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WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

businessinsider.com

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Re: WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

#11

Post by sachdevap »

jcomis wrote: post #8
big_chungus wrote: post #2

I hope everyone can take break from the we-work-bashing for a few minutes and agree that regardless of screwy business models, almost four thousand people being laid off is sad. I suppose everyone is partially responsible for understanding the viability of his company and taking that risk in an informed fashion, it's still not a good thing.

>everyone is partially responsible for understanding the viability of his company and taking that risk in an informed fashion Why?

I assume parent meant that if you work at a company, it is your responsibility to know whether the company will last for the time you intend to be there. Without knowing the risks involved, if the company goes under and it is clear that it's a scam, you losing your job is partially your responsibility.

Re: WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

#13

Post by fred_is_fred »

jcomis wrote: post #8
big_chungus wrote: post #2

I hope everyone can take break from the we-work-bashing for a few minutes and agree that regardless of screwy business models, almost four thousand people being laid off is sad. I suppose everyone is partially responsible for understanding the viability of his company and taking that risk in an informed fashion, it's still not a good thing.

>everyone is partially responsible for understanding the viability of his company and taking that risk in an informed fashion Why?

When you join a company, especially a start-up, that is clearly and publicly losing a massive amount of money, there is some onus on you to be aware of the risk.

Re: WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

#14

Post by vpribish »

Mockapapella wrote: post #5

I first heard of WeWork a few months ago. Seemed like just another company (admittedly I did very little to look into it). How is it that this company went from filing for public offering to laying off up to 25% of it's work force (along with a ton of other things I can't think of specifically at the moment) in just a few short weeks?

They were counting on a big chunk of cash from the IPO that they could use to pay the interest on their massive debts and keep expanding and developing to keep the growth/valuation story alive. This was all undone when outside investors saw the S-1 had no clothes. Those debt payments still need to happen though, and no one buys the valuation story anymore so something has to give.

Re: WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

#15

Post by mhb »

Mockapapella wrote: post #5

I first heard of WeWork a few months ago. Seemed like just another company (admittedly I did very little to look into it). How is it that this company went from filing for public offering to laying off up to 25% of it's work force (along with a ton of other things I can't think of specifically at the moment) in just a few short weeks?

Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.

Re: WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

#16

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

wcip wrote: post #4
whateveracct wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I suppose everyone is partially responsible for understanding the viability of his company and taking that risk in an informed fashion Nah, I'd say leadership is clearly at fault. Layoffs are pretty much always failures of leadership.

That's the whole point of leadership according to Simon Sinek. Leaders are granted privileges and power and in return must stand by the decisions they have made. Without that they aren't leaders but merely authorities.

In reality though, leadership means creating Dutch Books out of your portfolio of projects and making sure any statements you make can be retroactively debated into alignment with whatever reality ended up producing. It’s a game to do this as long as you can before you get the hot potato resignation / layoff, spend 6 months relaxing on cushy severance, and then hire an expensive executive search firm to do PR and put you back on some interview circuit for the next leadership gig.

Very similar to professional sports coaching (and collegiate coaching in the US).

Re: WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

#17

Post by bdcravens »

rubicon33 wrote: post #12

Lot's of lay offs happening lately. I know two people at two different semi-hot tech startups that are laying off people.

I wouldn’t correlate the two. Despite the focus on brand to imply the contrary, WeWork isn’t a tech company. They’re a real estate lease flipping company.

Re: WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

#18

Post by dehrmann »

Mockapapella wrote: post #5

I first heard of WeWork a few months ago. Seemed like just another company (admittedly I did very little to look into it). How is it that this company went from filing for public offering to laying off up to 25% of it's work force (along with a ton of other things I can't think of specifically at the moment) in just a few short weeks?

> How is it that this company went from filing for public offering to laying off up to 25% of it's work force...in just a few short weeks?

The wewtf link someone else posted is good, but essentially, it was burning through cash in order to grow. Its private investors (mostly Softbank) were OK with that, but the public markets weren't. They also didn't like management and corporate structure). Not being able to raise cash to continue hypergrowth and having faced a reckoning about the true business prospects and valuation, they have to cut back.

> ...focus on our core business, the fundamentals of which remain strong

I actually buy this line. At the end of the day, they're getting money for a product, so there's a business there. The main risk with We is that there's a recession, occupancy drops to 50%, and they're stuck with the leases. But that's not a unique risk.

Re: WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

#19

Post by bdcravens »

big_chungus wrote: post #2

I hope everyone can take break from the we-work-bashing for a few minutes and agree that regardless of screwy business models, almost four thousand people being laid off is sad. I suppose everyone is partially responsible for understanding the viability of his company and taking that risk in an informed fashion, it's still not a good thing.

Or increase the WeWork bashing: the need for these layoffs is a sign of failure. I’ve said it before in a different situation, and someone took the time to find me on Twitter to tell me what they thought: layoffs in startups (or companies pretending to be a startup) indicates that maybe those seats shouldn’t have been warm to begin with.

Re: WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees

#20

Post by [deleted] »

softwaredoug wrote: post #10
Mockapapella wrote: post #5

I first heard of WeWork a few months ago. Seemed like just another company (admittedly I did very little to look into it). How is it that this company went from filing for public offering to laying off up to 25% of it's work force (along with a ton of other things I can't think of specifically at the moment) in just a few short weeks?

The “How I Built This” on WeWork[1] was fascinating. Basically the 2008 financial crises increased vacancies in trendy places a lot. WeWork grew up with the trends in coworking. But really has turned into a very fancy middle man for turning buildings into beautiful coworking office spaces. The brand for a while had some cache, but the thing is many are realizing that they can also build beautiful coworking spaces and…

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