I worked as a software engineer at WeWork for a bit and no other startup or tech company has come close to the cultishness that Neumann is trying to cultivate there.
Some highlights from my brief time there:
- mandatory spiritual guidance at a company summit where the “guru” enforced the importance of one’s place in the organization
- mandatory attendance at “Summer Camp”, a weekend long music festival with excessive drinking
- mandatory attendance of a talk led by Neumann and transferred to Deepak _fucking_ Chopra at Summer Camp
- the Meetup founder displaying a picture of the twin towers, post plane crash, on a giant screen at Madison a Square Garden during a company summit
And these were just the noteworthy events that rose above the background noise of “What insane thing will Adam Neumann say this time?” each time an all-hands was held.