[HelloMcFly]

> What bet was dropbox taking by overexpanding their workforce by 20%?

When asking this question, I think it's good to remind ourselves how much we don't know. We don't know if they overstaffed in a push to expand their business that didn't work out, we don't know if the had an older operating model that went from "efficient" to "inefficient" as scale and market dynamics changed. We don't know if advances in productivity to tools, or changes to major client accounts, impacted their staffing needs. Determining whether one is "overstaffed" is a multi-factorial determination that can be false one month and true the next.

Set aside whether it's uncharitable to just assume management oversight or idiocy - it's hubristic. Having said that, it doesn't mean the assumption is wrong, it could be exactly right! But it might not be.

[whatshisface]

They could also be reducing their workforce because they decided to for human reasons and their value might go down by more than the cost savings.