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Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

businessinsider.com

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Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#391

Post by Cyph0n »

jarjoura wrote: post #160
dimator wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think no one is thinking past "but I'm more productive!", that's including employers and employees. Productivity is not the be-all end-all of a career! Human interaction (of any kind) is important, "wasting" time going to lunch with colleagues is important, serendipitous encounters at the coffee machine are important. I know for certain if my employer decides to go permanent remote, I'll be looking for another empl…

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.

Productivity has nothing to do with how long you work... but working until midnight does sound like a recipe for burnout. You should take a break to reset, as soon as you can!

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#392

Post by esperent »

low_common wrote: post #382
hombre_fatal wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the comments you've cited are a bit ridiculous. But it's also important to acknowledge that pre-Covid, only a tiny fraction of jobs were remote at all. People who preferred remote work had very little choice in the matter. Our society assumes that commuting to work and sitting in a cubicle (or worse) is fitting for 99% of the work force. So what I mainly see here aren't the comments you cite, but a "ugh…

I've day-dreamed about doing this exact same thing. Moving down to Costa Rica, drinking out of a coconut and working on the beach indefinitely. How do you like it? How long have you been doing it?

Not OP but I've been doing it in SEA for about 5 years now. Usually I stay in one place place for 6 months or so then take 6 weeks off to travel until I find a new beach to work from while sipping coconuts, but I'm feeling more like being settled now and I've been in Vietnam for the past year (bonus: no covid here). There are large communities of like minded people out here doing this, lots of couples in their late twenties and thirties and even a few families. Not to mention the local culture and people are amazing. For myself, it allows me to work freelance part time and work on my own projects which are far more interesting to me than working for other people, which I couldn't afford to spend time on back home. The biggest pain point is visas - depending on the country you'll probably have to do a border run every one to three months. Also, technically, you'll be working illegally but at least in SEA this is ignored as there are loads of co-working spaces that cater to the digital nomad crowd and nobody official has ever complained about any of them to my knowledge. The countries presumably view us as rich long term tourists. Thailand is the first country to make moves to legitimize this with a (very limited) working nomad visa. I hope in the future more places will do this as this movement grows.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#393

Post by easton »

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #377
ghaff wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure you really need that anymore. I can do 95% of my work from a Chromebook. Even if you need to do more locally a laptop works for most people without a Sun Ray type system (which can also be done through some cloud offerings).

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.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#394

Post by ksec »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #104
bob33212 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have done this for years. I have seen that some people don't like it for the following reasons. 1. They prefer a predictable schedule. 2. They don't like being at home ( family or workspace issues) 3. They are good at or enjoy office politics. 4. They are incompetent managers and they don't know how to manage engineers other than looking over shoulders and taking attendence.

> 3. They are good at or enjoy office politics. As a counterpoint, we had a mix of remote department and in-office departments at my last company. Transitioning to fully remote made marked an increase in politics every time. It sounds counterintuitive at first, but fully remote moves even more conversations to side channels. At the office it’s hard to have secret exclusionary meetings without other people noticing ev…

>As a counterpoint, we had a mix of remote department and in-office departments at my last company. Transitioning to fully remote made marked an increase in politics every time.

That basically turn Office Discussions into Internet discussions. There are many things that just dont translate well with words, or even with Voice and Video Call.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#395

Post by fpig »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #121

I guess it's not surprising but I am super disappointed by some of the comments here that show a total lack of empathy for people who aren't like you. I mean, you love working from home? Congrats, more power to you. But the number of comments stating that "only people who are good at office politics like going to the office", "only incompetent managers need to see you in person", "your co-workers aren't your friends"…

My issue here is this is not really a honest conversation most of the time.

Wanting to work from home generally means just that, wanting to work from home. Not wanting to work from home however usually really means "I don't want others to be able to work from home", it's about taking options away from other people. The exception being people who don't want to work from home because they have a pack of screaming children at home, etc - in their case saying they don't want to work from home is actually honest.

Your comment is a good example. For your perceived issues to be resolved, we need to make other people work at the office. The idea that others shouldn't have the option to work from home because them being at the office helps someone else build their network is not something I can agree with.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#396

Post by abnercoimbre »

fpig wrote: post #395
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #121

I guess it's not surprising but I am super disappointed by some of the comments here that show a total lack of empathy for people who aren't like you. I mean, you love working from home? Congrats, more power to you. But the number of comments stating that "only people who are good at office politics like going to the office", "only incompetent managers need to see you in person", "your co-workers aren't your friends"…

My issue here is this is not really a honest conversation most of the time. Wanting to work from home generally means just that, wanting to work from home. Not wanting to work from home however usually really means "I don't want others to be able to work from home", it's about taking options away from other people. The exception being people who don't want to work from home because they have a pack of screaming child…

I came to say exactly this. In addition, we can't forget the people who have to work in the city but can't afford to live there, so their lives are made vastly more difficult.

Sometimes the commute is just too stressful, even if you live in the city. My partner's well-being has visibly improved due to going into the office only when necessary.

Maybe WFH should be renamed to something else. It doesn't capture all the subtleties of flexibility and choice we're asking for.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#397

Post by phamilton »

haswell wrote: post #341
e40 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't you brainstorm in a virtual room? I've been part of that many times over the years, and it works, too. The only thing I miss is taking walks with coworkers. That is where the real value was for me. Something about walking and talking that is so beneficial.

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.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#399

Post by repsilat »

this_na_hipster wrote: post #163
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #121

I guess it's not surprising but I am super disappointed by some of the comments here that show a total lack of empathy for people who aren't like you. I mean, you love working from home? Congrats, more power to you. But the number of comments stating that "only people who are good at office politics like going to the office", "only incompetent managers need to see you in person", "your co-workers aren't your friends"…

I completely agree. Additionally, as someone in the thread pointed out, this decision really doesn't make sense by Dropbox. You have a series of problems that I can't see a solution for. 1) If we have Dropbox Studios, who dictates the frequency of those visits? If a manager dictates, there will be resentment of some sorts. If its a democratic vote, what about the people that can't make that date? 2) Assuming the date…

I figure it doesn't make sense to commit to it if they can do it without committing, but not a bad thing to give it a go. I figure

- most ideas are bad,

- judgement is a crapshoot but improves the odds up to 50/50,

- trying and either rejecting or committing (or going bankrupt) gets the odds of the better solution prevailing in the market up to 60-odd percent.

Plenty of confounding variables, lots of opportunity to get unlucky and draw the wrong conclusions (or just have your priors overrule weak evidence against them), but it's science and we haven't found anything better yet.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#400

Post by patmorgan23 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #117
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 3. They are good at or enjoy office politics. As a counterpoint, we had a mix of remote department and in-office departments at my last company. Transitioning to fully remote made marked an increase in politics every time. It sounds counterintuitive at first, but fully remote moves even more conversations to side channels. At the office it’s hard to have secret exclusionary meetings without other people noticing ev…

> It sounds counterintuitive at first, but fully remote moves even more conversations to side channels I am 100% experiencing this right now. It isn't negative, exactly, at least not yet, but a lot of informal discussions between teams that used to occur in the hallway, break room, or wherever, just doesn't happen spontaneously when we are all remote. So it goes through more traditional channels, which makes it more…

As some one currently doing an internship this is wait I don't like what COVID-19 has done the workplace. It's much harder for me to build relationships with my coworkers, over hear conversations (in a good way) and have informal extemporaneous interactions when me and my coworkers aren't in the same physical place.
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