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WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

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Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#51

Post by calg »

lowglow wrote: post #2

I guess I don't understand why any startup would pay 300-500/per desk. While I'm building I look to cut all expenses across the board and leave only the bare minimum required to function and create effectively. Can someone give an anecdote on when a shared workspace like this was beneficial to their startup's growth?

I pay $450 (converted) in one of their Tel Aviv locations for a single private office.

- Gets me out of the house, away from wife and kid, huge deal.

- The networking I don't use often but it IS a good option.

- The facilities are great, well staffed, clean, no complaints.

- I don't have to deal with anything for office upkeep.

- I can use other WeWorks all over the world, which are a lot these days.

As another poster said, who knows if I'll have 1 or 20 employees next year? Leases are impossible at this stage.

I would probably grow within WeWork around 8-10 employees before looking at other options. Yes, it's expensive per square meter but well worth it for flexibility.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#52

Post by cmdrfred »

redwood wrote: post #44

This company's valuation makes no sense to me. The brand is strong in NYC, sure. But really.

If they could deliver this at a larger scale and be able to reduce their prices it might make a little more sense. You can get an entire office for the price of a desk.

WeWork Walnut St. Desk[0] - $450

Allegheny Ave Office[1] - $450

[0]https://www.wework.com/locations/philadelphia

[1]https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/off/5595848731.html

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#53

Post by abcampbell »

cmdrfred wrote: post #52
redwood wrote: post #44

This company's valuation makes no sense to me. The brand is strong in NYC, sure. But really.

If they could deliver this at a larger scale and be able to reduce their prices it might make a little more sense. You can get an entire office for the price of a desk. WeWork Walnut St. Desk[0] - $450 Allegheny Ave Office[1] - $450 [0] https://www.wework.com/locations/philadelphia [1] https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/off/5595848731.html

Maybe. Risk I see is that they are essentially financing long term leases with rental income that can dissapear in a month.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#54

Post by Dr_tldr »

liquidise wrote: post #18

I'm surprised most of the comments here are on the merits of shared workspaces instead of the potential overstaffing of WeWork. They have opened a couple of campuses in Denver in the last couple of months, and i was surprised to see about a 2:1 company to WeWork staff ratio. I won't pretend to know the list of the staff's responsibilities, but i can say that often times they appear to be hanging out in the general ar…

I like WeWork quite a bit and they have a few locations in Seattle, but they also seemed way overstaffed. Other than putting sliced cucumbers in the water and answering the rare phone call, it's not clear why they would ever need more than 2-3 people working there at a time, but I always saw 6+ people there.

I also noticed the staff spent a lot of time hanging out on couches, playing ping pong, and chatting with their friends. Everyone was always really friendly and professional when I needed something and it contributed to a laid-back vibe, but that's not a good staffing model for a business that's running at scale and not for fun.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#55

Post by justsaysmthng »

Cutting 7% staff out of 1000 ...

But then it goes on and says

"WeWork said it hired 175 people in May and expects to add about 500 employees by the end of the year. The company said it expects to lift the pause on hiring as soon as next week."

What kind of information should I synthesize from this ? Is it bad is it good or is it both at the same time ?

In fact, why did I just waste x minutes of my life reading this piece of malreported doublethink-provoking article ?

My prayers go to the ad blockers ..

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#56

Post by x0x0 »

tptacek wrote: post #20
liquidise wrote: post #18

I'm surprised most of the comments here are on the merits of shared workspaces instead of the potential overstaffing of WeWork. They have opened a couple of campuses in Denver in the last couple of months, and i was surprised to see about a 2:1 company to WeWork staff ratio. I won't pretend to know the list of the staff's responsibilities, but i can say that often times they appear to be hanging out in the general ar…

That is approximately the impression I have of the staff in the West Loop office as well. The place feels overstaffed.

In the wework at Market and 6, there's a bunch of staff too. Though they have I think 8 or 10 floors of the building.

Of course, who knows what the staff do all day. The bathroom on our floor regularly runs out of paper towels or has overflowing garbage cans.

Also, fwiw, I can't disrecommend WeWork strongly enough.

* They let one of the two elevators in our building sit out of service for 6 weeks last year. I hope you like a 15+ minute wait to get in or out of the building. Instead of being aggressive with the building owners to get it fixed, the smarmy wework pricks did nothing.

* They also can't get the door locks on our door to work reliably. Now the door just sits open all day.

* The hvac doesn't work. More than half the staff on my floor used blankets last winter, and even I found it quite cold, and I grew up in the north. Now that it's summer, it's regularly low 80s in the office.

* The offices themselves are loud overpriced echo boxes.

We finally got a real office and put in our notice this month. I was ready to quit to get out of WeWork.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#57

Post by anarchitect »

lowglow wrote: post #2

I guess I don't understand why any startup would pay 300-500/per desk. While I'm building I look to cut all expenses across the board and leave only the bare minimum required to function and create effectively. Can someone give an anecdote on when a shared workspace like this was beneficial to their startup's growth?

My London team is based in WeWork, Old Street (London). We have 10 memberships, of which 8 have dedicated desks. At £400 per desk it's not cheap, but definitely comparable to equivalents.

Beyond the physical space in a desirable location, the value for us comes from:

* Perks like free beer, free food (sometimes) social and professional events * Networking via their social network * A big, fun, creative space

The staff always seem busy to me and the place is really well kept. Happy customer.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#58

Post by ryanbrunner »

justsaysmthng wrote: post #55

Cutting 7% staff out of 1000 ... But then it goes on and says "WeWork said it hired 175 people in May and expects to add about 500 employees by the end of the year. The company said it expects to lift the pause on hiring as soon as next week." What kind of information should I synthesize from this ? Is it bad is it good or is it both at the same time ? In fact, why did I just waste x minutes of my life reading this p…

I mean, if WeWork is both expanding into new offices and realizing their current offices are grossly overstaffed, it's completely reasonable to be both hiring a lot and firing a lot. The pause could just be a breather to see if the new staffing model makes sense. Office staff isn't generally fungible between cities or even locations within a city sometimes.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#59

Post by ruddct »

liquidise wrote: post #18

I'm surprised most of the comments here are on the merits of shared workspaces instead of the potential overstaffing of WeWork. They have opened a couple of campuses in Denver in the last couple of months, and i was surprised to see about a 2:1 company to WeWork staff ratio. I won't pretend to know the list of the staff's responsibilities, but i can say that often times they appear to be hanging out in the general ar…

Been a WW member for a while, through their recent growth period. From what I can tell this is part of 'the strategy'. Start a new office, make it incredibly shiny/nice/very fully staffed, fill it up, then start cutting back to something more sustainable.

Note that this isn't necessarily a bad thing (unless you work for WW). Starting by crazy delighting your customers to get an initial bump, then cutting back to something more sustainable isn't exactly a groundbreaking strategy. It's a bit reminiscent of what Uber does in new cities.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#60

Post by davidjhall »

cmdrfred wrote: post #52
redwood wrote: post #44

This company's valuation makes no sense to me. The brand is strong in NYC, sure. But really.

If they could deliver this at a larger scale and be able to reduce their prices it might make a little more sense. You can get an entire office for the price of a desk. WeWork Walnut St. Desk[0] - $450 Allegheny Ave Office[1] - $450 [0] https://www.wework.com/locations/philadelphia [1] https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/off/5595848731.html

I don't know the costs for an office -- but WeWork provides the staff, internet, electricity, coffee, etc.
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