What on Earth is WeWork doing that requires TWELVE THOUSAND PEOPLE!? Holy fucking shit
Probably a big portion of that is managing the actual physical locations and another big portion of that is sales.
WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
51–60 of 291 posts
Re: WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
#52I still can't believe this guy gets to walk away with 1.7 billion dollars just for building up fluff while all the people who helped him grow have dire consequences both financial and personal. Unbelievable that this guy gets a clean chit, and all this isn't considered criminal. This to me is almost at the scale of Theranos. Only, this guy was smarter in the legal side of things, perhaps.
I presume that by all the people who helped him you mean the WeWork employees and not investors like SoftBank. Well, these employees aren't walking away empty handed either. They've been getting paid all these years and most of them will probably continue getting paid for some time. That's also a fruit of Neumann's scheming. These people didn't have to fight for jobs in a real business, they are benefiting from the WeWork illusion of grandeur and bringing in paychecks month after month.
Re: WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
#53Hypothesis: Events like this are the modern moral equivalent of the giant, gaudy, gilt-encrusted palaces of the 17th century.
Economic disparity has reached a point where those at the top end literally have more money than they know what to do with and are increasingly spending it on stupider and stupider things out of some perceived need to do something.
Re: WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
for the people who got laid off, obviously it's very bad, they should sue and they may get something back as settlement. For the existing employees who saw their stock options value deflated overnight, well tough luck. it's hard to become a millionaire For the investors who just throw money to whoever in sight just to see what sticks, no tears at all
> for the people who got laid off, obviously it's very bad, they should sue and they may get something back as settlement. On what possible grounds? They were fairly compensated and got severance. There is no indication that they were hired under false pretenses. They're angry cause they didn't get to rip off Softbank too.
i have no idea really, but considering that lawyers exist and a lot of money is at stake ... they ll connect some dots
Re: WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
They aren't a tech company. They are an office leasing and real estate company, and have the appropriate employees for this type of business.
> and have the appropriate employees for this type of business I disagree. WeWork has 836 locations and 12.5k (now 10k) employees, or ~12-15 employees per location. Regus/IWG has 3,306 locations and 9.6k employees, or ~3 employees per location. How is 4-5x the number of employees for a comparable non-tech company appropriate?
WeWork is trying to grow aggressively, so they probably have a shit-load of sales people.
Re: WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
#56I still can't believe this guy gets to walk away with 1.7 billion dollars just for building up fluff while all the people who helped him grow have dire consequences both financial and personal. Unbelievable that this guy gets a clean chit, and all this isn't considered criminal. This to me is almost at the scale of Theranos. Only, this guy was smarter in the legal side of things, perhaps.
Investors did not do due diligence (unless there was fraud, but I have not heard of that). It is therefore not surprising AN got away with it. There are several companies with the same business model as WeWork that do not have nearly the same valuation (before all the recent hullaballoo, that is). There have been a number good articles about this topic in the WSJ lately. There is no reason to compare Adam Neumann to Elizabeth Holmes at this point.
Re: WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
They aren't a tech company. They are an office leasing and real estate company, and have the appropriate employees for this type of business.
> and have the appropriate employees for this type of business I disagree. WeWork has 836 locations and 12.5k (now 10k) employees, or ~12-15 employees per location. Regus/IWG has 3,306 locations and 9.6k employees, or ~3 employees per location. How is 4-5x the number of employees for a comparable non-tech company appropriate?
You'd have to know how the two companies split functions between employees and contractors. Though I'd not be surprised if WeWork were staffed relatively heavily. To note something random, WeWork has an (unstaffed) booth at Kubecon which suggests they do marketing activities that someone like Regus generally doesn't.
Re: WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
#58Does this include the 1000 employees being forced to move from FTE work for WeWork into working indirectly as contractors with JLL: https://twitter.com/WeWorkersCo/status/1195778138506190848
Re: WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
#59I can't fathom the morale at this place. I really hope things get better for these poor people caught in the middle of this shit show.
I wish I had gotten that level of sympathy as a software engineer at an investment bank in 2008. In fact, rather than sympathy, more often I was told I was the problem.
Re: WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
#60Hypothesis: Events like this are the modern moral equivalent of the giant, gaudy, gilt-encrusted palaces of the 17th century. Economic disparity has reached a point where those at the top end literally have more money than they know what to do with and are increasingly spending it on stupider and stupider things out of some perceived need to do something .
I like your hypothesis but fear the reality is less benign. To me it seems most ('those at the top' as you put it) do what they do in an attempt to obtain ever more money and power - never satisfied with how much they already possess.