- Dropbox CEO says RTO mandates are outdated in today’s modern world
- Drew Houston compares the rules with malls and cinemas
- Dropbox has promoted hybrid that works for some time
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston has knocked out companies that forced their employees to return to the office (RTO) instead of continuing to embrace hybrid work.
Talking about an episode of Assets‘S “Leadership Next” podcast, compared Houston RTO orders with malls and cinemas, where similar suggestions to force people back have proven less than successful.
“We can be much less mute than forcing people back in a car three days a week or whatever, literally be back at the same zoom meeting they would have been home,” Houston said. “There’s a better way to do this.”
“Trust in monitoring”
Dropbox has long been at the forefront of encouraging hybrid work, which back in 2021 introduced it a “90/10” rule where employees were allowed to work externally for most of the year and asked to attend some off-site events to make up the remaining 10%.
“To force people back to the office will probably be like trying to force people back to malls and cinemas,” Houston said. “Nothing wrong with the cinema, but it’s just another world now.”
This is not the first time Houston has promoted the virtues of remote work – back in 2023, he noted that remote work has given companies “the keys that unlock this whole workflow.”
“You need another social contract and to let go of control,” he added, “but if you trust people and treat them like adults, they will behave like adults. Confidence in surveillance.”
Houston’s words come after several major technology companies revealed RTO mandates.
This includes Google, which allegedly enforces a new hybrid work model, whereby employees are asked to come to the office at least three days a week and those who do not comply with the consequences can have consequences.
Dell also recently announced that it would end its hybrid work policy, with all employees living within an hour of commuting from an office now asked to go in five days a week.
Via Business Insider
