Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#521

Post by baudpunk » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:47 PM UTC

racl101 wrote: post #333

baudpunk wrote: post #327

Kind of surprising to me, because I think I've tried every large competitor in the space, and have found there to be a gulf between the Dropbox UX and everyone else. I'm more than willing to pay their premium price. I was hoping Proton Drive would compete, but I felt like I was beta testing an inferior product. I guess Wu Tang was right.

Anecdotal: I know a lot of people who use Dropbox, I don't know even one person who pays it. They pay for iCloud, probably cause it makes the iPhone experience even more convenient, but not Dropbox. I also don't pay for it.

Yeah, that makes sense. If I wasn't a PC user, I'd probably be utilizing iCloud as well.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#522

Post by anon291 » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:48 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…

As a former engineering manager this is obvious, in my opinion. Companies don't really like laying people off and PIPs are long and require work. If someone is underperforming, hiring a new person is easier. Alternatively, instead of retraining someone, hiring a new person is easier, and you just keep the old guys around doing whatever. Plus, once in a while they might actually offer something (they typically are very knowledgeable about past decisions)

Given how much money there is in these industries this strategy works for a long time.

The alternative is a harsher work environment that is common in other fields. Despite the popular belief on this forum, tech work has some of the most genteel management of all industries.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#523

Post by ac29 » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:48 PM UTC

elric wrote: post #90

I'm always a bit confused by profitable companies with (presumably) large reserves laying off lots of people. I get that they want to remain profitable. But sure 500ish people could be put to some use? A new product, a new market, a spinoff. Whatever? Are you telling me that no one in such a big, wealthy company of clever engineers has any use for a bunch of talented people?

> I'm always a bit confused by profitable companies with (presumably) large reserves laying off lots of people.

According to their financial statement, Dropbox has more liabilities than assets. So yes, they have a large cash reserve, but with an even larger debt offsetting it its hard to argue they are in a good overall financial position.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#524

Post by gwbas1c » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:48 PM UTC

yellow_lead wrote: post #184

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.

16 weeks + 1 week / year severance works out to 3-5 months.

Looks like enough time to prepare, take a vacation, ect.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#525

Post by SoftTalker » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

JediPig wrote: post #471

eweise wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. last time I got laid off, I got paid through that day. nothing else.

This is why people should build a huge ass f-u fund and not look back.

Yes, as soon as you have a regular paycheck you should start building an emergency fund. This should be taught to everyone in high school (or earlier) but we don't do it, among many other "life skills" that we do not teach because they aren't on the state standardized tests.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#526

Post by anon291 » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #502

anon291 wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The myth of exponential growth is not that companies can't grow exponentially forever (since that's the case for most companies) but rather that the valuation of these companies depends on exponential growth (it does not). Most public companies in the United states do not experience the exponential growth many tech startups do, but do perfectly well for themselves, their customers, and their employees. No one is push…

Except that isn't what happens, instead every year a new goal that has to be X % higher is set, and when expectations are not met, the employees are the ones landing on the street for stupid values of X%. The one signing off on X% might even get a bonus for doing that, and enjoy some Bahamas vacations.

In tech sure, but in the market, many companies simply return dividends. Lots of mining stocks, retailers, commodity producers, etc don't experience exponential growth

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#527

Post by WrongAssumption » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #495

otteromkram wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, people still vie from all over to work at US companies and we still draw the best talent. There's also unemployment benefits for US workers. Haters gonna hate, I guess.

No need to be in US to work for US companies, and still get a nice severance package. Not everyone is looking forward to US working conditions.

You can certainly work for a US company outside the US, however you will not get a US salary.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#528

Post by qwerpy » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

talldayo wrote: post #438

geodel wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> but acting like petulant child and lashing out at CEO won't do much. I don't think anyone is attacking the CEO with the expectation that he's got his iPad in-hand, reading every comment through his tears. What we are saying is that corporate doublespeak is unbelievably fucking grating when it doesn't correlate whatsoever with tangible change at the company. This kind of repeat behavior is what makes people (justifi…

> Tim Cook steps out on and insults us all perennially with his "best iPhone yet" comment

I loved this sentence and the sentiment behind it. Nowadays whenever I get the urge to upgrade my old iPhone 13, I go and rewatch old recordings from 2021 of Tim Cook gushing about how the phone I already have is such a huge leap forward for humanity and why everything that came before it is garbage.

Applying this to CEOs and layoffs, every time you join a new job and start to drink the company kool-aid about how you're part of this wonderful family, go and reread that CEO talking about how he took personal responsibility for throwing hundreds of his "family" out on the street right before the holidays.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#529

Post by mrguyorama » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

realusername wrote: post #35

yieldcrv wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A 20% layoff means either the market changed very very quickly or something went terribly wrong in the company strategy. Here it's the second scenario and I'd expect the CEO to be on shaky grounds after such bad results. There needs to be more explanation on where the CEO screwed up that badly and the consequences for the management.

At the very very least, they should be explaining how Dropbox is suddenly a 20% smaller company, because either that means the market has contracted by 20%, or Dropbox has shit the bed as a competitive entity in said market.

Both options should directly imply that the CEO should earn less. Either you're running a smaller, simpler company, or you sucked at your job.

Eat the loss.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#530

Post by flappyeagle » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 4:51 PM UTC

azemetre wrote: post #509

Something weird I noticed about Dropbox: I cancelled my paid account two years ago. I had 5 terabytes of storage being used (mostly shitty concert vids and food pics). Everyday they email me telling me I’m over my limit. They always “threaten” to delete the data but it’s been two years since I cancelled. My Qs are: why are they hoarding my data for so long? Why would they want to do this? How cheap is storage for the…

You can just delete your data dude. No one is forcing you to keep it there. They’re generally not going to do something destructive because of unpaid bills. It’s nice of them