Can shaving over two hours off your commute time every day change your life? Find out with Moran Shimron as she shares her experiences working from home

In October, we announced that Dropbox would now operate as a Virtual First organization. While this meant a huge shift in work life for many of our team members who, pre-pandemic, commuted to an office every day, it’s also brought major benefits to the lives of Dropboxers worldwide. We checked in with Director of Product Management Moran Shimron to see how working from home in Israel has helped her slow down her day, spend more time with her family, and even make space for painting classes.

How long have you been working for Dropbox?

About 18 months.

Where are you located?

I live an hour north of Tel Aviv, in Caesarea.

What is one of the biggest ways you’ve had to adapt to Virtual First work?

First of all, I used to commute about 75 minutes each way, so I definitely save a lot of time on the commute. Moreover, it allowed me to organize my day a little more. At least twice a week, I have really long days because I have meetings with colleagues on the West Coast, so I used to have to go to the office, work a full day, commute home, eat dinner really fast, and then continue to work. Now that I’m saving the commute time and am at home, I can split my day a little better. If I have meetings late, until 11 PM, I can start my day a little later, and have breakfast with my friends or go to the beach in the morning.

Are there any hobbies or interests you’ve been able to make time for while being fully distributed?

I used to be a painter, and have wanted to take a class for a while, but most classes are in the evening, which can be a problem because of my meetings. Now I actually found a painting class in the mornings, so I can start my day with that. I will block it out on my calendar and it’s no problem.

I also get to spend more time with my kids. As they get back from school, I can take an hour to have lunch with them in the middle of the day, spend time with them, ask them how their day was, and then get back to work. They know when I’m at my work station to not disturb me, but now I can go out from that and spend time with them in the middle of the day, which I couldn’t before. I can also block time on my calendar to take them back and forth, which I couldn’t before.

I’ve worked 20 years in the industry, and have always commuted far, so I’ve never been able to quickly run home and then go back to the office if I need to do something. If my kid was sick in the middle of the day, usually my husband was the only one who could do something about it. Being at home allows me to be flexible with the needs of my family.

Are there any particular ways you have been able to connect with your coworkers or team?

Whenever we can, we try to meet at the park to have a freestyle picnic and talk and really socialize with one another. Additionally, because the product team works with multiple disciplines, we sometimes have smaller meet ups with the different parts of other teams. We’ll meet with the design or engineering teams or other counterparts for brainstorms or whiteboard sessions every now and then. And as a whole in the Tel Aviv area, we also started a tradition that, about once a month, we have a day trip to go hike or gather outside. We think people just need some face to face interaction — Zoom is not enough.

What’s your go-to WFH lunch?

Either I have leftovers from the day before, or I grab a piece of bread and some cheese or something and eat quickly and move on. Typically the biggest meal for us in this house is dinner. Lunch is often everyone grabbing something quick from the kitchen, but then in the evening, my husband cooks and we all eat dinner together when I have a break in meetings.

What’s your favorite thing about Virtual First work?

It’s given me the opportunity to hire people from outside of the central Tel Aviv area. There are a lot of people who didn’t have the opportunity to find a job before because they don’t live in the city. So it’s exciting for me to see different talent and hire folks who live outside the city.

Virtual First has also allowed people in Tel Aviv to stop limiting themselves. The fact that everyone is now remote has leveled the playing field, in the sense that people can be promoted here more easily now. I hope that will give more opportunities for people in Tel Aviv to grow and take more ownership and expand their opportunities within Dropbox.

Interested in learning more about how you, too, could work from anywhere in the world with Dropbox? You can check out open positions here.