The Screwing of WeWork Employees
by Miki Saxon
A long time ago I wrote about what I call ego-merge, which refers to buying into the idea that you and your company are one.
Ego-merge used to be the result of long-term employment with the same company; these days it’s more the result of buying too deeply into the founder’s vision.
“The initial thing of ‘making a life, not a living,’ ‘community,’ ‘better together’ — the terms WeWork pushed as marketing also seeped into this company’s culture in a very real way,” said Kevin Hsieh, a software engineer involved in the group. “There is a looming sense of betrayal and frustration that that wasn’t necessarily followed everywhere.”
Betrayal is no understatement.
Adam Neumann, WeWork’s CEO, walked away with a $1.7 billion golden parachute, while employees are getting worse than screwed.
Combining an intriguing vision, with intense passion and an invincible belief in self, is a recipe that can hook investors, workers and users — and it did.
Caveat emptor, indeed.
