WeWork‘s Broken Culture: How a $1,219 Whiteboard Exposed Deep Issues

The Rise and Fall of WeWork‘s "We" Culture

Founded in 2010, WeWork quickly grew from a single coworking space in New York City to a global brand synonymous with entrepreneurial culture. By 2019, the company had ballooned to over 500 locations in 111 cities and 29 countries, providing trendy office space to more than 500,000 members. At its peak, WeWork was valued at $47 billion, making it the most hyped startup since Uber.

The visionary behind this meteoric rise was Adam Neumann, a 6-foot-5 Israeli businessman with a magnetic personality and penchant for grand pronouncements. Neumann preached the gospel of "we" and "elevating the world‘s consciousness" through flexible workspaces and a strong community ethos.

"WeWork isn‘t just a company that rents out office space," Neumann proclaimed in 2017. "It‘s a movement to create a world where people make a life and not just a living." He banned meat from company events to reduce WeWork‘s environmental footprint and spoke of expanding into co-living, education, and fitness.

But beneath the lofty rhetoric lay a far messier reality. A 2019 IPO filing revealed massive net losses ($1.6 billion in 2018 alone), erratic management, and a pattern of self-dealing by Neumann. He trademarked the "We" name and sold it back to his own company for $5.9 million (later reversed after outcry). He bought properties and leased them to WeWork, pocketing millions. He cashed out over $700 million from WeWork before the IPO, even as it lost money.

The revelations cratered WeWork‘s valuation and led to Neumann‘s ouster in September 2019, with a staggering $1.7 billion exit package. The "we" company was saved from bankruptcy by a bailout from SoftBank, but not before its valuation crashed to $8 billion and it shelved the troubled IPO.

WeWork‘s new leadership vowed to clean up the culture and refocus on profits over growth-at-all-costs. "I want to be really clear – WeWork is not a family, WeWork is a business," said new CEO Sandeep Mathrani in 2020, distancing himself from Neumann‘s informal style. Over 8,000 employees were laid off as WeWork scrambled to cut costs amid the pandemic.

A Broken Whiteboard and Broken Trust in Bangkok

It was amidst this turmoil that I visited a WeWork branch in Bangkok in October 2019. I had been an enthusiastic early adopter of WeWork, using their offices in Shenzhen, Singapore, and London over the previous 18 months. As an entrepreneur and frequent traveler, I found value in the convenience and community of their coworking model. I even hosted two meetups at WeWork spaces to share the love.

So when I booked a conference room at WeWork Thonglor for a meeting with fellow business owners, I expected the same positive experience as before. The space was busy and buzzing with the energy of ambitious startups. But red flags quickly emerged in the cramped quarters of the meeting room.

"There was barely 30 cm between the chairs and the rear wall, which we discovered was actually a glass whiteboard," recalls Bowen Lee, a financial services professional who was attending the meeting. "I leaned back and the chair made contact with the whiteboard, producing a cracking sound."

A simple mistake anyone could make, especially with no warnings posted about the fragile surface. We promptly notified the front desk staff and offered to cover the repairs. For a business built on "we," this seemed like an easy resolution between honest members and an understanding company.

That illusion was shattered a month later, when I received an email from WeWork Bangkok with an attached invoice for 36,861.50 Thai baht ($1,219). The bill contained no itemized breakdown of the charges or any explanation for the exorbitant amount. Repeated requests for clarification were met first with silence, then veiled accusations.

"The operations manager accused me of conspiring with the whiteboard vendor to get a lower quote," says Lee. "She insisted their prices were correct and confidential, while refusing to provide any details. The whole interaction was hostile and unprofessional."

Only after Lee personally visited the WeWork location and confronted the manager with his own research did the truth come out. The actual cost of the whiteboard from the manufacturer was just 15,000 baht ($495), 60% lower than WeWork‘s mystery bill.

An itemized invoice reluctantly provided by WeWork revealed the following:

WeWork was blatantly gouging a member for a simple accident, without any of the collaboration or goodwill implied by their "we" philosophy. Faced with the facts, they reduced the bill to 16,190 baht – still higher than the vendor price, but far less criminal than before.

A Culture of Unaccountability

The broken whiteboard was really a symptom of WeWork‘s broken culture. Beneath the flashy decor and community marketing lay a structure of self-interest, unaccountability, and coercion that started at the top and trickled down to even mundane issues like a repair bill.

This was the company that put Neumann‘s wife Rebekah in charge of "crafting WeWork‘s soul," despite having no business experience. The company that bought a $60 million Gulfstream jet for Neumann and made him a billionaire from self-dealing while never turning a profit. The company that preached togetherness while leaving its own employees holding the bag.

"WeWork‘s culture is thin on substance and accountability," wrote Sheelah Kolhatkar in The New Yorker. "Decision-making is concentrated in a few people, there are few formal processes, and the emphasis is on moving quickly."

This lack of integrity and consistency played out on the personal level in Bangkok. An apology or fair resolution would have required WeWork staff to have real autonomy and service values. Instead, their incentive was clearly to squeeze money from members and plead ignorance when caught.

A 2019 investigation by Business Insider found widespread issues at WeWorks globally, from shoddy construction to unsafe conditions to unequal treatment of employees. "I have never worked at a company in my entire life with such a lack of regard for its employees," said one former staffer.

Lessons for WeWork and Other Unicorns

The backlash against WeWork holds lessons for other high-flying startups built on more hype than substance. A strong culture and clear values can‘t just be buzzwords – they have to be consistently practiced from leadership down to every frontline interaction.

Some specific recommendations for WeWork and its peers:

1. Be transparent about costs and policies. Hidden markups and mystery charges destroy trust. Members should know exactly what they‘re paying for.
2. Empower staff to resolve issues. A real "we" culture means individual employees have the autonomy and positive incentive to help members, not exploit them.
3. Apologize for mistakes sincerely. "The price is confidential" is a cop-out. Own up to errors directly and make them right.
4. Focus on sustainability, not just expansion. Chasing growth over ethics is ultimately self-defeating. Build for the long term.
5. Live your values consistently. Good culture has to flow from the C-suite to every employee. Integrity can‘t be situational.

For all its recent troubles, I still see potential in WeWork to be a transformative force, if it can live up to the "we" ideal authentically. I‘ve experienced the power of the model at its best, in the serendipitous collisions and mutual support of the community. A WeWork that operates with transparency and accountability could regain trust.

The deeper lesson is that no company can neglect culture and expect to thrive long-term. "Making a life, not just a living" has to start with consistent ethical actions, not just slogans. Anything less is not worthy of the "we."