Meet the women leading the charge into our new Virtual First environment
No matter which team they sit on, our women in leadership play a priceless role in our success here at Dropbox. Especially as we’ve navigated the move to a Virtual First environment, they’ve been integral in empowering our teams to continue helping the world work better, no matter where they work. As part of Women’s History Month, we asked some of our leaders about the challenges they’ve faced, and how they’ve overcome those obstacles to make Dropbox a better (virtual) place for everyone.
What role have you played in Dropbox’s transition to Virtual First?
“As Dropbox transitioned from in-office work to fully remote work, culture was basically put on pause while we adjusted to a new normal and learned how to work in a remote environment. Fast forward to the end of 2020, community and culture are now in the forefront of how Dropbox works together. We have built out several workstreams aimed at targeting just that. We want to be sure that our employees feel heard and can make their own impact on culture at Dropbox. We are focused on bringing communities together in a now fully distributed work environment.”
-Amanda Holman, North America Events Manager
“Since Q1, I’ve overseen change management to help sequence announcements and training required to help Dropbox transition into a Virtual First company. Our goal this quarter has been to help shift mindsets, encouraging teams to begin adopting Core Collaboration Hours (hours in which all Dropboxers are expected to be available to collaborate virtually with their teammates) and async (solving problems by using Dropbox Paper, email, or Slack before reflexively scheduling a meeting) as default behaviors.”
-Rachel Chadderdon, Talent Management Global Senior Manager
“I have been closely collaborating with the global Learning & Organizational Development team to put together the learning programs that bring the Virtual First toolkit to life. As the Design Program Manager for Learning Development from the Design team, I bring the design lens to the Virtual First learning content creation work.”
-Deepa Iyer, Learning and Development Senior Design Program Manager
As we moved to Virtual First, was there a specific challenge you helped to solve?
“Shifting to a Virtual First company requires a ton of change and work from many cross functional teams. In addition to project managing Virtual First, I also manage our virtualfirst@ team alias, where I make sure employees have the appropriate comms and resources available to better understand this change and what it means for them. This means updating policies and FAQs based on incoming questions, and making sure we have an appropriate feedback funnel in place for the working teams to better understand where employees might have questions.”
-Sarah Tyler, People Strategy & Operations Program Manager
“Culture at Dropbox has historically been attached to tangible items such as the Tuck Shop (our employee cafeteria), Little r (our coffee shop), swag, etc. With our transition to Virtual First, we are focused on shifting this mindset. This may be a bit of a controversial statement, but culture that is attached to tangible items is just not sustainable, so we are now focused on shifting a perk-focused culture to a community-focused culture. This means it is all about the employees and the experiences we share together. By implementing programs such as Vibe Committees, we are giving our employees the opportunity to make their own mark on culture at Dropbox by developing thoughtful and engaging employee-run community activities.”
-Amanda
“We wanted to provide tactical recommendations for mindset and behavior changes — and double down on the expectation of our leaders to role model these. I think we accomplished that. This will help set us up for success when we officially launch Virtual First and Core Collaboration Hours in April.”
-Rachel
“I am fortunate to have the opportunity to translate the “what” from the [Virtual First] toolkit into the “how” for Dropboxers as we shift to Virtual First. For instance, the early feedback about Virtual First was about the gaps in understanding of Core Collaboration Hours and how to shift into them. I thought about how my own schedule had shifted over the last year with COVID-19 and Zoom schooling at home for my daughter. I brought those learnings and reflections to the collaborative content creation with my colleagues to put the concepts into a training format and help unpack what Core Collaboration Hours can look like for everyone at Dropbox.”
-Deepa
How do you feel that shifting to Virtual First will help the world work better?
“I am a big believer that the shift to Virtual First will lead to less burnout, and to overall happiness. We will have the opportunity to regain our work life balance and reinvent the 9–5 workday. The flexibility of VF gives us more time to do the things we enjoy, and spend time with the people who are important to us. Working on this shift has been challenging and exciting, and has personally given me the freedom to travel and explore the outdoors with my ‘mini’ family!
-Sarah
“Dropboxers who have formed connections across the world through community-focused events will have a higher likelihood of being happy and successful at work. This is developed through relationship building across not only their region, but the entire company. We are constantly exploring new and innovative ways to bring Dropboxers with common or even uncommon interests together to form relationships that will last beyond the workplace.”
-Amanda
“Our shift to Virtual First has empowered me to design a workday that fits my life. Balancing work, home, (Zoom)school, and personal health has become a lot easier knowing that I have the freedom to move away from a traditional work day and still be highly productive and creative. I believe that this shift helps everyone find a sane balance between work and personal life.”
-Deepa
Want to find your own opportunity to help the world work better? You can check out job openings here.
