understand this type of comment. It sounds like people want executives to get some kind of punishment or pain as a consequence of laying people off. But what would that even look like? A fine? That would probably make no practical difference, and would discourage them from making changes that need to be made. Fire them? Then you would probably get a worse decision maker in the driver se…

I think it's an outlet for general frustration with the justification for high executive compensation (and returns on capital, for that matter) often being "they have much more responsibility and risk" when the actual downside is typically nonexistent, and even if there are consequences, the outcome is something like "LOL still richer than any ten of you combined will ever be", i.e. the "risk" is all fake.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#102

Post by mv4 » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

pizzathyme wrote: post #43

lifeisgood99 wrote: post #2

"As CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision" Oh hey another one that takes responsibility by taking on 0 consequences.

Unpopular opinion, but I don't understand this type of comment. It sounds like people want executives to get some kind of punishment or pain as a consequence of laying people off. But what would that even look like? A fine? That would probably make no practical difference, and would discourage them from making changes that need to be made. Fire them? Then you would probably get a worse decision maker in the driver se…

Yes, sometimes reductions are necessary. However, layoffs isn't the only way to reduce variable costs.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#103

Post by avgDev » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

osigurdson wrote: post #94

bhouston wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dropbox is public and has actual profits. I think your comment is not accurate. Instead I think the company has plateaued in growth and thus they need to cut back spending otherwise they will have falling profits and no growth - which is worse than just no growth.

Yeah, I just had a look at dropbox stock. I would have expected permanent cash hemorrhaging, but no they have a P/E of 15.

That is actually quite good. I am surprised.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#104

Post by voisin » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

recroad wrote: post #44

TIL that nobody knows what they're doing. Jokes aside, how do you end up having more than 500 excess people than what you need? What is management exactly doing during the time they went from 1 excess person to 500? Did they just hope the "macroeconomic headwinds" would become tailwinds? Didn't they at some point see that they have more people than valuable work, and maybe we should deal with that problem instead of…

> Didn't they at some point see that they have more people than valuable work

Product roadmap probably had some ambitious ideas that got scrapped when earlier steps proved to not be marginal revenue generators.

Jobs said it best: Dropbox is a feature not a product. All their efforts to make it a product (let alone a platform!) have worked against usability and alienated a lot of users. I am hopeful these layoffs signify a return to sanity in a company that seems to be leading the charge in racking up unforced errors.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#105

Post by lr4444lr » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

pizzathyme wrote: post #43

lifeisgood99 wrote: post #2

"As CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision" Oh hey another one that takes responsibility by taking on 0 consequences.

Unpopular opinion, but I don't understand this type of comment. It sounds like people want executives to get some kind of punishment or pain as a consequence of laying people off. But what would that even look like? A fine? That would probably make no practical difference, and would discourage them from making changes that need to be made. Fire them? Then you would probably get a worse decision maker in the driver se…

> It sounds like people want executives to get some kind of punishment or pain as a consequence of laying people off.

No - as a consequence of poorly planning cost controls. It's not that the people don't need to be laid off for the health of the company, but that the executives who made the bad decisions don't get the boot along with them, in favor of more cautious or frugal leaders.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#106

Post by klausa » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

pizzathyme wrote: post #78

cma256 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The latter. If you can not manage the company correctly and it leads to the job losses of hundreds of people not to mention the millions in salary that was wasted by their poor planning then yes they should be immediately relieved and not allowed to run any other company. They are clearly incompetent. Considering dropbox is not facing some economic recession outside of its control we can only blame the CEO's incompet…

Most big tech companies did mass layoffs in the past few years. They are now fully recovered and posting record profits this week all with the same leadership. You are saying they are incompetent and someone else could have navigated this better?

Yes, they could have just not fired the people and have ridden the AI wave all the same.

Do you genuinely believe that the record profits are due to the layoffs, and not just because we just lucked out to enter a new bubble?

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#107

Post by pizzathyme » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:10 PM UTC

marcelsalathe wrote: post #81

pizzathyme wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unpopular opinion, but I don't understand this type of comment. It sounds like people want executives to get some kind of punishment or pain as a consequence of laying people off. But what would that even look like? A fine? That would probably make no practical difference, and would discourage them from making changes that need to be made. Fire them? Then you would probably get a worse decision maker in the driver se…

Agreed. But just say that. No need to pretend taking responsibility, which is defined as facing consequences when things go bad. “As CEO, I’m truly sorry to those impacted. But I strongly believe that this change is what is needed now to make sure Dropbox can thrive in the future.”

Makes sense. "I take responsibility" conveys that they will also suffer consequences, which isn't true.

"I'm the sole person who made this decision" is probably closer what they are trying to say.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#108

Post by triceratops » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:10 PM UTC

ahstilde wrote: post #86

BossingAround wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? 16 weeks of salary, or 4 months of pay. In my country, you get 3 months of pay as standard when you're fired from your job. Doesn't seem that great to me to be honest.

It sounds like it's 25% better than what you get in your country?

33%

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#109

Post by throwaway313373 » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:10 PM UTC

recroad wrote: post #44

TIL that nobody knows what they're doing. Jokes aside, how do you end up having more than 500 excess people than what you need? What is management exactly doing during the time they went from 1 excess person to 500? Did they just hope the "macroeconomic headwinds" would become tailwinds? Didn't they at some point see that they have more people than valuable work, and maybe we should deal with that problem instead of…

I mean, imagine that you are leading a team of 4 people.

Are you sure that you will always be able to accurately tell if you need a fifth person or not?

Or you have a team of 5 people. Can you tell if you have a one too many?

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#110

Post by klausa » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:10 PM UTC

ahstilde wrote: post #86

BossingAround wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? 16 weeks of salary, or 4 months of pay. In my country, you get 3 months of pay as standard when you're fired from your job. Doesn't seem that great to me to be honest.

It sounds like it's 25% better than what you get in your country?

“25% better than legally required minimum” is not generally considered “great” in many circumstances.