“It’s weird. I come in and have my computer and
my office and wonder if it’s going to be there the
next day,” Grossman said.
Japanese tech conglomerate Softbank, which
took an 80% stake in the company, has sent
one of its executives, Marcelo Claure, to oversee
WeWork’s restructuring. Claure told employees
in an email Monday that layoffs would start this
week, summoning employees to an all-company
meeting Friday to discuss the changes.
WeWork has said that the layoffs will not
include the small “community teams” that work
inside the shared offices spaces, and that many
job cuts will come from sides businesses the
company is selling.
Meanwhile, cleaning, pantry and facilities
maintenance employees in the U.S. and
Canada are being offered jobs at JLL, a real
estate services company that will then contract
those workers back to WeWork. Arik Benzino,
WeWork’s managing director for U.S. and
Canada, told the affected employees in an email
last week that their pay would remain the same
and their shift assignments “will not change for
the time being.”
Behfar Jahanshahi, whose tech consultancy
uses WeWork around the world, says he is eager
to stick with the company but is watching the
developments warily.
“What are they going to change that is going to
impact us? Are they going to chip away at perks?
Only clean every two days?” said Jahanshahi, CEO
of Oklahoma-based tech consultancy InterWorks,
who credits WeWork with helping him expand
globally and says a company his size would have a
hard time providing similar amenities on its own.