What do you see as the biggest benefits of workplace flexibility?
There are a number of clear benefits to remote or distributed work: access to broader talent pools, increased workplace flexibility/work-life balance, increased productivity, the removal of barriers in terms of visa and immigration issues in the US, access to affordable housing, reduction in carbon footprint due to less commuting, and material savings in real estate
But there are also a number of drawbacks: cultural implications, decreased connection and community, burnout, and isolation to name a few.
Which is to say, I believe we’ll see an uptick around flexible and remote work at other companies, and this is something we’re also considering, but want to be thoughtful and balanced as we think through the potential implications.
We’re fortunate that Dropbox products help distributed teams work effectively. So as a company, we were able to transition to WFH relatively smoothly and focus on supporting the well-being of our people through increased investment in people programs and benefits.
Which roles are best suited to distributed work?
I’d say the last few months have really shown that while most roles can be remote, there are others that require physical presence like at our Data Centers, for example.
There’s also some discussion around whether remote work is better suited for ICs vs. Managers and this likely depends on which long-term, future-of-work policy you adopt. For example, Adam D’Angelo of Quora recently published a blog post on his “remote-first” strategy for Quora, where remote is the primary orientation of the company. This makes remote work a possibility for all employees regardless of level or title.