Take a tea break with Liz Shallal, CX Analyst, as we chat about blue hair, ABBA, and Pride

Published in

Life Inside Dropbox

4 min readJun 27, 2020

This month we celebrate Pride, and the theme, “Werk! (from home)” is a nod to the ballroom culture of the late 80s and early 90s. We checked in with Liz Shallal to get their take on how to bring some much needed color into our WFH lives and what pieces of ball-related content we should be watching.

How are you werking from home?

I decided to dye my hair blue for the first time since high school. My shower doesn’t really enjoy it too much, I have to bleach clean my shower after I dye it, but it’s worth it!

Are there specific elements of Drag or Ball culture that you’re especially drawn to?

I don’t watch the most drag, but I really like ball culture. I watched Paris Is Burning in an undergrad course and that was kind of a big eye opening moment for me realizing I don’t have to be this or that gender. Especially now that Legendary is out — I was like, “we’re going to be paying for HBO Max until this is over!”

How has Drag and/or Ball culture been a part of your own personal journey?

I was always very uncomfortable with myself growing up. During my undergrad, I took some gender studies courses — before then, I never saw anyone who wasn’t female or male. Paris is Burning was so empowering to watch because these people were just themselves. It was very awakening for me — I don’t have to be super performative, I don’t have to wear these dresses if I don’t want to, I can cut my hair short — it really doesn’t matter. I can be whoever I want to be.

Can you tell us about your first day at Dropbox?

I was really terrified! I was surrounded by a lot of cis people and I didn’t know if I would be comfortable in my own skin, because that’s always me treading the waters of, “I can pass as cis, but do I have to?” But as orientation went on and I met my team, I realized I didn’t need to. Everyone was wonderful and friendly and I didn’t feel scared to be a weirdo.

What team are you on?

I’m a CX Analyst on the Customer Experience team.

What office do you work in?

San Francisco.

What’s your favorite part of the Pridebox ERG?

I like the chat. It’s nice that it’s not too chatty, but people do chat. I was at another tech company previously as a contractor where their ERG was overwhelming — it was just people talking all day long and it was very distracting. Here, we still have our community in the background, but it’s not too distracting.

What have you learned about yourself from (current or past) Pride months?

Before I came to Dropbox I realized I didn’t want to celebrate Pride while working for a company that wasn’t fully supporting the LGBT community, so it was important for me to work for a company I felt very positive about

What’s your favorite Dropbox moment?

I really like walking around and having tea breaks with my teammates.

What’s your power move and/or song in a lip sync for your life?

“Take A Chance On Me” by ABBA, because it’s probably the only song I know all the lyrics to.

What Dropbox office would you most like to visit?

I’d like to visit Dublin because that’s where half of my coworkers are, and it always looks really nice in the background of Zoom calls. They have good architecture!

What’s your favorite Tuck Shop (our employee cafeteria) station?

I tried to go to every single one at least once. I feel like the one I visited most frequently was the Mexican food one, because their tacos are amazing.

What part of the office do you miss most during quarantine?

I miss the color and the colored staircases so much!

What queer content have you been binging during distributed work?

I have been going through my Iceman comics, the ones that were written by Sina Grace. I’ve had them on my shelf forever but I’m finally reading them.