{"id":22175,"date":"2022-05-03T07:04:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T03:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/?post_type=articles&p=22175"},"modified":"2022-05-01T22:42:37","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T18:42:37","slug":"lisa-skye-wework","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/lisa-skye-wework\/","title":{"rendered":"What Was It Like To Work At WeWork? A Former WeWork Employee Spills It All"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Instagram @wework<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never used the word \u2018greed\u2019 to describe Adam.\u201d On February 1, 2010, Lisa Skye received an email from her new employer, WeWork CEO and founder Adam Neumann, at 1.20am of her first day of work. \u201cGood morning, let\u2019s create the largest physical networking community on the planet,\u201d it read, with no period on the end. The tiny grammatical error was no accident of course, and was just a prelude of what was to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like [we were] off to the races,\u201d Skye recalls on a long distant call from the United States. For the businesswoman \u2013 who now sits at the helm of her own successful co-working community, Primary \u2013 she felt excited by Neumann\u2019s energy. He was tall \u2013 six foot five to be exact \u2013 and incredibly confident, and according to Skye, it was his charisma and conviction that will see him remembered \u201cas one of the greatest salesmen in history.\u201d It\u2019s a massive claim. While Neumann\u2019s company (which ran seemingly successful for nearly a decade) did not fail overnight, it did wipe billions off his $47 billion valuation in just six weeks.<\/p>\n

The American commercial real estate company WeWork was founded at the beginning of a decade, after the Great Recession, and on the cusp of a new era of entrepreneurship. Neumann, a keen Israeli entrepreneur himself, leased out a building in the heart of SoHo, New York City to realise his empire. As just the second ever employee of WeWork, Skye had worked closely with the CEO in the early days. They would take brisk walking meetings around the block \u2013 just one example of his natural energy \u2013 before she was left to her own devices to close sales for the first of many co-working spaces dotted throughout the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was hired, Adam said to me, \u2018We want to open in three weeks, the first floor will have 17 offices, and we want to be full with a waitlist.\u2019 That was the taste [of the first few months],\u201d she said, nervously laughing under her breath. \u201cI\u2019m sure he was off raising more money, and finding the next space because we took a deal for a second place within the first four to six months that I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her tenure she had only seen Neumann\u2019s wife, Rebekah, from afar. At the time Rebekah was a writer and producer, working on a short film documentary from the WeWork head office. She was eventually hired by the company as a \u201cstrategic thought partner\u201d and Chief Brand and Impact Officer who directed the company\u2019s mission and values. She also oversaw the new-age school, WeGrow, and is now famously known for reportedly firing an employee whose \u201cenergy\u201d she deemed \u201coff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know how she was involved in the beginning other than being married to Adam, of course,\u201d Skye says. \u201cAnd I assumed because she is Gwyneth Paltrow\u2019s cousin and they had money, that there was financial support. If not directly from her, then she certainly had access and introductions to a strategic financial investor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ongoing growth of WeWork was swift and by 2019 it had expanded into 29 countries and 127 cities. Skye remained at the company as the Founding Community Manager for 14 months where she was still only one of 25 employees. Meanwhile, Neumann remained \u201claser focused on the vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis management style was visionary,\u201d Skye adds. \u201cHe would take a moment to acknowledge that we had completed a floor or opened a floor, but he was always onto the next. How could we do more and more? And obviously that\u2019s what drove him for a decade, to create what he created.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the spectacular fall of the cult-like WeWork empire, which saw Neumann step down as CEO in September 2019, Skye is careful not to use the word \u201cgreed\u201d to describe the founder\u2019s collapse. In fact, she paused for several moments, careful to phrase her next sentence. She believes the Achilles heel \u2013 the fatal flaw \u2013 of WeWork was his \u201cinability to authentically create a We culture that also included him.\u201d She says that he did create a global We community, it exists, but as Neumann stepped away from the business, he did so with a \u201cbillion-dollar golden parachute.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October 2021, Bloomberg reported that WeWork was valued at $9 billion, less than a fifth of what investment firm Softbank purchased it for in 2019. As of March 3, 2022, Forbes estimated Neumann\u2019s worth at $1.4 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cArguably there\u2019s massive success in what he achieved,\u201d Skye says. \u201cThe most unfortunate part of the fall was the people who didn\u2019t feel acknowledged, appreciated or included in the upside of what was created.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019re all ambitious, smart, driven and highly ethical people,\u201d Skye continues. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing that he could attract such quality talent because any leader knows that finding devoted, committed, incredible, good talented people is the most difficult part of running a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

What makes the rise and fall of Adam Neumann so intriguing? So titillating that the cautionary tale is retold again and again, and this year, forms the subject of WeCrashed?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think to be human is to be fascinated with how we can experience extremes,\u201d the former WeWork employee muses. \u201cIt\u2019s human nature to be fascinated with the polarities that we experience in life. And as it relates to business, to be able to achieve and raise money and have success at an incredible level. What must it be like to then experience the huge fall?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1627,"featured_media":22143,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[349,35],"yoast_head":"\nLisa Skye Tells Us What It Was Like To Work At WeWork<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lisa Skye \u2013 the second employee to be hired by WeWork\u2019s Adam Neumann \u2013 discusses her relationship with the fallen entrepreneur, the 1.20am emails, and the \u2018more is more\u2019 work ethic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/lisa-skye-wework\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Was It Like To Work At WeWork? 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