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Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

blog.dropbox.com

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Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#181

Post by izacus »

eob wrote: post #115
malfist wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Resignation. If they made a big enough blunder to need to lay off 20% of their staff, they're not capable of leading the company. Why do we think they'd do any better next time if there are no consequences to their poor leadership?

Have you ever managed a complex, dynamic, changing system and found that the optimal size based on current conditions was 20% less than it was at some prior time? I can think of all sorts examples.

Why can't the CEO share the fate of laid off employees? They did nothing wrong either.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#182

Post by yojo »

ziddoap wrote: post #67
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…

They say "I take responsibility" and then.. don't take any responsibility. It's insult on injury. How big of a bonus will this CEO get this year? Last year?

I think Houston being a cofounder means the financial picture looks different. Last year he made $1.5M in total comp. Which is a lot in absolute terms, but cutting his pay to zero would only allow keeping ~6 of those laid off. OTOH, he owns 25% of a $9B company. His salary is a rounding error compared to the performance of the stock.

Not to be an apologist, but I bet Drew really does feel responsible. He’s not professional management, and he always acted like Dropbox was his kid, at least from what I saw working there. I’m sure this feels shitty to him, though it’s obviously worse for the people laid off.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#183

Post by kraig911 »

Dropbox my one critique is can you please make it affordable again. I just can't justify the cost as there are cheaper services out there. I don't care about PDF signing etc. I fear OneDrive/Google Drive are eating you lunch because it's a hard sell to be competitive against them price wise.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#184

Post by yellow_lead »

absoluteunit1 wrote: post #29

The severance package is great! I don’t think I would be upset (unless I was extremely passionate about a project I was working on)

I dunno. It may take 1-2 months to prepare for Leetcode style interviews, and this can be pretty mentally exhausting. Every time you fail to solve a leetcode question, it feeds your imposter syndrome, which is probably even worse due to getting fired.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#185

Post by l33t7332273 »

cma256 wrote: post #50
qeternity wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: what do people want from a CEO in this situation? What consequences do you want the CEO to face? A token reduction in pay? Being fired?

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…

What if managing the company correctly requires hundreds of people losing their jobs?

I understand the anger in this scenario as employees, but I don’t think doing layoffs means leadership is clearly incompetent. Running a company is hard.

Doing layoffs definitely says something about the company’s values and current standing, but I don’t think it necessarily means the CEO is bad.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#186

Post by dylan604 »

skwee357 wrote: post #36
yieldcrv wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how would you like the next CEO to handle it, for reference?

These words mean nothing really. I expect the next CEO to not use meaningless phrases. How does "taking responsibility" works in his case? What does it even mean other than PR fluff?

why would you expect the next CEO to not use weasel words? it's like they all go to the same "mom school". they all go to the same tailor to make teflon suits so nothing sticks to them, and they all learn the same "rain in spain falls on the plain" dreck.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#187

Post by superxpro12 »

voisin wrote: post #133
Shank wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But what would that even look like? > Iwata ran the Kyoto, Japan-based video game company [Nintendo] from 2002 until his death in 2015. To avoid layoffs, Iwata took a 50% pay cut to help pay for employee salaries, saying a fully-staffed Nintendo would have a better chance of rebounding. [0] [0]: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/nintendo-ceo-once-halved-sal...

By taking that pay cut, how many employees could Nintendo keep that would otherwise have been fired? 5? 20? Certainly not in the hundreds or thousands. This just seems like virtue signalling. Edit: to expand on my point re virtue signalling: the article states the CEO took a salary cut, not total compensation (and it doesn’t elaborate on the value of the cut). Salary is a small fraction of CEO total compensation - th…

Optics matter. When a CEO approves mass layoffs, and ALSO approves a 60% salary increase, I can only conclude that the CEO is nothing but self-interested. Rewarding yourself for firing a statistically significant percentage of your company SHOULD indicate failure, not success.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#188

Post by fullshark »

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…

The point is words mean nothing from the C-suite, and are just tools to accomplish whatever labor/public relation goals they have.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#190

Post by coldpie »

qeternity wrote: post #41
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.

Genuine question: what do people want from a CEO in this situation? What consequences do you want the CEO to face? A token reduction in pay? Being fired?

They should face the same consequences as the people they are firing. Lose their health insurance (or pay COBRA), have a few months' worth of expenses in the bank, have to find a new job, that kind of thing.

I suspect you wouldn't see these comments if CEO pay was on the same order of magnitude as the people who actually work at the companies they run. Watching someone treat your livelihood like a toy, while also being rewarded with more money than any person will ever need, is a bit grating.

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