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(regular HNer here, posting anonymously for obvious reasons). I work for WeWork, and you don't know the half of it. In mid-August WeWork had their "Summer Camp"
by anonweworker 8y ago
(regular HNer here, posting anonymously for obvious reasons). I work for WeWork, and you don't know the half of it. In mid-August WeWork had their "Summer Camp" event, which was a three day all-hands company meeting in England. About 5500 of 7000 WeWork employees were flown into Heathrow and shipped out to a campground in Tunbridge Wells. Everyone was required to sleep in a tent, generally with four or five other tent mates, on air mattresses on the ground with thin mattresses.
Because of the vegetarianism thing, everyone was forced to eat WeWork-provided food, sans meat (though fish is okay!). This totally broke my ketogenic diet, which made me quite mad. See other comments about this being a form of group control.
For the first day and a half, we were subjected to a number of corporate "talks" which largely revolved around the cult of personalities of Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey. Adam Neumann particularly styles himself a televangelis or Jesus-wannabe and walks out into the audience, asking people about their deepest fears, delivering some ersatz corprorate sermon on the mount. There is no "me", only "we".
See also the time when Rebecca Neumann commands the gathered WeWorkers to hold hands, close their eyes, and pray.
Or the time that Deepak Chopra comes out and shows a disturbing video about childbirth (people were like, "is this an anti-abortion video?) and talks about how evolution and child development are intimately related, and how we should take our shoes off to let the ions flow, and leads a meditation session.
A fish rots from the head down, and this is one crazy fish.
- vorpalhex 8y agoThat's outright cult behavior in a very disturbing sense. Often cults operate as a way to cover for some verboten behavior - usually perpetrated by the founders - and use the cohesive group identity to prevent people from leaking whatever inappropriate behavior is occurring.
- ng12 8y ago> This totally broke my ketogenic diet Absolutely infuriating. As a diabetic a high-protein diet is just about the best thing for me. I'd quit on the spot.
- anonweworker 8y agoWorking on it ;)
- ncr100 8y agoWee! GL!!
- everybodyknows 8y agoAn employee who could document health damage might have grounds for legal action, eh?
- edem 8y agoWhat the actual fuck? Why are you still working for them?
- magduf 8y agoWell, to be fair, he did say "working on it" in a reply above.
- totoglazer 8y agoLest anyone think this is hyperbole, I've heard even crazier stories from an employee I know personally who was there.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 8y agoThere was a journalist that covered the event that also corroborates basically everything that the OP is saying as well: https://www.propertyweek.com/insight/the-cult-of-wework/5098454.article https://www.propertyweek.com/insight/the-cult-of-wework/5098...
- djsumdog 8y ago> Everyone was required to sleep in a tent, generally with four or five other tent mates, on air mattresses on the ground with thin mattresses. I prefer keto diets too, but I think this would piss me off way more. I have really bad OCD. I wash my hands a lot; coworkers notice. I'm already self conscious about it. I can go camping but it takes a lot of mental prep (and I typically throw everything in the wash or away when I get home). If a company forced me to camp like that .. da fuck?! Not to mention everything else about that sounds pretty insane too.
- village-idiot 8y agoI love camping, away from everyone else. If you made me camp with my coworkers I would not be happy either.
- joeframbach 8y agoThe irony being that your weak immune system is making you more susceptible to the nasties...
- komali2 8y agoAt least half of that shit has to be illegal. Have you considered leaking to like techcrunch or something? Hell even a major paper would probably take it up.
- notyourday 8y agoDont leak to techcrunch. Hire an attorney. Walk away with six figures.
- village-idiot 8y agoDo these people go nuts after getting rich, or is being crazy not an impediment to building a large company?
- magduf 8y agoGeorge Bernard Shaw once wrote, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." People who have the audacity to do big things are frequently not reasonable people at all, and many times can be quite wacky. Sometimes this turns out well, like with Isaac Newton and Nikola Tesla. Other times this turns out very badly, like with Josef Stalin or Adolf Hitler.
- magduf 8y ago>This totally broke my ketogenic diet https://theoutline.com/post/6133/the-keto-diet-is-a-recipe-for-disaster https://theoutline.com/post/6133/the-keto-diet-is-a-recipe-f... The rest of what you describe sounds like a nightmare though.
- ng12 8y agoI'd avoid prescribing dietary advice based on sensationalist articles. Ketogenic diets work for many people, dieters as well as diabetics, celiacs, etc. The science is sound as long as you understand the philosophy that makes it work.
- magduf 8y agoThe only "science" I've seen supporting long-term ketogenic diet adoption is from quacks and chiropractors and celebrity chefs. Actual medical professionals and scientists I've talked to have nothing good to say about it.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ng12 8y agohttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1325029/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1325029/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2716748/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2716748/ Your medical professionals are misinformed. A celebrity chef promoting a diet, quack as they may be, doesn't mean it's without merit. FWIW I've both lost weight and improved my T1 diabetes control through a paleo/keto style diet I've been following for the past four years. My endocrinologist has never had anything negative to say about my diet or lifestyle.
- Bjorkbat 8y agoI actually had to do some Google research to confirm that Deepak Chopra did indeed talk at a WeWork event. Wow. I mean, I won't hold it against any individual to be into Deepak Chopra, I won't even hold it against a company of 100 people to invite Deepak Chopra provided the employees are aware that the company has a New Age vibe, a subtle scent of potpourri that just never goes away. 5000+ people though? Holy crap.
- gaius 8y agoI won't even hold it against a company of 100 people to invite Deepak Chopra provided the employees are aware that the company has a New Age If you’re a devout believer in religion A and your employer forces you - unknown to you at the time you were hired - to attend religious ceremonies of religion B as a condition of your continued employment - that is surely massively illegal
- megaman8 8y agoI'm all for reducing meat consumption. But having everyone do a hard and fast rule: no meat whatsover, seems extreme. People grew up with different values and diets. Until we can convince others, I think we should be more accepting of others values and not force everyone to do it one way.