No matter where we work: Matt, Sandra, and Eduardo on what it's like working in Seattle
Overlooking the serene Puget Sound, Dropbox Seattle is a growing but cozy office filled with good coffee and fun vibes. This team is not too far away from San Francisco headquarters, but daily collaboration can still be difficult. Seattle team members including Matt Barta, Sandra Bilbrey, and Eduardo Escardo-Raffo have figured out some specific ways in which they can work efficiently with teammates in other offices, as well as their own.
As a product design manager on the retrieval team, Sandra joined Dropbox Seattle after running the design team at a start-up for five years. She wasn’t interested in working for a large corporation. The Seattle office’s smaller size and personal, friendly atmosphere was key to her decision to join the team.
Sandra
The best thing about being here is that you get a little more freedom to build up the culture in a way that’s not centered around headquarters. Our office actually feels pretty start-up-ish; we’re very familial and small and it’s possible to have really close relationships with a lot of people. I also feel like the work life balance is great; it feels like everyone here is very flexible, and a lot of people have families. But there is a communication tax that comes with being a distributed office; you have to be very proactive about advocating for yourself and your peoples’ work and making sure that we’re collaborating and aligned with the strategy in all the right ways.
Matt
At my last job, a lot of people were on the east coast, so communicating with them was more difficult. Here we have that same situation, but we’re way better at communicating with Paper docs and video conferencing. My team also alternates where All Hands is — sometimes we go down there, sometimes they come up here, so it never feels like we’re at a disadvantage or missing out too much by not being in San Francisco.
Eduardo
Day to day I don’t even think about the fact that we’re a satellite office, so it’s not a problem I worry about at all. If I want to go to San Francisco, the company will support me going — but I also have an infant and a toddler, so I don’t want to travel too often anyways! The flexibility we have as parents is great overall — I can travel when I need to and stay home when I need to.