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Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

blog.dropbox.com

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Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#771

Post by ghaff »

jedberg wrote: post #765

> 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 m…

At a former employer I (voluntarily) left. I ended up spending a good couple hours driving my 7-year old laptop which I rarely used to a FedEx dropoff and I'm sure it was promptly recycles. But I wanted make sure all the loose ends were tied up.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#772

Post by nradov »

ironmagma wrote: post #686
desbo wrote: post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that someone's response to being fired should be the same as a manager's response to one of their reports quitting is hilariously out of touch.

It kind of ignores the core asymmetry of capitalism, that those with the capital are the ones with the power. Nobody can do a background check on a company to see who they laid off or fired before they work there.

What do you mean? Information about previous layoffs is all over the news, social media, and dedicated sites like Glassdoor. Only a fool or someone really desperate would take a job without doing a thorough background check on the company first. And while I sympathize with workers who have to take whatever job they can get, that doesn't apply to most HN users.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#773

Post by insane_dreamer »

mrthrowaway999 wrote: post #583

I'm sad to see so much venom in these comments. HN of old would have tried to delve into the details and find something to learn from this.

We've learned it because we've seen this movie many times over the past couple of years (the catalyst perhaps being Musk's decimation of Twitter): it's become acceptable -- and perhaps not only acceptable but expected -- to suddenly cut a significant percentage of your workforce in order to "drive growth", with some BS platitude (the details of which vary a bit but they all read pretty much the same).

It's not venom, it's an appropriate response by workers to the "shareholder-value-at-all-cost" race that the industry finds itself in; an industry that has prided itself, and often built companies on, values that are the opposite.

That, and the fact that CEOs have no accountability for these decisions.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#775

Post by insane_dreamer »

erikw wrote: post #254
gcr wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bullshit package because of the healthcare. I was laid off from a different company with access to 18 months of COBRA. Dropbox is offering a third of that. Lots of job searches take longer than 6 months, so the employees are going to be left high and dry right when they need it the most. For the non-Americans, my COBRA expenses are about USD$2,000/month for me and my partner. I’m paying as much for healthca…

All West Coast states have free healthcare (medicaid) available if your income is below a certain threshold. And there is no time limit on that. It won’t help with rent, but at least these folks won’t be completely without healthcare access.

You have to be destitute to qualify for medicaid

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#776

Post by insane_dreamer »

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…

> The uncomfortable truth is that pretty much any business can cut staff by 20% without impacting overall performance.

Sorry, but I call BS on this

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#777

Post by searchableguy »

echoangle wrote: post #295
bhouston wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Drew Houston's total compensation for the year in 2023 was $1.5M That is insanely low for the CEO of a public company of Dropbox's size. But I suspect he owned a lot of shares in the company so when it went public, so he doesn't need salary, it is just a rounding error in terms of his wealth. EDIT: Yeah, he is worth $2B according to Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/profile/drew-houston/

I always wonder what gives these people the drive to continue. Maybe I’m lazy and lacking vision but if I were worth 2B, I don’t think I would go to the office every day just to get accused of mismanagement when I have to lay people off. I would take my yacht to the Caribbean and slack off.

No idea about what big CEOs feel but for me, I would absolutely continue working even if I was a trillionaire someday. What matters and drives me would be impact and influence I could have on society. Have couple billions? Throw them on things I care about and keep getting more to throw at the same.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#778

Post by insane_dreamer »

andygcook wrote: post #208

For context, Drew Houston's total compensation for the year in 2023 was $1.5M: > According to our data, Dropbox, Inc. ... paid its CEO total annual compensation worth US$1.5m over the year to December 2023. That's a notable increase of 34% on last year via https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-dropbox-inc-nasdaq-... Even if Drew took minimum wage, that would save ~15 jobs assuming $100K all-in comp (which seems lo…

> No growth is more or less bad on Wall Street.

In other words, this is to satisfy Wall Street.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#779

Post by bigstrat2003 »

Quothling wrote: post #750
carabiner wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy takes "full responsibility," even.

When a CEO takes full responsibility for these things it doesn't mean that they submit themselves to the punishment that internet users might want. It's the CEO telling their impacted employees that, no matter how well you did as an employee, you would still have been impacted. It's the CEO showing you empathy for the hurt they cause you for having failed to steer the company in a viable direction. These messages are…

> It's the CEO showing you empathy for the hurt they cause you for having failed to steer the company in a viable direction.

There is no empathy whatsoever involved when someone says "I take responsibility" and then faces zero consequences. It's just a slap in the face.

Re: Dropbox announces 20% global workforce reduction

#780

Post by bigstrat2003 »

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?

The article Lammy linked is indeed the correct one. When that bit of news came out I checked my account, and it turned out that Dropbox had added and enabled the toggle without my consent. I was a paying customer mind you, I paid like $120/yr for my storage. After they pulled that crap I started working on setting up Nextcloud hosted in a VPS. It's more expensive, but Dropbox permanently burned my trust when they did what they did.
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