WeWork is by far the most political and cult-like place I've ever worked. From marketing messaging like ‘hustle harder’ (which was taken to the extreme internally) to leadership’s huge egos, I felt ostracized if I didn't fully buy into the culture or agree with every decision. People take pride in drinking the kool-aid here and they treat the CEO like a god.
The environment at HQ felt highly political and toxic—major decisions were made behind closed doors and only from the top, there were regular firings and layoffs with no communication (4-5 major rounds in my 3 years), and department heads were constantly competing with each other instead of working together.
In terms of career advancement and compensation, the 'do what you love' motto often felt like a bad excuse for underpaying and overworking employees and pushing people out who didn't fall into leadership's favors.
In general, they're growing so quickly that they're wasting a lot of time spinning their wheels. It felt like there was no clear strategy from any department. I couldn't count the number of reorgs or managers I went through.
There’s a huge issue with diversity and inclusion. WeWork claims that half of their employees are female, but the number of women in top leadership roles was in the single digits. In general, I didn’t see many people of color unless they were they the building or cleaning staff. It gets worse if you read any news articles about the sexual harassment lawsuit, where the fallout was handled even more poorly within the company.
Mandatory company-wide events like Summer Camp and Summit have a heavy reliance on alcohol which permeates a frat-boy culture. On Fridays they hand out shots starting at 3pm. WeWork loves extroverts but doesn't create any space for people who aren't 25 and don't want to binge drink.
Last thing – despite the cool decor, the HQ office is hilariously uncomfortable. Most people don't have desks because of overcrowding, the music is too loud, there's no space to do actual work, and WeWork is trying to sell this as 'the future of work." Don't buy it.
