◼ TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek June 29, 2020
19and human resources systems. A few months
in, Strange says she tried to sign into her email,
expecting to see her own messages. Instead, the
other manager’s inbox popped up. There she spot-
ted an email saying the company was planning
to cut 7% of staff. Hers was to be one of the posi-
tions eliminated. She didn’t mention this to any-
one, but she says shortly afterward, colleagues
started disappearing without any announcement.
She asked her line manager whether there was
going to be any discussion of the job cuts inter-
nally and was told no.
Strange felt the company’s silence and cava-
lier attitude were unacceptable. “We should tell
people the truth because we say we’re a different
kind of company,” she says. “In our mission, we
talked about authenticity, right? Are we going to
be authentic?” She concluded the company wasn’t
going to be honest. “And that’s when, frankly, I
just went digging.”
She used the manager’s password to search for
internal WeWork files. She found, among other
things, a presentation that showed WeWork had
to cut its 2016 profit forecast by almost 80% and its
revenue estimate by 14%. There were long delays
opening buildings, which were denting sales.
Strange was infuriated that WeWork was hurting
financially but hadn’t told employees anything.
She reached out to a reporter—me—because she
felt the information should be public.
Bloomberg published two stories: one about
WeWork planning staff cuts and another, a few
weeks later, about the profit forecast cut. The day
the second story appeared, July 15, 2016, WeWork
launched legal action against Strange, saying she’d
stolen company documents. As evidence, it cited
internal systems that tracked her IP address and
the files she had downloaded. “Being sued was ter-
rifying,” she says. “I cried a lot. I didn’t sleep well.”
After the lawsuit, Strange, who was laid off in
June 2016, struggled to find another job. Any inter-
net search turned up multiple news stories about
her. She says two FBI agents came to her home
and questioned her for hours, although she never
heard of any conclusion to the probe. She worried
that WeWork had the resources to prolong a law-
suit that could bankrupt her. On the advice of a law-
yer friend, she didn’t show up to court. WeWork
was awarded a default judgment against her, which
came to a little more than $3,000.
WeWork never collected the money. She’s
relieved the saga is over but remains nonplussed
by its ending. “I remember looking at my husband
and going, ‘That has got to be the most anticlimac-
tic thing that’s ever happened in my life,’ when it
started out as something that seemed like it was
going to destroy” me.
In the history of WeWork, Strange occupies a
puzzling spot: She was the first insider to speak out
publicly about the company’s shaky finances, years
before it was pilloried for losing billions of dollars
annually and racking up billions more in long-term
lease obligations. The stories that resulted from
her disclosures were among the first to highlight
WeWork was making far less money than it had
predicted. But the articles, in mid-2016, didn’t halt
WeWork’s upward trajectory. Far from it. WeWork
kept on going, raising bucketloads of fresh cash. In
the meantime, Strange became a pariah among her
former colleagues.
Four years on, with Neumann gone and WeWork
teetering, her recordings are imbued with a haunt-
ing quality. In them, you hear Neumann warn of
the exact things that would contribute to his com-
pany’s failed share sale. “The only thing that can
ruin this is if we don’t get serious about controlling
our bottom line, controlling our expenses, getting
very focused and getting very clear,” he says in
one all-hands meeting. He warns employees that
WeWork has a “spending culture” and that it needs
to rein in expenses or face problems. “The universe
doesnotallowwaste,”hesays.�EllenHuetTHE BOTTOM LINE WeWork went from startup superstar to
punchline in near-record time. The writing may have been on the
wall all along.Airbnb’s Two Faces
● The startup’s slogan is “Belong Anywhere.”
For contract workers, that’s easier said than doneThis was supposed to be Airbnb Inc.’s big year.
There were plans for a blockbuster share listing
and expansion of a new ultraluxury holiday busi-
ness. Instead, a global pandemic decimated travel,
and the company had to sack 25% of its workforce,
or about 1,900 employees.
Those layoffs, announced in May, weren’t the
worst of it. Questions are swirling around Airbnb’s
culture after it was reported that about 500 con-
tract workers were quietly let go two weeks ear-
lier, without any of the perks or fanfare—many of
them people of color. The move clashed with how
Airbnb likes to portray itself. Its slogan is “Belong“Being sued
was terrifying.
I cried a lot.
I didn’t sleep
well”● For the full WeWork
story, listen to
Foundering, a new
podcast. Learn more
at bloomberg.com/
foundering.