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Away Fires CEO Steph Korey After Months-Long Search for Her Replacement

199 points by andygcook 7y ago

shuckles 7y ago
There is speculation in this article and elsewhere that the timing of this forced change of leadership so soon after an anonymously sourced article revealing Korey’s abrasive management is evidence of a larger PR proxy war between governance and the CEO. I’d be curious to learn about whether this is a common conspiracy and if anyone has other such examples.
- dangus 7y ago
  This has to be the case. Think about it, why would the reading audience of the general public care about working conditions in such a random, relatively small company? It’s a <500 employee company. The plight of tens of thousands of Amazon or Uber employees and contractors is much more relatable, more people are likely to know someone who has worked in those environments. Some small startup company with a CEO with hubris isn’t exactly news.
  - Jasper_ 7y ago
    Because Silicon Valley is seen as a utopia for innovation, and it massively shapes our world and our culture? It's important to report on how it works. This was a prominent Instagram brand. It has all the trimmings of the Silicon Valley Startup: they make suitcases but talk about themselves as a "travel company" with lofty missions, they "value transparency" but not when employees actually use it. This kind of story continually happens, at Uber, at WeWork, at Zenefits, at Riot Games, at Nest, and at startups I've worked at too. The more we bring these stories to light, the better working conditions will be at these places. EDIT: Someone pointed out below that the company is actually in NYC, not Silicon Valley. Still, this style of startup culture exists all around the world.
    - OnlineGladiator 7y ago
      > Because Silicon Valley is seen as a utopia for innovation Is this really the generally held consensus with the public? I certainly don't believe this, but I work here so I'm biased. I think most people think Silicon Valley is full of overpaid engineers churning out things nobody actually wants - there's a reason the show Silicon Valley was such a hit. Also a fun fact - Mike Judge (creator of Silicon Valley) actually worked in the Valley for a bit after college. He felt like people here were just ridiculous - the basis for the show is largely rooted in his own experiences working here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Judge#1985%E2%80%9397:_Early_science_career;_musician;_animation_and_Beavis_and_Butt-Head https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Judge#1985%E2%80%9397:_Ea...
      - Jasper_ 7y ago
        Silicon Valley's writers met with Google X's boss, Astro Teller [0]. He got so pissed they were making fun of him, he stormed out of the room, supposedly on rollerskates, and yet Google still pays him top dollar money. There are a large enough number of people here who believe it that they continue to start startups and play startup-dressup, talk about changing the world, and elevate the world's consciousness or whatever. The number of applications to Y Combinator every year is growing, not shrinking. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/google-x-astro-teller-hbo-silicon-valley-2016-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/google-x-astro-teller-hbo-si...
        OnlineGladiator 7y ago
        I think it sounds like we agree - most of the people who want to "change the world" are really opportunists looking to get rich. That's not to say there really aren't some fantastic people trying to make a difference, but in my anecdotal experience they are drowned out by people who really only care about money. And ultimately it's investors who dictate what companies get funded, and they definitely care about the money.
        C1sc0cat 7y ago
        Not sure what your point is - where they taking the piss in the meeting he walked out of or was it just the show in general. TBH Hollywood / film /tv does not have a good track record in portraying us do they.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    > why would the reading audience of the general public care about working conditions in such a random, relatively small company? I think from the most reader's POV, whether this is a 500 or 500K-people company makes no difference, it's just a number next to the word "employees". The actual amount doesn't register emotionally, so the story is the same regardless of size. And it's easier for reporters to find a small company with problems, especially now that public displays of hubris are a somewhat popular startup marketing strategy.
  - x0x0 7y ago
    Away has raised $181m, and punches above their weight in visibility because they are a b2c business and have a b2c advertising strategy. Also, a rich entitled asshole of a ceo berating employees making $40k in nyc doesn't happen that often with a written record.
  - quantified 7y ago
    Same answer as why the real general public would care about the contestants on Judge Judy. Let's all enjoy a good story about miscreants and comeuppance. The Verge aims to tech and startup people anyway, not the general public, and this is a startup.
  - baddox 7y ago
    It “has to be the case” because the company has fewer than 500 employees? That’s very weak reasoning. Is no story about mismanagement at a company with fewer than 500 employees genuine? They’re all just manufactured PR stunts? Can you in any way justify this bizarre claim?
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  - marcinzm 7y ago
    If you think people can't relate to an abusive boss more than Amazon working conditions then you haven't worked much. Amazon and Uber are just sad, this is entertaining in the individual drama sort of way. Plus the abusive boss get kicked out in the which gives readers a happy ending.
- taurath 7y ago
  I believe she’s awful just from a few of the slack messages. But I’d believe her cofounder is probably just as awful. That there was so much ammo lying around is the problem.
- deleted 7y ago
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- rsynnott 7y ago
  I mean, Occam's razor says that they were already looking, and the article just pushed them to go with the best they'd found as soon as possible to avoid this becoming a long drawn-out mess.
- codyogden 7y ago
  I find this theory interesting, but a big question I have about the initial story is "How long did the Verge investigation take?" Reading the article, it's not clear to me. Two or three months? Tracking down 14 former workers/interviews, fact checking, compiling research. I don't think it is farfetched to consider that, if the Verge had been working on the article since (let's call it) early October, it may have been just inconvenient but brutal timing. It sounds like they were making plans to replace Korey since the Spring of this year. I could easily see the Away board aiming to delay the leadership change until after the holiday season (Q1 2020). Bad press like the Verge article or a CEO shakeup in the middle of a shorter-than-usual holiday shopping season sucks for a B2C retail company. Moving up the start date of the new CEO they've already vetted and recruited earlier this year seems to me like Away's only opportunity to save their shopping season. Edit to add Tweet from Verge Staff: > Away knew we were reporting on this for months https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204278032468307968 https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204278032468307968
  - hammock 7y ago
    I imagine the Verge would have started working on the story around the time the board started its search...
  - settsu 7y ago
    > Bad press like the Verge article or a CEO shakeup in the middle of a shorter-than-usual holiday shopping season sucks for a B2C retail company. Moving up the start date of the new CEO they've already vetted and recruited earlier this year seems to me like Away's only opportunity to save their shopping season. Maybe? How concerned is the bulk of their potential customer base aware of any goings on in the leadership of the company? What is the latest developments at the C-level of the company who supplied your canned corn or bike tires?
- undefined3840 7y ago
  Highly doubt it. All the employees who came forward were jr customer service agents. Would anyone actually believe that board members would even know who they were, track them individually down and know why they left the company?
- ghostly_s 7y ago
  Abrasive CEO fires a bunch of people and generally pisses underlings off; her bitter victims leak some genuinely salacious details of her behavior to the press; story picks up eyeballs and board that has grown tired with her affect on morale decides it's time to pull the trigger on getting rid of her now that the cat's out of the bag. I don't understand why a conspiracy is necessary here.
- cutenewt 7y ago
  Looks like there are four board members: Korey, Rubio, and two VCs. If they held equal votes, it's possible the two VCs wanted to oust Korey but Rubio did not. As a result, the VCs probably waged a backchannel PR war to pressure Rubio to support Korey's firing.
draw_down 7y ago
If in fact this was coordinated to distract from the firing of a woman CEO to be replaced by a man, it worked masterfully and whoever executed it should get a raise.
Jasper_ 7y ago
> If a waiter served a customer a half-eaten sandwich, I’d expect the manager to immediately berate him in front of the other staff in the kitchen — not take him aside and say “Hey, that isn’t cool.” Gross. Korey's own words, about teaching her direct reports "accountability" by asking them to work overtime, presumably unpaid, is gross. Korey's own actions, by forcing all employees to talk publicly in Slack channels in "the interest of transparency", and then firing those who talk about problems at the company, is gross. If this level of irresponsibility made its way to the board, PR disaster in stow, you sure imagine they'd try to get rid of her quick.
- bwilliams18 7y ago
  I just lost a lot of respect for John. I've worked in serious NYC restaurants for years, and made a lot of big mistakes, including serving inch-worms to celebrities. I've almost always been treated with respect and kindness when I made a mistake (save for some gentle ribbing). When I first started I had a few sternly worded conversations, but they were always respectful and very clearly delivered with the intention of building me up, not putting me down. The one and only time I was ever shouted at was in private and one-on-one, and was a motivating factor in my putting in my notice a few days later. Toxic culture is never acceptable, not in restaurants, or tech companies.
  - paggle 7y ago
    That’s just wrong that you got gentle ribbing if it was your fault that a worm got served to a diner. I’d prefer to eat at restaurants where such an employee was fired or severely castigated for such a screwup, but in private, and not with glee.
    - krageon 7y ago
      If you can't even mess with your colleagues after the real problems have been understood to be resolved, it's quite a stuffy workplace.
    - stronglikedan 7y ago
ec109685 7y ago
I don't know why this article complicates the situation. She apologized for incidents that occurred last year, Verge reported on those incidents and those incidents prompted the board to find her replacement: https://twitter.com/stephkorey/status/1203051598961954816 https://twitter.com/stephkorey/status/1203051598961954816
- dangus 7y ago
  Apologized after being exposed publicly, right?
  - ec109685 7y ago
    Right. My point is that the Verge reported on something legitimate, unlike what the linked article seems to be implying.
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- CydeWeys 7y ago
  The linked article is saying the timeline is off; the board must have been searching for a replacement for months, long before the Verge article.
  - oceliker 7y ago
    The board also presumably knows about the incidents since long before the Verge article.
- dbt00 7y ago
  The point is exactly the thing you skipped over — the replacement was already found.
walrus01 7y ago
I find it really hard to feel sorry for the person who grew up in a 55,000 sq ft house and went to boarding school. It's highly likely that she and her family are so wealthy she never needs to work a day in her life, so she treats the whole thing like a game. From the verge article: "Korey, for her part, didn’t have to work hard to project an aspirational lifestyle. The CEO grew up in Ohio in a 55,000-square-foot historic mansion with an indoor swimming pool and three dining rooms. She’d gone to boarding school, then landed in Bloomingdale’s executive development program while at Brown University" Go breed Arabian racehorses or something, lady, stop cracking the whip on $40k a year peons.
- undefined3840 7y ago
  do you not think the reporter put that in the story to induce you as the reader to have this very reaction? i think her actions were wrong, but i also think this setup at the beginning of the story has nothing to do with the actual issue at all and was meant to turn readers on the CEO from the get go before you had even read anything about what she had actually done. The reality is that many successful high profile founders, including Gates/Zuckerberg/Spiegel came from wealthy backgrounds. It speaks more to the power of a strong social safety net when it comes to entrepreneurship than anything else, but shouldn’t by itself make you hate someone.
  - nirvdrum 7y ago
    Given all the other reprehensible stuff in the article, the bit about her background seemed like an unnecessary potshot. The very next sentence is "But for all of her privilege, no one denied the executive’s fanatical work ethic." But, it's split from the paragraph about her upbringing and it looks like some readers didn't make it that far.
- dang 7y ago
  Personal attacks are not ok on HN. Maybe you don't owe "lady" better, but you owe this community better if you're posting here. This sort of comment is basically just the primate feces-hurling game—it's a mechanical response, and doesn't count as interesting in the sense that the site guidelines use that word. There may well be a good comment to be made on behalf of the employees of the company, but this is not that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
landonxjames 7y ago
> But read the memo. Away wasn’t “clamping down on employee speech” — they were dealing with a serious PR crisis. What company in the midst of a PR crisis would not tell employees not to talk about it? I think they were pretty clearly cracking down on employee speech. Telling them what they are allowed to do on their personal accounts outside of work hours really rubs me the wrong way regardless of whether or not they are in crisis mode.
kirillzubovsky 7y ago
I didn't realize Benchmark was an investor.
- wp381640 7y ago
  Uber, WeWork, Away - they kinda specialize in media litigated CEO firestorms where they win in the end
ramphastidae 7y ago
The idea that a business with hundreds of employees can be run entirely through public Slack is shockingly stupid. Sorry for the harsh words, but this demonstrates complete incompetence and zero business experience from Steph Korey all the way to the investors. Away is clearly yet another terrible company that would have died long ago if not for VC life support.
- fastball 7y ago
  GitLab runs most of their company through literally public git repos. Exception that makes the rule perhaps, but I think you might be being a bit hyperbolic.
  - ramphastidae 7y ago
    The GitLab internal communication policy is publicly available and clearly mentions PRs, issues, email, video chat, and 1:1 communication as options: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/#internal-communication https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/#internal-co... And no, I am not being hyperbolic. Did you read the article? Employees at Away are banned from using everything above. No private Slack channels. No email. Only public Slack. I challenge you to name a successful company where that is the policy.
tyingq 7y ago
"Employees were not allowed to email each other, and direct messages were supposed to be used rarely (never about work, and only for small requests, like asking if someone wanted to eat lunch)." https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph-korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo... Youch. Sounds like a cult. All work conversations in a channel where the CEO can eavesdrop and bust in for spurts of berating and micromanagement.
- GaryNumanVevo 7y ago
  Policies like this are really weird to me, wouldn't they just encourage back channeling more? Ideally you'd encourage supposedly "private" conversations then snoop on those.
ChuckMcM 7y ago
Human brains naturally look for patterns. Those patterns have a uniform distribution with respect to the probability of them actually explaining the data. I remember pretty clearly when I first started seeing "the game", which is the politics that course through an organization like the wind through a mountain forest. It can be pretty heady at first, it is like wearing the special sunglasses in "They Live", but for me I also "saw" some things that weren't actually there at all. And acting on what I think I saw resulted in modest embarrassment and some awkwardness. So with experience, I learned to take what I saw with a bit of skepticism and to figure out ways I could "test", without revealing what I suspected to be true, whether or not something was what was actually going on. That test for Gruber was apparently the belief that you "cannot" hire a new CEO from another large company in the short amount of time that Away did it, so the "truth" (or what is "really" going on) is that the Verge story was cover for the swap and distracting from the distasteful element that a woman in technology was being forced out and a man coming in to replace her. I don't think that would be enough for me. Over my career I have met with a number of executive search firms, both helping them to identify good candidates, and sometimes as the candidate they were vetting for a possible move. And that experience showed me that executives are just as trigger happy as employees are for the 'right' move. That is especially true near the top because the only way you move into the 'big' seat is for the person in it to be ejected, and that can be a slow process for an aggressive person. Watching Ed Zander give up on Scott ever stepping down so that he could take over Sun he bailed and went to Motorola. It's a common story. So for me, I can see that if you talked to the right executive search firm, they might have a couple of candidates that were already 'loose in the socket' as they say. But it also can't be a "hopeless" company, like Uber seemed to be when Kalanick was clearly on the way out. But 'start up founder can't grow into the role' is a common enough reason to slot in someone who has more experience, and if it moves an executive closer to their ultimate goal, not as hard to pull off as you might think. (I'll admit it is probably easier for CTO roles than CEO roles but still) I am not saying that Gruber is wrong, I agree it is a plausible explanation. I just don't see the evidence as being as definitive as he does.
- ec109685 7y ago
  More background from Verge: https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204276683588505600 https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204276683588505600 Would have been cool for Gruber to talk to someone at the Verge before publishing his hit piece.
acroback 7y ago
Wait this company makes luggage? And has such high valuation, how?
- undefined3840 7y ago
  You realize Lululemon makes yoga pants and has a valuation of $30B right? And Nike makes shoes and has a valuation of $150B? You don’t need to be a “tech” company to build something worth billions.
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  - nrp 7y ago
    Lululemon, Nike, and Away all sell aspiration, hope, and a lifestyle, which get them to valuations higher than shoe, yoga pants, and luggage companies do. There are of course variations on design and differentiation in technology in each of those, but the value is in the brand.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    To be fair, a lot of people wear shoes and yoga pants. Probably more people than have a smartphone for the former at least.
    - undefined3840 7y ago
      A lot of people travel and need luggage as well. I’m not suggesting Away would ever be worth anything close to Nike but is it realistic to think it could be worth several billion? Sure.
      - jen729w 7y ago
        The stocks app tells me that Samsonite is worth $3bn+. So yeah, why not?
  - acroback 7y ago
mrburton 7y ago
Well, if you want to be like Steph, there's a great Skillshare page by her https://www.skillshare.com/profile/Steph-Korey/9215939 https://www.skillshare.com/profile/Steph-Korey/9215939 Key Lessons: - Why consistent feedback builds trust - How to embrace mistakes (and share your own with your team) - Why you should let go of giving answers, and start asking questions - How to treat you staff like shit Wait. sorry I added the last one.. and only the last one :o) Okay #TrollingDone
- ranDOMscripts 7y ago
  The sheer hubris of this beggars belief. Maybe we can get a skillshare from Elizabeth Holmes on how to build a lasting company or Adam Neumann on how to con your way into making a billion dollars? - wait, that last one might actually be interesting...
  - fastball 7y ago
    Where is the hubris?
sixtypoundhound 7y ago
Wait. Pause. I read the verge article. They put people through that kind of bullshit in NYC for 40 grand a year? Are you kidding me? (yes, well aware that many people make less than that. But sheesh... it's the Devil wears Prada updated for 2019)
- walrus01 7y ago
  40k a year for what sounds like 65-80 hour works weeks, and a daily torrent of Slack abuse from the CEO just sounds like a new level of purgatory for the rank and file workers. 40k gross in NYC with both federal, state and city income taxes, and cost of living in NYC, is truly a pittance.
- C1sc0cat 7y ago
  I got a vary fashion industry vibe from this fashion mags and the industry are super notorious for this. And I suspect the rise of "the apprentice" have given bullies a licence to behave badly as they saw it on the telly.
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dang 7y ago
We changed the URL from https://daringfireball.net/2019/12/away_replaces_ceo https://daringfireball.net/2019/12/away_replaces_ceo to the article it points to, in keeping with the site guideline that asks for original sources. It might be best to look at both articles, though, since they cover different aspects. Edit: someone pointed out that the OP adds an additional perspective that isn't just copying what was said in the WSJ article, so we'll switch back to that from https://www.wsj.com/articles/online-luggage-startup-away-says-ceo-is-stepping-down-11575930577 https://www.wsj.com/articles/online-luggage-startup-away-say.... Thanks!
- ghostly_s 7y ago
  Appreciated, Gruber is doing some real weird editorializing on this. Edit: well I take it back. Gruber seems to taking his usual tack when covering anything outside the Apple beat, ie. pure speculation and opinion of the sort everyone posts on Twitter but at 500 words. And with a big "they are an active sponsor of my site but I am impervious to bias" disclaimer at the top.
  - audiometry 7y ago
    Yeah, and he orients his argument around "well the boss is right to go nuts for sending a sandy, broken suitcase to a customer" and then fails to address the myriad other far-less-defensible awful behaviors the manager demonstrated. Basically just cherry-picked the least-worst thing.
  - tehwebguy 7y ago
    The article I read had Gruber accusing Away of a pretty shady PR game, despite them paying him lots of money.
    - commoner 7y ago
      The article spreads a conspiracy theory that serves as a strange defense of Korey's actions as CEO of Away (Daring Fireball's sponsor). > What I think happened is that once Jen Rubio and the board — who were already plotting Korey’s ouster — became aware of the story, and the all-in-on-outrage-culture/startups-are-toxic angle it was taking, they simply let it happen without pushing back whatsoever. No vast conspiracy necessary — just let it happen.
neonate 7y ago
http://archive.is/uehXU http://archive.is/uehXU
quantified 7y ago
Some of the Verge article is indeed hyperbolic. The writer may have needed to hit a word count. It seems silly to sound outraged about: * leadership being a clique * requesting that PR firestorms not be spread further * leadership going apesh&t over bad products being received as the 2018 holiday season is arriving and teams not addressing quickly But, IMHO some of the behavior definitely was worth termination over. Framing the CX access as accountability exercise they way she did, for example, was pretty bad, and some of the other sarcasms I read were also just toxic. That kind of toxic is so very counterproductive in any timeframe. You can communicate what you need, with utmost clarity and punch, in other ways.
Ice_cream_suit 7y ago
"When a co-worker invited Avery to join a private Slack channel called #Hot-Topics filled with LGBTQ folks and people of color, she was relieved to find that she wasn’t the only one who felt uncomfortable with Away’s purported mission and company culture. So when the executive’s name unexpectedly popped into #Hot-Topics the morning of May 16th, 2018, employees knew something was wrong. She’d found out about the channel from Erin Grau, the head of people... “I thought, Damn, she’s gonna see us talking about some stupid stuff, but whatever,” recalls a former marketing manager named Emily*. She hoped Korey would at least find the conversations funny. That hope evaporated the next day when Korey began calling people into a room one by one. There, flanked by the company’s head of people and general counsel, she told six people they were being let go. “You’ve been discriminatory,” employees remember her saying. “... you no longer have a job at this company.” Emily, who is a person of color, was shocked. “That was jarring — three white people telling me I was racist,” she says.
- ulfw 7y ago
  Wait a second... "Emily, who is a person of color, was shocked. “That was jarring — three white people telling me I was racist,” she says." So erm... only WHITE people can be racist?! Huh?
- jariel 7y ago
  This part is perplexing because it seems the employees fail to grasp that not only minorities can be discriminated against. The articles specific wording is: " But employees say she pointed to two comments that called out “cis white men.” " Calling out 'cis white men'? As though it's just a normal thing to do, because, you know, those terrible 'straight white men'? Can you imagine if that statement read 'calling out those gay blacks'? The lack of self awareness among those staffers at least on this issue is shocking. It's definitely racist, and definitely a fireable offence. Obviously, black->white/white->black racism is quite different, but it's still racism in the worst way.
  - jessaustin 7y ago
    Since they're "quite different", only one of them is "the worst".
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sdan 7y ago
Given that they got Lululemons’ COO, they probably already had a contract with him/her. After the article came out they probably sped up when they were going to announce it. Also I feel like a lot of this type of stuff is coming out now towards the holiday season so that a lot of people would somewhat forget about everything thats going on now.
elicash 7y ago
Putting the specifics of the Away memo aside, the laws regarding policing employee speech are actually more complicated than Gruber seems to understand. See this NLRB decision for a fuller understanding of the complexities: https://www.employerlawreport.com/2015/10/articles/labor-relations/second-circuit-upholds-nlrb-finding-that-triple-play-sports-grille-unlawfully-terminated-employees-for-facebook-postings/ https://www.employerlawreport.com/2015/10/articles/labor-rel... Of course, it's a different NLRB than it was when that decision was made.
7kmph 7y ago
I misread the title to be “Apple fires CEO...”, got me excited for a moment
vector_spaces 7y ago
I was an initial hire at a company with a very similar culture of (the alleged) publicly abusing employees on Slack, with all the hyperbolic cultish nonsense, with plenty of gaslighting and classless psychological manipulation ("if you're on this team it means we think you're the best, but if you can't handle it, maybe we were wrong"), and even the breathless idolization of (all the worst parts of) Amazon to boot. If you think you're in this situation now -- please: leave. I've since learned that these things are a dime a dozen, and by and large they go up in flames. And in the rare cases when they don't, it's still not worth it. In the worst case at the end of it you'll be burned out, emotionally exhausted, struggling with aggravated anxiety/depression/PTSD, not to mention the damage done to your personal relationships. This kind of shit is literally abuse, and as such can do actual and severe damage to your life. Don't put up with it. Life is too short, and there's a lot more at stake than your time and labor. There are plenty of companies to work for including startups that won't do this to you.
- taurath 7y ago
  Whatever validation you get from it that you’re not providing yourself, at the very least find someone else to provide that validation but will give it kindly and help you find it yourself, rather than under threat of constantly taking it away.
- shard972 7y ago
  What if I have a green card?
- quadrifoliate 7y ago
  Thank you for recognizing this as abuse, which it is. I can't believe that people are glossing over these as "harsh working conditions" – calling people "braindead", firing people about some private Slack channel, really? And then apologizing for it with the hypocritical "We want to maintain the highest standards, mistakes were made?" Maybe I've just been in more normal, staid companies; but in my opinion all the higher-ups at this company need to be fired or the employees need to stage a mass walkout.
Khaine 7y ago
I hate to bring gender into this, but I do wonder if Gruber would raise such a stink if it was just a male CEO getting fired for this. And as for his example of: "If a waiter served a customer a half-eaten sandwich, I’d expect the manager to immediately berate him in front of the other staff in the kitchen — not take him aside and say “Hey, that isn’t cool.” I would think it is highly inappropriate to berate a staff member in front of other staff. That doesn't inspire leadership. Instead you would take them aside and talk to them personally about what they had done, and talk to all staff as a whole about the need to do better and explain the importance of customer service and that a happy customer is likely to refer 2 other people, but a dissatisfied person is likely to tell 20, so we need to stop people from being dissatisfied (within reason). In all of my roles, from retail, consulting, government, and everything else, it has never been appropriate to berate staff.
kumarvvr 7y ago
Off the topic : A decent suitcase, without battery, costs about 225 USD, as per their website. In India Rupees, that about 15,000 Rs. In India, the costliest similar suitcase, from a well regarded brand, VIP is about 10,500 Rs. ( https://www.vipbags.com/product/fairway-graphite https://www.vipbags.com/product/fairway-graphite ) Are suitcases so costly to produce? Or is the cost the cumulative effect of overheads? 15,000 Rs. is the median monthly income for many jobs in India. Especially service jobs. What is it about Away suitcases that demand such high prices?
- jamisteven 7y ago
  Guessing its something to do with a combination of the following: 1. One time purchase 2. High shipping costs
- rpeden 7y ago
  It might just be that the people in their target market are willing to pay that price. The price doesn't need to be tied very directly to production costs.
- nness 7y ago
  The difference here is intrinsic cost vs extrinsic value and goes to the old adage; charge what the consumer will pay.
- davidmurdoch 7y ago
  Away is on the inexpensive side of decent quality hardshell luggage. Romowa, Arlo Sky, Tumi, Roam, to name a few, are all much more expensive.
- nwsm 7y ago
  $225 is reasonable in the US. They can get expensive. It's mostly just in the marketing and the fact that it's an item you don't buy often so people are willing to shell out.
- xnyan 7y ago
  Away, like almost every other travel brand, sells not just the suitcase but also the idea of travel in addition to the suitcase.
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9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
This is a new low in corporate spin: "I hope everyone in this group appreciates the thoughtfulness I’ve put into creating this career development opportunity and that you’re all excited to operate consistently with our core values", or in English, "You should be grateful that I'm cancelling all your PTO" (srsly wtf).
- KoftaBob 7y ago
  That's not even corporate spin at that point, it sounds more like the most aggressive form of "passive aggressive".
- koheripbal 7y ago
  This company tried to enter an extremely mature and cluttered market - LUGGAGE. ...with almost no product innovation. It should not be a surprise to anyone that all they had to offer is spin and marketing-speak.
KoftaBob 7y ago
Outside of the behavior of the CEO, I'm genuinely curious what it is about their luggage that's supposed to be a unique selling point? I went on their site, and it looks like it's just another carry-on suitcase that's durable and has a charging port. What's the big deal?
- remir 7y ago
  S'well water bottles as another example of this. These are just made in China water bottles with some printed pattern on them, but some people are talking about them like it's this new awesome thing.
angry_octet 7y ago
I just can't believe that the COO of an extremely successful company like Lulu Lemon (LULO market cap $30B) would make the jump to a suitcase marketing company? How many suitcases do you buy in a decade? Seems like a demotion.
- omarhaneef 7y ago
  I don't have too many data points, but of the ones I do have, I think the vast majority of C-level executives covet the CEO spot. I think they would love to get in the seat to show what they can do. You would have to look at the compensation packages, as well, but emotionally I am sure there were many people who wanted a chance at the saddle.
- blaser-waffle 7y ago
  Be the COO and get a cut of the earnings and some stock, or be the CEO and get a larger cut, and the ability to lead the show? Plus she could have been failing out of the COO role, or things were struggling / on-fire, and now that she's milked the role for all it's worth it was time to flee.
davidwitt415 7y ago
I read The Verge daily, and generally like what they do, but they are definitely working the outrage factor for eyeballs. Today's editorial from Casey Newton is a another data point: He tries to drag Slack into the controversy by claiming that it is 'not really neutral' and that it contributed to the CEO's downfall by allowing her to so easily berate employees and create a permanent record - as if email never existed.
teamwork007 7y ago
I worked with a company that worked with Away, Steph in particular, and her abrasive style bled through to our entire company. Without diving into specifics, she wasn't able to manage her own expectations on an important issue and threatened to write a bad review of us. She was known by our whole company as being someone who messed up on her end and rather than take blame internally she blamed it on us. I get that founders are under a lot of pressure, but she was hard up to repeat the success she saw at Warby Parker and it was evident she was willing to be a crummy person to work with if it looked like things were not headed in that direction regardless of who was at fault.

199 points by andygcook 7y ago

There is speculation in this article and elsewhere that the timing of this forced change of leadership so soon after an anonymously sourced article revealing Korey’s abrasive management is evidence of a larger PR proxy war between governance and the CEO. I’d be curious to learn about whether this is a common conspiracy and if anyone has other such examples.

dangus 7y ago
This has to be the case. Think about it, why would the reading audience of the general public care about working conditions in such a random, relatively small company? It’s a <500 employee company. The plight of tens of thousands of Amazon or Uber employees and contractors is much more relatable, more people are likely to know someone who has worked in those environments. Some small startup company with a CEO with hubris isn’t exactly news.
- Jasper_ 7y ago
  Because Silicon Valley is seen as a utopia for innovation, and it massively shapes our world and our culture? It's important to report on how it works. This was a prominent Instagram brand. It has all the trimmings of the Silicon Valley Startup: they make suitcases but talk about themselves as a "travel company" with lofty missions, they "value transparency" but not when employees actually use it. This kind of story continually happens, at Uber, at WeWork, at Zenefits, at Riot Games, at Nest, and at startups I've worked at too. The more we bring these stories to light, the better working conditions will be at these places. EDIT: Someone pointed out below that the company is actually in NYC, not Silicon Valley. Still, this style of startup culture exists all around the world.
  - OnlineGladiator 7y ago
    > Because Silicon Valley is seen as a utopia for innovation Is this really the generally held consensus with the public? I certainly don't believe this, but I work here so I'm biased. I think most people think Silicon Valley is full of overpaid engineers churning out things nobody actually wants - there's a reason the show Silicon Valley was such a hit. Also a fun fact - Mike Judge (creator of Silicon Valley) actually worked in the Valley for a bit after college. He felt like people here were just ridiculous - the basis for the show is largely rooted in his own experiences working here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Judge#1985%E2%80%9397:_Early_science_career;_musician;_animation_and_Beavis_and_Butt-Head https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Judge#1985%E2%80%9397:_Ea...
    - Jasper_ 7y ago
      Silicon Valley's writers met with Google X's boss, Astro Teller [0]. He got so pissed they were making fun of him, he stormed out of the room, supposedly on rollerskates, and yet Google still pays him top dollar money. There are a large enough number of people here who believe it that they continue to start startups and play startup-dressup, talk about changing the world, and elevate the world's consciousness or whatever. The number of applications to Y Combinator every year is growing, not shrinking. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/google-x-astro-teller-hbo-silicon-valley-2016-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/google-x-astro-teller-hbo-si...
      - OnlineGladiator 7y ago
        I think it sounds like we agree - most of the people who want to "change the world" are really opportunists looking to get rich. That's not to say there really aren't some fantastic people trying to make a difference, but in my anecdotal experience they are drowned out by people who really only care about money. And ultimately it's investors who dictate what companies get funded, and they definitely care about the money.
      - C1sc0cat 7y ago
        Not sure what your point is - where they taking the piss in the meeting he walked out of or was it just the show in general. TBH Hollywood / film /tv does not have a good track record in portraying us do they.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  > why would the reading audience of the general public care about working conditions in such a random, relatively small company? I think from the most reader's POV, whether this is a 500 or 500K-people company makes no difference, it's just a number next to the word "employees". The actual amount doesn't register emotionally, so the story is the same regardless of size. And it's easier for reporters to find a small company with problems, especially now that public displays of hubris are a somewhat popular startup marketing strategy.
- x0x0 7y ago
  Away has raised $181m, and punches above their weight in visibility because they are a b2c business and have a b2c advertising strategy. Also, a rich entitled asshole of a ceo berating employees making $40k in nyc doesn't happen that often with a written record.
- quantified 7y ago
  Same answer as why the real general public would care about the contestants on Judge Judy. Let's all enjoy a good story about miscreants and comeuppance. The Verge aims to tech and startup people anyway, not the general public, and this is a startup.
- baddox 7y ago
  It “has to be the case” because the company has fewer than 500 employees? That’s very weak reasoning. Is no story about mismanagement at a company with fewer than 500 employees genuine? They’re all just manufactured PR stunts? Can you in any way justify this bizarre claim?
- deleted 7y ago
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- marcinzm 7y ago
  If you think people can't relate to an abusive boss more than Amazon working conditions then you haven't worked much. Amazon and Uber are just sad, this is entertaining in the individual drama sort of way. Plus the abusive boss get kicked out in the which gives readers a happy ending.
taurath 7y ago
I believe she’s awful just from a few of the slack messages. But I’d believe her cofounder is probably just as awful. That there was so much ammo lying around is the problem.
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rsynnott 7y ago
I mean, Occam's razor says that they were already looking, and the article just pushed them to go with the best they'd found as soon as possible to avoid this becoming a long drawn-out mess.
codyogden 7y ago
I find this theory interesting, but a big question I have about the initial story is "How long did the Verge investigation take?" Reading the article, it's not clear to me. Two or three months? Tracking down 14 former workers/interviews, fact checking, compiling research. I don't think it is farfetched to consider that, if the Verge had been working on the article since (let's call it) early October, it may have been just inconvenient but brutal timing. It sounds like they were making plans to replace Korey since the Spring of this year. I could easily see the Away board aiming to delay the leadership change until after the holiday season (Q1 2020). Bad press like the Verge article or a CEO shakeup in the middle of a shorter-than-usual holiday shopping season sucks for a B2C retail company. Moving up the start date of the new CEO they've already vetted and recruited earlier this year seems to me like Away's only opportunity to save their shopping season. Edit to add Tweet from Verge Staff: > Away knew we were reporting on this for months https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204278032468307968 https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204278032468307968
- hammock 7y ago
  I imagine the Verge would have started working on the story around the time the board started its search...
- settsu 7y ago
  > Bad press like the Verge article or a CEO shakeup in the middle of a shorter-than-usual holiday shopping season sucks for a B2C retail company. Moving up the start date of the new CEO they've already vetted and recruited earlier this year seems to me like Away's only opportunity to save their shopping season. Maybe? How concerned is the bulk of their potential customer base aware of any goings on in the leadership of the company? What is the latest developments at the C-level of the company who supplied your canned corn or bike tires?
undefined3840 7y ago
Highly doubt it. All the employees who came forward were jr customer service agents. Would anyone actually believe that board members would even know who they were, track them individually down and know why they left the company?
ghostly_s 7y ago
Abrasive CEO fires a bunch of people and generally pisses underlings off; her bitter victims leak some genuinely salacious details of her behavior to the press; story picks up eyeballs and board that has grown tired with her affect on morale decides it's time to pull the trigger on getting rid of her now that the cat's out of the bag. I don't understand why a conspiracy is necessary here.
cutenewt 7y ago
Looks like there are four board members: Korey, Rubio, and two VCs. If they held equal votes, it's possible the two VCs wanted to oust Korey but Rubio did not. As a result, the VCs probably waged a backchannel PR war to pressure Rubio to support Korey's firing.

draw_down 7y ago

If in fact this was coordinated to distract from the firing of a woman CEO to be replaced by a man, it worked masterfully and whoever executed it should get a raise.

Jasper_ 7y ago

> If a waiter served a customer a half-eaten sandwich, I’d expect the manager to immediately berate him in front of the other staff in the kitchen — not take him aside and say “Hey, that isn’t cool.” Gross. Korey's own words, about teaching her direct reports "accountability" by asking them to work overtime, presumably unpaid, is gross. Korey's own actions, by forcing all employees to talk publicly in Slack channels in "the interest of transparency", and then firing those who talk about problems at the company, is gross. If this level of irresponsibility made its way to the board, PR disaster in stow, you sure imagine they'd try to get rid of her quick.

bwilliams18 7y ago
I just lost a lot of respect for John. I've worked in serious NYC restaurants for years, and made a lot of big mistakes, including serving inch-worms to celebrities. I've almost always been treated with respect and kindness when I made a mistake (save for some gentle ribbing). When I first started I had a few sternly worded conversations, but they were always respectful and very clearly delivered with the intention of building me up, not putting me down. The one and only time I was ever shouted at was in private and one-on-one, and was a motivating factor in my putting in my notice a few days later. Toxic culture is never acceptable, not in restaurants, or tech companies.
- paggle 7y ago
  That’s just wrong that you got gentle ribbing if it was your fault that a worm got served to a diner. I’d prefer to eat at restaurants where such an employee was fired or severely castigated for such a screwup, but in private, and not with glee.
  - krageon 7y ago
    If you can't even mess with your colleagues after the real problems have been understood to be resolved, it's quite a stuffy workplace.
  - stronglikedan 7y ago

ec109685 7y ago

I don't know why this article complicates the situation. She apologized for incidents that occurred last year, Verge reported on those incidents and those incidents prompted the board to find her replacement: https://twitter.com/stephkorey/status/1203051598961954816 https://twitter.com/stephkorey/status/1203051598961954816

dangus 7y ago
Apologized after being exposed publicly, right?
- ec109685 7y ago
  Right. My point is that the Verge reported on something legitimate, unlike what the linked article seems to be implying.
  - deleted 7y ago
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CydeWeys 7y ago
The linked article is saying the timeline is off; the board must have been searching for a replacement for months, long before the Verge article.
- oceliker 7y ago
  The board also presumably knows about the incidents since long before the Verge article.
dbt00 7y ago
The point is exactly the thing you skipped over — the replacement was already found.

walrus01 7y ago

I find it really hard to feel sorry for the person who grew up in a 55,000 sq ft house and went to boarding school. It's highly likely that she and her family are so wealthy she never needs to work a day in her life, so she treats the whole thing like a game. From the verge article: "Korey, for her part, didn’t have to work hard to project an aspirational lifestyle. The CEO grew up in Ohio in a 55,000-square-foot historic mansion with an indoor swimming pool and three dining rooms. She’d gone to boarding school, then landed in Bloomingdale’s executive development program while at Brown University" Go breed Arabian racehorses or something, lady, stop cracking the whip on $40k a year peons.

undefined3840 7y ago
do you not think the reporter put that in the story to induce you as the reader to have this very reaction? i think her actions were wrong, but i also think this setup at the beginning of the story has nothing to do with the actual issue at all and was meant to turn readers on the CEO from the get go before you had even read anything about what she had actually done. The reality is that many successful high profile founders, including Gates/Zuckerberg/Spiegel came from wealthy backgrounds. It speaks more to the power of a strong social safety net when it comes to entrepreneurship than anything else, but shouldn’t by itself make you hate someone.
- nirvdrum 7y ago
  Given all the other reprehensible stuff in the article, the bit about her background seemed like an unnecessary potshot. The very next sentence is "But for all of her privilege, no one denied the executive’s fanatical work ethic." But, it's split from the paragraph about her upbringing and it looks like some readers didn't make it that far.
dang 7y ago
Personal attacks are not ok on HN. Maybe you don't owe "lady" better, but you owe this community better if you're posting here. This sort of comment is basically just the primate feces-hurling game—it's a mechanical response, and doesn't count as interesting in the sense that the site guidelines use that word. There may well be a good comment to be made on behalf of the employees of the company, but this is not that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

landonxjames 7y ago

> But read the memo. Away wasn’t “clamping down on employee speech” — they were dealing with a serious PR crisis. What company in the midst of a PR crisis would not tell employees not to talk about it? I think they were pretty clearly cracking down on employee speech. Telling them what they are allowed to do on their personal accounts outside of work hours really rubs me the wrong way regardless of whether or not they are in crisis mode.

kirillzubovsky 7y ago

I didn't realize Benchmark was an investor.

wp381640 7y ago
Uber, WeWork, Away - they kinda specialize in media litigated CEO firestorms where they win in the end

ramphastidae 7y ago

The idea that a business with hundreds of employees can be run entirely through public Slack is shockingly stupid. Sorry for the harsh words, but this demonstrates complete incompetence and zero business experience from Steph Korey all the way to the investors. Away is clearly yet another terrible company that would have died long ago if not for VC life support.

fastball 7y ago
GitLab runs most of their company through literally public git repos. Exception that makes the rule perhaps, but I think you might be being a bit hyperbolic.
- ramphastidae 7y ago
  The GitLab internal communication policy is publicly available and clearly mentions PRs, issues, email, video chat, and 1:1 communication as options: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/#internal-communication https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/#internal-co... And no, I am not being hyperbolic. Did you read the article? Employees at Away are banned from using everything above. No private Slack channels. No email. Only public Slack. I challenge you to name a successful company where that is the policy.

tyingq 7y ago

"Employees were not allowed to email each other, and direct messages were supposed to be used rarely (never about work, and only for small requests, like asking if someone wanted to eat lunch)." https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph-korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo... Youch. Sounds like a cult. All work conversations in a channel where the CEO can eavesdrop and bust in for spurts of berating and micromanagement.

GaryNumanVevo 7y ago
Policies like this are really weird to me, wouldn't they just encourage back channeling more? Ideally you'd encourage supposedly "private" conversations then snoop on those.

ChuckMcM 7y ago

Human brains naturally look for patterns. Those patterns have a uniform distribution with respect to the probability of them actually explaining the data. I remember pretty clearly when I first started seeing "the game", which is the politics that course through an organization like the wind through a mountain forest. It can be pretty heady at first, it is like wearing the special sunglasses in "They Live", but for me I also "saw" some things that weren't actually there at all. And acting on what I think I saw resulted in modest embarrassment and some awkwardness. So with experience, I learned to take what I saw with a bit of skepticism and to figure out ways I could "test", without revealing what I suspected to be true, whether or not something was what was actually going on. That test for Gruber was apparently the belief that you "cannot" hire a new CEO from another large company in the short amount of time that Away did it, so the "truth" (or what is "really" going on) is that the Verge story was cover for the swap and distracting from the distasteful element that a woman in technology was being forced out and a man coming in to replace her. I don't think that would be enough for me. Over my career I have met with a number of executive search firms, both helping them to identify good candidates, and sometimes as the candidate they were vetting for a possible move. And that experience showed me that executives are just as trigger happy as employees are for the 'right' move. That is especially true near the top because the only way you move into the 'big' seat is for the person in it to be ejected, and that can be a slow process for an aggressive person. Watching Ed Zander give up on Scott ever stepping down so that he could take over Sun he bailed and went to Motorola. It's a common story. So for me, I can see that if you talked to the right executive search firm, they might have a couple of candidates that were already 'loose in the socket' as they say. But it also can't be a "hopeless" company, like Uber seemed to be when Kalanick was clearly on the way out. But 'start up founder can't grow into the role' is a common enough reason to slot in someone who has more experience, and if it moves an executive closer to their ultimate goal, not as hard to pull off as you might think. (I'll admit it is probably easier for CTO roles than CEO roles but still) I am not saying that Gruber is wrong, I agree it is a plausible explanation. I just don't see the evidence as being as definitive as he does.

ec109685 7y ago
More background from Verge: https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204276683588505600 https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204276683588505600 Would have been cool for Gruber to talk to someone at the Verge before publishing his hit piece.

acroback 7y ago

Wait this company makes luggage? And has such high valuation, how?

undefined3840 7y ago
You realize Lululemon makes yoga pants and has a valuation of $30B right? And Nike makes shoes and has a valuation of $150B? You don’t need to be a “tech” company to build something worth billions.
- deleted 7y ago
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- nrp 7y ago
  Lululemon, Nike, and Away all sell aspiration, hope, and a lifestyle, which get them to valuations higher than shoe, yoga pants, and luggage companies do. There are of course variations on design and differentiation in technology in each of those, but the value is in the brand.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  To be fair, a lot of people wear shoes and yoga pants. Probably more people than have a smartphone for the former at least.
  - undefined3840 7y ago
    A lot of people travel and need luggage as well. I’m not suggesting Away would ever be worth anything close to Nike but is it realistic to think it could be worth several billion? Sure.
    - jen729w 7y ago
      The stocks app tells me that Samsonite is worth $3bn+. So yeah, why not?
- acroback 7y ago

mrburton 7y ago

Well, if you want to be like Steph, there's a great Skillshare page by her https://www.skillshare.com/profile/Steph-Korey/9215939 https://www.skillshare.com/profile/Steph-Korey/9215939 Key Lessons: - Why consistent feedback builds trust - How to embrace mistakes (and share your own with your team) - Why you should let go of giving answers, and start asking questions - How to treat you staff like shit Wait. sorry I added the last one.. and only the last one :o) Okay #TrollingDone

ranDOMscripts 7y ago
The sheer hubris of this beggars belief. Maybe we can get a skillshare from Elizabeth Holmes on how to build a lasting company or Adam Neumann on how to con your way into making a billion dollars? - wait, that last one might actually be interesting...
- fastball 7y ago
  Where is the hubris?

sixtypoundhound 7y ago

Wait. Pause. I read the verge article. They put people through that kind of bullshit in NYC for 40 grand a year? Are you kidding me? (yes, well aware that many people make less than that. But sheesh... it's the Devil wears Prada updated for 2019)

walrus01 7y ago
40k a year for what sounds like 65-80 hour works weeks, and a daily torrent of Slack abuse from the CEO just sounds like a new level of purgatory for the rank and file workers. 40k gross in NYC with both federal, state and city income taxes, and cost of living in NYC, is truly a pittance.
C1sc0cat 7y ago
I got a vary fashion industry vibe from this fashion mags and the industry are super notorious for this. And I suspect the rise of "the apprentice" have given bullies a licence to behave badly as they saw it on the telly.

deleted 7y ago

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dang 7y ago

We changed the URL from https://daringfireball.net/2019/12/away_replaces_ceo https://daringfireball.net/2019/12/away_replaces_ceo to the article it points to, in keeping with the site guideline that asks for original sources. It might be best to look at both articles, though, since they cover different aspects. Edit: someone pointed out that the OP adds an additional perspective that isn't just copying what was said in the WSJ article, so we'll switch back to that from https://www.wsj.com/articles/online-luggage-startup-away-says-ceo-is-stepping-down-11575930577 https://www.wsj.com/articles/online-luggage-startup-away-say.... Thanks!

ghostly_s 7y ago
Appreciated, Gruber is doing some real weird editorializing on this. Edit: well I take it back. Gruber seems to taking his usual tack when covering anything outside the Apple beat, ie. pure speculation and opinion of the sort everyone posts on Twitter but at 500 words. And with a big "they are an active sponsor of my site but I am impervious to bias" disclaimer at the top.
- audiometry 7y ago
  Yeah, and he orients his argument around "well the boss is right to go nuts for sending a sandy, broken suitcase to a customer" and then fails to address the myriad other far-less-defensible awful behaviors the manager demonstrated. Basically just cherry-picked the least-worst thing.
- tehwebguy 7y ago
  The article I read had Gruber accusing Away of a pretty shady PR game, despite them paying him lots of money.
  - commoner 7y ago
    The article spreads a conspiracy theory that serves as a strange defense of Korey's actions as CEO of Away (Daring Fireball's sponsor). > What I think happened is that once Jen Rubio and the board — who were already plotting Korey’s ouster — became aware of the story, and the all-in-on-outrage-culture/startups-are-toxic angle it was taking, they simply let it happen without pushing back whatsoever. No vast conspiracy necessary — just let it happen.

neonate 7y ago

http://archive.is/uehXU http://archive.is/uehXU

quantified 7y ago

Some of the Verge article is indeed hyperbolic. The writer may have needed to hit a word count. It seems silly to sound outraged about: * leadership being a clique * requesting that PR firestorms not be spread further * leadership going apesh&t over bad products being received as the 2018 holiday season is arriving and teams not addressing quickly But, IMHO some of the behavior definitely was worth termination over. Framing the CX access as accountability exercise they way she did, for example, was pretty bad, and some of the other sarcasms I read were also just toxic. That kind of toxic is so very counterproductive in any timeframe. You can communicate what you need, with utmost clarity and punch, in other ways.

Ice_cream_suit 7y ago

"When a co-worker invited Avery to join a private Slack channel called #Hot-Topics filled with LGBTQ folks and people of color, she was relieved to find that she wasn’t the only one who felt uncomfortable with Away’s purported mission and company culture. So when the executive’s name unexpectedly popped into #Hot-Topics the morning of May 16th, 2018, employees knew something was wrong. She’d found out about the channel from Erin Grau, the head of people... “I thought, Damn, she’s gonna see us talking about some stupid stuff, but whatever,” recalls a former marketing manager named Emily*. She hoped Korey would at least find the conversations funny. That hope evaporated the next day when Korey began calling people into a room one by one. There, flanked by the company’s head of people and general counsel, she told six people they were being let go. “You’ve been discriminatory,” employees remember her saying. “... you no longer have a job at this company.” Emily, who is a person of color, was shocked. “That was jarring — three white people telling me I was racist,” she says.

ulfw 7y ago
Wait a second... "Emily, who is a person of color, was shocked. “That was jarring — three white people telling me I was racist,” she says." So erm... only WHITE people can be racist?! Huh?
jariel 7y ago
This part is perplexing because it seems the employees fail to grasp that not only minorities can be discriminated against. The articles specific wording is: " But employees say she pointed to two comments that called out “cis white men.” " Calling out 'cis white men'? As though it's just a normal thing to do, because, you know, those terrible 'straight white men'? Can you imagine if that statement read 'calling out those gay blacks'? The lack of self awareness among those staffers at least on this issue is shocking. It's definitely racist, and definitely a fireable offence. Obviously, black->white/white->black racism is quite different, but it's still racism in the worst way.
- jessaustin 7y ago
  Since they're "quite different", only one of them is "the worst".

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

sdan 7y ago

Given that they got Lululemons’ COO, they probably already had a contract with him/her. After the article came out they probably sped up when they were going to announce it. Also I feel like a lot of this type of stuff is coming out now towards the holiday season so that a lot of people would somewhat forget about everything thats going on now.

elicash 7y ago

Putting the specifics of the Away memo aside, the laws regarding policing employee speech are actually more complicated than Gruber seems to understand. See this NLRB decision for a fuller understanding of the complexities: https://www.employerlawreport.com/2015/10/articles/labor-relations/second-circuit-upholds-nlrb-finding-that-triple-play-sports-grille-unlawfully-terminated-employees-for-facebook-postings/ https://www.employerlawreport.com/2015/10/articles/labor-rel... Of course, it's a different NLRB than it was when that decision was made.

7kmph 7y ago

I misread the title to be “Apple fires CEO...”, got me excited for a moment

vector_spaces 7y ago

I was an initial hire at a company with a very similar culture of (the alleged) publicly abusing employees on Slack, with all the hyperbolic cultish nonsense, with plenty of gaslighting and classless psychological manipulation ("if you're on this team it means we think you're the best, but if you can't handle it, maybe we were wrong"), and even the breathless idolization of (all the worst parts of) Amazon to boot. If you think you're in this situation now -- please: leave. I've since learned that these things are a dime a dozen, and by and large they go up in flames. And in the rare cases when they don't, it's still not worth it. In the worst case at the end of it you'll be burned out, emotionally exhausted, struggling with aggravated anxiety/depression/PTSD, not to mention the damage done to your personal relationships. This kind of shit is literally abuse, and as such can do actual and severe damage to your life. Don't put up with it. Life is too short, and there's a lot more at stake than your time and labor. There are plenty of companies to work for including startups that won't do this to you.

taurath 7y ago
Whatever validation you get from it that you’re not providing yourself, at the very least find someone else to provide that validation but will give it kindly and help you find it yourself, rather than under threat of constantly taking it away.
shard972 7y ago
What if I have a green card?
quadrifoliate 7y ago
Thank you for recognizing this as abuse, which it is. I can't believe that people are glossing over these as "harsh working conditions" – calling people "braindead", firing people about some private Slack channel, really? And then apologizing for it with the hypocritical "We want to maintain the highest standards, mistakes were made?" Maybe I've just been in more normal, staid companies; but in my opinion all the higher-ups at this company need to be fired or the employees need to stage a mass walkout.

Khaine 7y ago

I hate to bring gender into this, but I do wonder if Gruber would raise such a stink if it was just a male CEO getting fired for this. And as for his example of: "If a waiter served a customer a half-eaten sandwich, I’d expect the manager to immediately berate him in front of the other staff in the kitchen — not take him aside and say “Hey, that isn’t cool.” I would think it is highly inappropriate to berate a staff member in front of other staff. That doesn't inspire leadership. Instead you would take them aside and talk to them personally about what they had done, and talk to all staff as a whole about the need to do better and explain the importance of customer service and that a happy customer is likely to refer 2 other people, but a dissatisfied person is likely to tell 20, so we need to stop people from being dissatisfied (within reason). In all of my roles, from retail, consulting, government, and everything else, it has never been appropriate to berate staff.

kumarvvr 7y ago

Off the topic : A decent suitcase, without battery, costs about 225 USD, as per their website. In India Rupees, that about 15,000 Rs. In India, the costliest similar suitcase, from a well regarded brand, VIP is about 10,500 Rs. ( https://www.vipbags.com/product/fairway-graphite https://www.vipbags.com/product/fairway-graphite ) Are suitcases so costly to produce? Or is the cost the cumulative effect of overheads? 15,000 Rs. is the median monthly income for many jobs in India. Especially service jobs. What is it about Away suitcases that demand such high prices?

jamisteven 7y ago
Guessing its something to do with a combination of the following: 1. One time purchase 2. High shipping costs
rpeden 7y ago
It might just be that the people in their target market are willing to pay that price. The price doesn't need to be tied very directly to production costs.
nness 7y ago
The difference here is intrinsic cost vs extrinsic value and goes to the old adage; charge what the consumer will pay.
davidmurdoch 7y ago
Away is on the inexpensive side of decent quality hardshell luggage. Romowa, Arlo Sky, Tumi, Roam, to name a few, are all much more expensive.
nwsm 7y ago
$225 is reasonable in the US. They can get expensive. It's mostly just in the marketing and the fact that it's an item you don't buy often so people are willing to shell out.
xnyan 7y ago
Away, like almost every other travel brand, sells not just the suitcase but also the idea of travel in addition to the suitcase.

deleted 7y ago

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9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago

This is a new low in corporate spin: "I hope everyone in this group appreciates the thoughtfulness I’ve put into creating this career development opportunity and that you’re all excited to operate consistently with our core values", or in English, "You should be grateful that I'm cancelling all your PTO" (srsly wtf).

KoftaBob 7y ago
That's not even corporate spin at that point, it sounds more like the most aggressive form of "passive aggressive".
koheripbal 7y ago
This company tried to enter an extremely mature and cluttered market - LUGGAGE. ...with almost no product innovation. It should not be a surprise to anyone that all they had to offer is spin and marketing-speak.

KoftaBob 7y ago

Outside of the behavior of the CEO, I'm genuinely curious what it is about their luggage that's supposed to be a unique selling point? I went on their site, and it looks like it's just another carry-on suitcase that's durable and has a charging port. What's the big deal?

remir 7y ago
S'well water bottles as another example of this. These are just made in China water bottles with some printed pattern on them, but some people are talking about them like it's this new awesome thing.

angry_octet 7y ago

I just can't believe that the COO of an extremely successful company like Lulu Lemon (LULO market cap $30B) would make the jump to a suitcase marketing company? How many suitcases do you buy in a decade? Seems like a demotion.

omarhaneef 7y ago
I don't have too many data points, but of the ones I do have, I think the vast majority of C-level executives covet the CEO spot. I think they would love to get in the seat to show what they can do. You would have to look at the compensation packages, as well, but emotionally I am sure there were many people who wanted a chance at the saddle.
blaser-waffle 7y ago
Be the COO and get a cut of the earnings and some stock, or be the CEO and get a larger cut, and the ability to lead the show? Plus she could have been failing out of the COO role, or things were struggling / on-fire, and now that she's milked the role for all it's worth it was time to flee.

davidwitt415 7y ago

I read The Verge daily, and generally like what they do, but they are definitely working the outrage factor for eyeballs. Today's editorial from Casey Newton is a another data point: He tries to drag Slack into the controversy by claiming that it is 'not really neutral' and that it contributed to the CEO's downfall by allowing her to so easily berate employees and create a permanent record - as if email never existed.

teamwork007 7y ago

I worked with a company that worked with Away, Steph in particular, and her abrasive style bled through to our entire company. Without diving into specifics, she wasn't able to manage her own expectations on an important issue and threatened to write a bad review of us. She was known by our whole company as being someone who messed up on her end and rather than take blame internally she blamed it on us. I get that founders are under a lot of pressure, but she was hard up to repeat the success she saw at Warby Parker and it was evident she was willing to be a crummy person to work with if it looked like things were not headed in that direction regardless of who was at fault.