WeWork: A Cautionary Tale - Anonymous employee WeWork Employee Review

1.0
Feb 12, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Here's the one positive aspect you will get out of working here...you are certain to move on to better things. Everyone who has left this company, by choice or otherwise, has become more happy as a result and will tell you so.

Cons

The company's broad mission statement is to Make a Life, not just a living... but what they don't tell you is what type of life you are making for yourself as a worker bee meant to live for the hive mentality. They have perfected a formula of which to run a company on pure perception, divorced from the harsh reality that eerily strikes a chord similar to that of a cult. The majority of their staff is comprised of naive college educated, and professionally inexperienced, bright-eyed workers that are drawn to the "Do what you love" mantra. They are fed free breakfast, fresh espresso drinks, cold beer, more tequila than you can hold down to make workers forget that life is not just about work. You start the week off with a 12 hour TGIM, Thank God It's Monday, mindset where a mandatory meeting is held after work hours to encourage more team bonding. Mind you, most of this is a waste of your personal time under the guise of professional development. And if you do not play an active part in this process you will be an outcast, passively shunned for not "fully committing". Mandatory "fun" time doesn't end with the starting of each work week, as you are required to spend "vacation" days at company Summer Camp and Global Summits. These bleed into the weekends and are not up for negotiations. These tactics might lead you to believe that if you commit to this strategy you can get "ahead" in your professional development...and you'd be wrong. The simple fact is that you will not grow at this company unless you are as follows, in order: 1. Male 2. Israeli/Jewish 3. Are friends/family of an executive Your daily efforts, whether filled with merit or ineptitude, amount to little because without proper leadership all this will amount to nothing. And this is where Wework truly fails to deliver. Fueled by a strong foundation of nepotism, cronyism, and sexism, many of the departments hinge on the incompetence of management/executives put in place and given irrelevant titles by the social formation of a "boys club." It was made, and continues to function, to further advance the successes of the CEO/executives; to receive more funding and make a name for themselves as leading the fastest growing "start up" in history. They only see the company's expansion as a means to an end and neglect any professional development of those who truly embody the spirit of doing what they love, but were cursed with the misfortune not being born into this "boys club." They break the backs of these hard believers so they can sell a false perspective. This company is a vapid excuse for being "leaders" of the industry and they lure unsuspecting youth into their campaign of false promises of fulfillment. I know you'd like to believe in their mission, I desperately wanted to as well, but the reality is that this company will take advantage of whatever skills you possess leaving you questioning your own self worth. My advice...look at the other telling reviews and know that good people have worked here and those same good people have LEFT... stronger, but unnecessarily scarred. Your efforts will be recognized, appreciated, and celebrated elsewhere. RUN!

Explore other reviews about WeWork

5.0
Mar 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Weekends off Solid structure that you couldn’t find in a normal cafe Base rate that would be equivalent to working a busy cafe with tips

Cons

Depending on location, the customer flow can be insanely heavy. Members tend to come multiple times a visit.

3.0
May 25, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

VERY cool HQ--beer, fruit water, and other treats on tap, free breakfast, amazing decor, lots of events and cool trendy vendors who bring free stuff--if you like to humblebrag via Insta, you'll love this place. Some cool people --celebrities come in and out, your colleagues are generally very attractive folks, there's a sense of excitement and true commitment to the work (borderline evangelism) depending on who you work with and what you do. Name recognition and valuation -- company is a rising star and it's worth having on your resume. A cool mission on the surface--bringing community together, helping people do what they love (making work a passion rather than a chore) through connection.

Cons

This place is like drinking from one continuous Kool-Aid jug. VERY cult-y and cliquey. You are either in or you're out, and if you're out, rather than cut you loose right away, they gaslight you. It's actually kind of shocking how many people I've seen be treated so poorly here, and perhaps no coincidence that they were folks of color. Kind of hard to find the down to earth people I did find. I enjoyed the Community teams and Security/Ops/Real Estate people I met, probably because they were constantly "hustling," but the HR team (the PEOPLE team, for goodness sake) and a lot of other "prominent" faces were consistently rude, with an overinflated sense of self and zero idea of how the WeWork "values" translate into behaviors/contributions from a prospective employee POV. You have to have been there since the start, or be prepared to ingratiate yourself, to get any traction in your professional development or career path. I was always shocked how badly my manager wanted to be liked, and how much they were willing to do to be liked, to get any kind of clout and/or promotion just bc they hadn't started out at WeWork as a community team member. Never mind that they were super qualified for their job. Pay varies depending on who you are; some people earn market value...some people very very much don't, and there doesn't seem to be any consistency that determines which is which. TGIM. Thank God it's Monday. Mandatory Monday meetings. Sometimes they circulate tequila shots. Is that a plus? Not sure. Summer Camp. Adult Summer Camp. With EDM, people in salmon colored shorts, and lots of loud rowdy entitled folks. If that's anything but a con for you, you probably belong here and godspeed.

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