My experience at WeWork was probably the worst experience I’ve had in my professional career. The first two days were exciting since it was orientation and some general training. The concept is great and the company is growing so it was exciting at first. By the end of the week, I already had my first breakdown. The department I worked for is what I like to call a HOT MESS. Even people that have been working in the department for a year were unsure about how things were completed. Lots of uncertainty about pretty much every single process. You have to be comfortable with finding mistakes everywhere you look and management doesn’t really care about correcting them. Processes are not clear and nobody does much to improve them.
My expectations for such open-minded company included the flexibility of working from home. I’m guessing that’s only for Software Developers? That kind of culture was not reflected in the Finance Department. The managers seem like great people at first, then you realize the true cold reality behind that disguise. Interestingly enough, everyone seemed so nice, it was to a point strange, until you realize, everyone is really just gossipy and talks trash about the company, the managers, the meetings... I thought going to WeWork was a life-time opportunity. I was thrilled, excited to be part of such a “great” company, only to realize it was an endless nightmare. There were days I would wake up hating myself for having to go to work, it was such a horrible feeling to have.
The events at the company however are great, if I only got to attend to any of them. Expect to work until 8, 9, 10, 11 pm, people just don’t proactively work during/throughout the month in order to prepare for the closing, therefore you are stuck for no reason working until very late. If you try to be proactive, it’s pointless, because you end up picking up other people’s responsibilities just because they have not been proactive. So.. where is the motivation? The worst part is that everyone that started with me in the Finance Department felt the same way, people from A/P, Financial Accounting, Real Estate Accounting, etc. They were surprised to realize we were all on the same boat when we talked during lunch once.
I’m not going to talk about the culture = the cult, because everyone that gets their research done will know this is a cult. Imaging drinking together, holding hands and chanting together. Some days it felt like that, but I truly didn’t care about that. The headquarters in 18th street reflect that sort of culture and to be honest, I really loved that office. It was probably the coolest office I’ve ever seen. That’s probably the only thing I liked about the company.
