Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Rise of the WeWorking Class

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–109 of 109 posts

Re: The Rise of the WeWorking Class

#101

Post by lancesells »

dsr_ wrote: post #10

I wonder if WeWork has already started an espionage (excuse me, business intelligence) program or whether that's a future development. Consider: an ordinary landlord knows how many desks you have, how many people show up on an average day, and how much garbage/recycling you put out. WeWork has operatives who can measure what percentage of your employees' days are spent at their desks, what they like to do for fun, wh…

They are doing this: https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/07/wework-just-acquired-spati...

Re: The Rise of the WeWorking Class

#102

Post by fullshark »

dalbasal wrote: post #33

What a long winded article. I don't really understand the fascination/surprise at wework and similar. It's just office space, packaged in a way that suits a few underserved markets. Flexibility is valuable, and was previously underavailable. It also turned out that a lot of the "work-from-home" people would like office space, if it's nice and they can afford it. What is so surprising or notable here? A slightly quirk…

> I don't really understand the fascination/surprise at wework and similar

Image and marketing matters, as much as engineers wish it didn't

Re: The Rise of the WeWorking Class

#104

Post by sriram_sun »

woah wrote: post #67
jmknoll wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I work out of a wework near my house in Shanghai. I’m a software engineer in my 30’s. Our office is on the other side of the city from where I live, and takes over an hour on the subway to get there. I don’t need to be there physically, so I arranged with my boss to work from home 4 days a week. But working from home is tough, so I work instead from the wework around the corner from my house. Your mileage may v…

Maybe the reality is that Los Angeles is a youth community of people spending mom and dad money

I was thinking of renting something in Irvine. Anyone have experience working there?

Re: The Rise of the WeWorking Class

#105

Post by pizzazzaro »

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #79
porpoisely wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just paid PR for WeWork. WeWork must have a great PR team and most importantly investors with significant contacts because they get great press. http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Disguising PR as articles is really dishonest.

I had thought the NYTimes was above that internet troll behavior. Clearly I was mistaken.

Well, that's one less place I'll be spending my money online.

Re: The Rise of the WeWorking Class

#106

Post by peteretep »

notacoward wrote: post #63
peteretep wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t believe that incivility and disrespect are synonyms. It’s possible to rob someone blind in a civilised way, and equally to bluntly do someone a good turn. You’re jumping backwards and forwards between the specific and the general here, but yes, I think it’s appropriate to admonish a PR person who knows there’s a journalist around for being off brand because _that’s literally their job_. To speak to “it makes…

> appeals to civility and politeness have a long and sordid history So does rejection of civility and politeness. Those who would marginalize or oppress others always start by placing them outside the sphere of social conventions, then complain about "political correctness" and "tone policing" when they're called on their behavior toward anyone not of their own tribe.

> then complain about "political correctness" and "tone policing"

I suspect the set of people who've complained about both political correctness _and_ tone policing is precisely zero.

Re: The Rise of the WeWorking Class

#107

Post by david-cako »

dalbasal wrote: post #33

What a long winded article. I don't really understand the fascination/surprise at wework and similar. It's just office space, packaged in a way that suits a few underserved markets. Flexibility is valuable, and was previously underavailable. It also turned out that a lot of the "work-from-home" people would like office space, if it's nice and they can afford it. What is so surprising or notable here? A slightly quirk…

Major companies that need distributed workspace for areas that don’t quite need offices, and the “impression” of think tank. They do have cool hosted events fairly often.

Re: The Rise of the WeWorking Class

#108

Post by CM30 »

bsenftner wrote: post #46
dalbasal wrote: post #33

What a long winded article. I don't really understand the fascination/surprise at wework and similar. It's just office space, packaged in a way that suits a few underserved markets. Flexibility is valuable, and was previously underavailable. It also turned out that a lot of the "work-from-home" people would like office space, if it's nice and they can afford it. What is so surprising or notable here? A slightly quirk…

I ran a competing CoWorking space in Los Angeles. WeWork is the opposite of the no-frills aesthetic: they have lots of perks, fun perks, they are not cheap, and having any one perk is conspicuous. WeWork is how people not in larger youth communities meet to get laid. That is it. WeWork is a youth community of people spending mom & dad money, conspicuously in a play-like-work space, not really working, and being super…

I also work for a company based in a WeWork space, and my experience is that most people there are working, both for startups and non startups alike.

That said, the building setup itself isn't all that great to work in, since despite the perks, actual basics of office maintenance seem to be ignored/shoved under the rug by the company. If your lifts have problems, you can't afford to give out too many ID cards, the microwaves keep failing and the bathrooms aren't cleaned properly, it doesn't matter how many arcade machines and ping pong tables you have.

Re: The Rise of the WeWorking Class

#109

Post by quux »

stickfigure wrote: post #72
rekshaw wrote: post #9

A recent executive mandate declared the company a “meat-free” organization. When I interviewed McKelvey not long after the Summit, he had a very fuzzy time trying to explain the meaning of the “eight pillars” of its CultureOS and the relationships among them. But when he noticed that the P.R. representative happened to be carrying a single-use plastic water bottle, he admonished her to be mindful of her own consumpti…

Does this mean you cannot bring meat into the kitchen, or just that they've found a socially acceptable way of keeping provided food costs down?

Members and employees can bring whatever kind of food they like into the space, but no WeWork funds can be spent on meat (fish is ok)
Post reply on HN