"1,500 software engineers, product managers and data scientists" ?! What were they all doing?! WeWork is not a technology company - it doesn't have a software product or service, it has a website. This is madness.
The other thing this does is that it will force employees who have vested options (and not RSUs) to have to quickly make a decision on whether to exercise. Terrible timing since there's so much uncertainty around share price.
Yeah, that's going to depend on what strike price they got in at. But this is the whole reason startup options are a lottery ticket, not actual compensation. Sometimes you win, and most of the time you lose.