Dropbox is laying off 20% of its staff after structure becomes ‘overly complex’
The file hosting service Dropbox is reducing its global workforce by 20% which amounts to 528 people.
The email, which was sent by co-founder and CEO Drew Houston to all employees, was shared to the public by the company on Wednesday (October 30).
In the news, he writes that he takes “full responsibility for this decision and the circumstances that led to it” as the CEO. The company is described as being in a “transitional period,” with the team working on the next phase of growth.
Houston explains how “navigating this transition while maintaining our current structure and investment levels is no longer sustainable.”
According to the published email, Dropbox is seeing softening demand and macro headwinds in its core business. With the CEO further sharing how many internally have suggested the “organizational structure has become overly complex, with excess layers of management slowing us down.”
Dropbox staff layoffs come at ‘pivotal’ time, with more decisive action neededLooking ahead, the changes the company has made this week are described as coming at a “pivotal moment when the market is accelerating precisely where we’ve placed our biggest bets…”
The CEO says: “But we’re not operating on our own schedule. This market is moving fast and investors are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into this space. This both validates the opportunity we’ve been pursuing and underscores the need for even more urgency, even more aggressive investment, and decisive action.
“The steps we’re taking today are necessary to both strengthen our core product and accelerate the growth of our new products. We’ll share more about our 2025 strategy in the days ahead.”
The cuts come from areas where the company is over-invested or underperforming, in an effort to create a flatter and more efficient team structure.
The company has committed to supporting the employees who are leaving, with a number of benefits listed including sixteen weeks of pay, with one additional week of pay for each completed year of tenure.
Dropbox also commits to job placement services and career coaching at no cost, continued access to Modern Health, and up to six months of COBRA for US employees and a one-month healthcare extension for those based in Canada.
Featured Image: Via Dropbox Company update
The post Dropbox is laying off 20% of its staff after structure becomes ‘overly complex’ appeared first on ReadWrite.