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Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

blog.dropbox.com

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Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#761

Post by Lammy »

jjnoakes wrote: post #685
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I left Dropbox when they added (and preemptively enabled) a checkbox that shared your data with them for AI training. I refuse to do business with a company that will just unilaterally invade my privacy like that. They can make it as cheap as they want, I'll never go back.

Citation please, about Dropbox training models with customer data?

I think this is what people are talking about? RE: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38684252

https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-settings-dropbox-...

> “For eligible accounts, […] The Third-party AI toggle is turned on”

I just logged in and checked and don't have the "Third-Party AI features" tab, but I only have an old free account and am probably not at the tier where this appears.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#762

Post by nradov »

bruckie wrote: post #705
tschellenbach wrote: post #551

The same forces that enable high tech salaries, also make layoffs more likely. - The market for talent is competitive. So companies bid up to the absolute max they can - The market for managers is also competitive. Creating dynamics that lead to larger teams and raises for team members - Companies allow things like remote work, which is a perk, but also has a lot of abuse in terms of how much work gets done The end r…

> Your manager doesn't get upset when you leave, bit weird how people feel so differently when they get fired. When you leave, your manager loses 1/N of team productivity. When you get fired, you lose 100% of your income. I bet the manager would be more upset if the entire team quit. But even then, they'd still have their job—for a while, at least.

Eventually we all get fired. It shouldn't come as a shock. This is why people working in volatile industries subject to boom/bust cycles should live below their means and keep at least several months of living expenses (including health insurance premiums) in low-risk, liquid investments.

I do understand that it can be challenging to save for young people with student debt starting out in a HCOL area. But I see older tech workers who ought to know better buying luxury cars and fancy gaming PCs and taking exotic vacations. Good luck to them when the next recession hits.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#763

Post by Der_Einzige »

hankman86 wrote: post #463

The uncomfortable truth is that pretty much any business can cut staff by 20% without impacting overall performance. Provided that you manage to weed out the tail end of the performance bell curve that is. Most of the time, reducing staff is a healthy move for the business and the impacted employees. The company will not only save cost, but strengthen its culture of high performance. And under-achieving employees are…

You think that people who are doing nothing all day are unhappy?

Protestant work ethic got you by the gizzards.

We call it "rest and vest" here in the tech retirement homes of companies known for being "chill" like Microsoft, Linkedin, Salesforce, Oracle, IBM, Intel (historically), etc

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#764

Post by insane_dreamer »

tschellenbach wrote: post #551

The same forces that enable high tech salaries, also make layoffs more likely. - The market for talent is competitive. So companies bid up to the absolute max they can - The market for managers is also competitive. Creating dynamics that lead to larger teams and raises for team members - Companies allow things like remote work, which is a perk, but also has a lot of abuse in terms of how much work gets done The end r…

> Your manager doesn't get upset when you leave, bit weird how people feel so differently when they get fired.

How is this weird? Your take is like the famous saying about the chicken and the pig both contributing equally to the egg and ham sandwich.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#765

Post by jedberg »

> Impacted employees will be eligible to keep company devices (phones, tablets, laptops, and peripherals) for personal use.

It's not often you see this. Netflix used to do this if your equipment wasn't brand new, and with any phone[1]. And the very first startup I worked for let me buy my laptop, desktop, monitor, and cell phone for $50. But you don't see it too often.

[1] There was a "joke" at Netflix that if your manager told you that you should upgrade your phone, it meant you were gonna get let go soon, because sometimes people really did get let go just weeks after getting a new phone, and they got to keep the phone.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#766

Post by Izikiel43 »

xeromal wrote: post #653
dixie_land wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, I feel a lot of my coworkers fell under this trap: if you need cashflow for mortgage on your 4m mansion in (affluent neighborhood), you can't really afford it.

I make a decent salary as a programmer (150k) but my house only cost 250k and my mortgage is about 1400. How I see it, if I have to flip burgers to keep my house, I can pull it off. I can't imagine have a mortgage that's 10gs a month.

> I make a decent salary as a programmer (150k) but my house only cost 250k

I'm guessing remote work, or a high position in the midwest or some other place?

In SF/Seattle/NYC, 250K is not enough for a studio apartment.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#768

Post by cma256 »

l33t7332273 wrote: post #730
cma256 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What if managing the company correctly requires hundreds of people losing their jobs? It occurs to me that there is no failure of performance a CEO can produce and be held responsible for. Are these CEOs really so irreplaceable that when they bet incorrectly they can't be replaced? 20% of employees have been fired. The CEO directly cited mismanagement as the cause. And yet, its impossible to fire him because "its a…

> Are these CEOs really so irreplaceable that when they bet incorrectly they can't be replaced? That’s the thing though, another comment nailed this perfectly. If they made a +EV decision to hire more people, but the preverbal roulette wheel landed on 00, maybe it’s not a bad bet that they should be fired for.

It needs to be repeated until its acknowledged: "risk management" wasn't the reason given for the layoffs.

The explicit reason given was "economic headwinds" and bad organizational structure. If in your role as CEO you have left the company in a poor position to handle normal, cyclical slowdowns then you are a failure. If in your role as CEO you have produced an org chart which burns money and slows progress then you are a failure. You should be replaced. Period.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#769

Post by TechDebtDevin »

rsanek wrote: post #709
gretch wrote: post #602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's no secret that tech companies have not been hiring for sustainability and that sucks." Does it suck? It means that someone got a job where they didn't really have to do that much and got paid anyway. An alternative is where that job was never offered. And then we're complaining that there's no jobs. Also, no, the solution is not to "just hire the perfect amount". Sure if we could just do anything perfectly ever…

> where they didn't really have to do that much Source?

^

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#770

Post by _gabe_ »

lesuorac wrote: post #477
nsxwolf wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, the minimum required is usually zero. The most I ever got was 4 weeks.

The minimum needed in the US for this situation is 60 calendar days [1]. Hence the 16 weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retraini...

16 x 7 = 112 days, I’m not sure I understand your comment? Even if it was business days only, 5 x 16 = 80 which is still above the minimum needed.
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