Believe these reviews. Any hyperbole is based in truth. Well, except for the fake reviews - Take a look at 5-star postings around mid-March 2016. All of a sudden a handful of good reviews (which suspiciously similar messages…) pop up in the middle of a sea of 1-stars. There used to be more, but they must have been filtered out as spam.
That’s indicative of what kind of company this is. Instead of dealing with employee dissatisfaction (which was never publicly addressed during my time there) they cover it up. Instead of listening to their employees, they fire anyone who speaks out. They rule though intimidation and fear. No one is happy, and management does not care. There is an incredible amount of turnover in every department, which creates instability and increases workload on those left behind. They recently had to update their employment video because most people from the old one had quit or been fired.
Any reviews that mention that you can “get ahead quickly” really mean that because people are constantly leaving, there are jobs opening up all the time. However this also leads to 25 year old man-children managing dozens of people with no training.
And I do mean MAN-children. WeWork is the most sexist environment I have ever experienced. Women are consistently overlooked for promotion. Micro-agressions range from a woman being told she is “cold” when she is just being a good leader, to a complete lack of support when she is sexually harassed by a member.
This job is like an abusive relationship. You make a lot of excuses why it’s not that bad while you’re in it; you justify not leaving for this or that reason. But after you get some distance from it you look back and think, ”Why the hell did I put up with that??”
And much like an intervention, I will list some things about working here that are not okay:
- It is not justifiable to work 60+ hrs/wk at this salary level.
- It is not healthy for a company to take up your evenings and weekends so you have no time for family/personal life.
- It is not healthy to have panic attacks or insomnia because of your job.
- It is not normal to be afraid to complain/ask questions for fear of being fired.
- It is not acceptable for the CEO and his good old boy executive friends to raid WeWork locations on the weekends, break into the keg, and trash the place (true story).
- It is not respectful to be treated as disposable.
