WeWork’s had a couple of rough weeks after its failed initial public offering last month, and it’s taking a toll on its employees.
Just a week after Japanese tech investor Soft Bank announced a bailout for the embattled co-working giant, the technology news website Recode released a survey of 200 WeWork employees conducted through the anonymous workplace app Blind.
The results aren’t glowing.
More than half questioned – around 54 percent — are fearful that they’re going to be laid off soon. Another 64.7 percent said they had made a major financial decision based on their estimated income or equity from WeWork in the survey
But perhaps their biggest gripe is CEO and founder Adam Neumann’s $1.7 billion exit package. A whopping 85.2 percent said they didn’t believe the package was fair.
However, there was one silver lining. Around 61.7 percent said they still believe in WeWork’s vision.
WeWork has a large presence in the Triangle area and an operation in Charlotte, offering shared working spaces and related services. Under the recent takeover deal, SoftBank will get up to 80 percent ownership of the startup. It also plans to pump $5 billion into The We Company and accelerating a $1.5 billion equity investment originally due next year. It’s also offering to buy up to $3 billion worth of stock from existing investors and shareholders.
Business Insider, citing a report from the Wall Street Journal, said “thousands of people are slated to lose jobs but that the decision had been delayed because WeWork has only ‘weeks’ of money left and can’t afford to pay severance.”
The Financial Times, meanwhile, reported that WeWork plans to cut 4,000 jobs.
A spokesperson for WeWork declined to comment on the survey or reports of layoffs.
