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At least he can't claim that his home office is monotonous: Dropbox boss Drew Houston works from different places.
We can reach him at his home on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Even if he is converting his company into a “virtual first” company, Houston has gained one insight in the corona pandemic: Without being together, things will not go well in the long run.
WORLD
: Mr. Houston, where are you working from these days?
Drew Houston
: San Francisco in California, Austin in Texas, and New England in the northeastern United States.
I'm currently on the Big Island in Hawaii.
So I switch from one home office to another.
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WORLD
: What do you like most about working from home?
What do you hate?
Houston
: I like the flexibility of not having to commute to work every day.
That way I was able to be with my family this summer and celebrate my brother's wedding.
However, I sometimes have to ask myself whether I still work from home or already live at work.
We all have to learn to draw the line.
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WORLD
: Do you think that a video chat like the one we have now is a good substitute for a real meeting?
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Houston
: No.
Something like that can never be replaced.
But I think it works fine for 80 or 90 percent of the meetings.
It's going better than I expected.
Of course, you can't really get to know anyone through video.
But for a typical business meeting, it works quite well.
In the corona pandemic, we were all thrown into a half-baked public beta test for distributed work.
With all difficulties.
Sitting in video conferencing for ten hours is very tiring.
WORLD
: Dropbox has recently started calling itself a “virtual first” company.
What does that mean?
Houston
: Not many companies have given thought to what their post-pandemic life will be like.
Some companies will bring their employees back to the office.
Some will work completely from their home office.
But there is a large middle field that asks how interpersonal interaction can be combined and balanced with working from a distance.
For most of them there will be no way back to the pre-Corona status quo.
That's why we're converting our offices into places where you can get together, but not to work individually.
It's really just meant to be meeting places.
We call them Dropbox Studios.
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WORLD
: What speaks against a hybrid model in which employees sometimes work at home and sometimes in the office?
Houston
: Such a model has its challenges.
Of course, we also thought about that at the beginning, because we all miss the togetherness.
But what would it look like if employees worked 60 percent or more from home and went to the office for the rest of the week?
Then the office wouldn't even be half full.
You would work in a ghost office.
Apart from the fact that this would not be an efficient use of space.
In addition, one would have to ensure that employees in the home office have the same opportunities as employees in the office.
WORLD
: What does it mean for corporate culture when everyone only works from home?
Houston
: When you stop personal interaction completely, it's difficult to even have a corporate culture.
Just imagine what it would be like for new employees who then only know their colleagues as small windows on the screen.
That is why there must be places where employees can come together.
WORLD
: What happens to people who work where they live?
Houston
: That is one of the most important questions we have to answer.
It is not good for your well-being not to get together with colleagues at all, as is currently the case in many companies.
Of course, there must be limits in the home office so that the balance between work and life works.
Companies don't benefit if their employees burn out.
In principle this is a new agreement.
With more flexibility, each employee also has more responsibility to use and divide their time well.
WORLD
: Is productivity suffering in the home office?
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Houston
: We found that productivity remained very high, even if it is not very easy to measure.
At least we can tell that it didn't break in.
But here too there are different dimensions.
Productivity in front of the computer screen differs from the productivity that occurs when several employees come together.
This is difficult to achieve in a virtual working environment.
This is exactly why we need the Dropbox studios.
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WORLD
: Many people are now fed up with video conferences.
Houston
: Me too.
We are currently experiencing the greatest change in the life of knowledge work since 1959, when the term was created.
As always with such big changes, there are big opportunities and big challenges.
The tools we use weren't designed for that.
Even the video conferencing service Zoom didn't expect to be broadcast at weddings or congressional hearings.
For us this is an opportunity to adapt our services accordingly.
We believe that the importance of the switch to distributed work can be compared with the trend towards cloud computing and mobile applications.
WORLD
: What does all this mean for the creativity of the employees?
Houston
: I don't know if anyone has found the secret to creativity in pandemic times.
When people come together, a very special kind of energy and creativity emerges.
That's why we're setting up the Dropbox studios.
I don't see how you can do that with a video conference.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston
Source: Dropbox
WORLD
: Will the employees change with the companies in the pandemic?
Houston
: They have new demands after realizing that there is another way of working.
Companies that adapt to this can benefit from it and retain the better talent.
This is particularly important in the tech industry.
There are only a few cities in the US that have managed to transform themselves into technology hubs.
Now new opportunities are opening up for both employees and companies, who now have a greater choice.
Places outside of these hubs also benefit.
WORLD
: Does that also have an impact on the composition of the employees?
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Houston
: Obviously, having access to more talent will make the workforce more diverse, which in turn affects the products that are developed.
I see that as a great advantage.
WORLD
: Dropbox signed the largest lease in the city three years ago in San Francisco.
What will happen to the offices?
Houston
: We're still working on it.
We will need less space in the future, we already know that today.
WORLD
: What do the changes to the home office mean for a city like San Francisco, where office space is expensive and the cost of living is very high?
Houston
: The high cost has created a lot of problems.
What we are currently experiencing will normalize life and costs there somewhat again.
That would be a healthy development.
The strength of the city remains with the concentration of talent and great companies.
But I also know that many other mayors are currently wondering how they can turn their city into a tech hub.
WORLD
: You also sit on the board of directors of Facebook and talk to other CEOs.
How do you adjust to the new world of work there?
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Houston
: You're asking yourself the same questions.
How do we manage to maintain creativity and corporate culture?
What can we learn from other companies that are already working virtually?
What happens after the lockdown?
WORLD
: Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the salaries of his employees will be adjusted downwards if they work from places with lower living costs in the future.
Is this a good idea?
Houston
: As a member of the board of directors, I can't comment on Facebook.
But a lot of companies worry about that.
It's not uncommon for pay to vary geographically due to different cost of living.
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