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Dropbox to cut 11% of its global workforce

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Re: Dropbox to cut 11% of its global workforce

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's dismaying that even the best, most shining examples of unicorns that took off on the backs of good products and have stood toe-to-toe with the mega-corps, are now losing value simply because they're competing with the mega-corps , and being forced to look for acquisitions just like all the other startups. If that doesn't plainly show that big tech has gotten too big, I don't know what will.

For me it was the lack of storage tiers. When the only options is to get 1TB or more, I think you lost a lot of users. Additionally, they should have figured out a way to share storage with a family, if the only profitable storage tiers are 1TB or more then let people share it.

They do now have a family plan: https://www.dropbox.com/family

Re: Dropbox to cut 11% of its global workforce

#162
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, is there something lower cost/better that employees who have recently quit or been laid off should look into?

Lower cost, sure any number of options on the market. I used https://www.ehealthinsurance.com years ago between jobs

Lower cost premiums maybe, but I doubt any low-premium marketplace plans will be lower deductible than the corporate/COBRA plans offered by a company like Dropbox.

Re: Dropbox to cut 11% of its global workforce

#163
post #143

Was the COO fired? It sounds like she was, reading this article. Is this a move to further reduce cost by rehiring in less-expensive locations? I imagine engineering functions will also be affected.

> Was the COO fired? It sounds like she was, reading this article.

Knowing nothing about the internals at Dropbox, it does sound like it (on the surface at least). Having worked at a couple major tech companies now, executives never get fired. They "step down", or go on sabbatical ... and never come back. The usual hallmark of the action is that the email about it isn't sent by the leaving executive themselves, it's sent by their boss.

Normal employees don't tend to have these options, but executives are so high profile that it seems to be an informalized practice for both company and executive to save face. It's hard to worry about them too much though because their exit package is likely more than than most of us could make given ten years.

Re: Dropbox to cut 11% of its global workforce

#165
Just my personal observation, I think Dropbox is the perfect example of a company whose time has passed. Between Google drive, and OneDrive being pushed by Microsoft, Dropbox just can't do things all that much better to justify most people using a separate service.

Slack mainly because Google can't figure out which chat service they want to sell, somehow continues to buck the trend and sell itself as a standalone service.

Re: Dropbox to cut 11% of its global workforce

#167

COBRA? COBRA is a sad expensive joke

Healthcare needs to be disconnected from the employer. Public option and private and all healthcare benefits need to go to salary. It would make workers able to change jobs easier, businesses able to start and compete with others/countries easier, and would reduce ageism as well as going direct to consumer it would help the fixed pricing market of healthcare/medical services and supplies. We don't get our auto/home/l…

My health insurance isn't taxed, or at least effectively not anywhere near what my top salary bracket is. Our tax law means there would be no short-term advantage for either me or my employer to shift that compensation into cash.

If my employer offered additional desirable insurance to replace an equal amount of pre-tax salary, I would gladly except that extra compensation too.

Re: Dropbox to cut 11% of its global workforce

#169
post #141

Well at least it’s more upfront and sincere than some of the cut backs that have been happening.

This was my thought too. I don't know what Dropbox employess are going through but on the surface this looks a lot better than the layoffs that I've witnessed first hand.
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