We(don't)Work. Really?

 I've just suffered a most horrendous fortnight of coughing fits that kept me up at night, and now the headaches. But let's talk about WeWork.

A few weeks ago, for some unknown reason, I saw on TV a documentary about WeWork (which has since filed for bankruptcy). I've seen this business being advertised on TV but had zero interest in it.

Picture source

But there I was having afternoon tea with my family with the TV on in the background, and listening to previous employees of WeWork talk about its founder Adam Neumann. Within minutes I turned to my "boys" to say, "It is a cult."

Grounded in my research in sociology of religion, I saw that WeWork functioned essentially as a cult.

  • Its leader could do no wrong.
  • What the leader says, goes, and information is not triangulated, tested against other sets of evidence.
  • If an employee has a problem, "Adam will solve it."

Those are just some of the warning signs. Alarm bells should have been ringing.

For this man to make his employees wear tracker bracelets? Come on, if you are god and omnipotent, you don't need these things.

But why? Why did his employees, typically young 20- and 30-somethings ("millennials"?) not realise that they were buying into a forceful personality who fancies himself "god"?

I will hazard a guess that this is the generation which has never encountered religion (the ones with a supreme deity) in any shape or form. Because if you have ever had the experience of worship (singing praises, bowing, praying, etc), then WeWork employees would have quickly realised that they were worshipping a human being, their cult leader.

There are other reasons for its downfall. But the founder/s (Adam and his wife) walked away with USD1.7BILLION. Eye-watering, huh?

As I have said before, there are easy ways to becoming a millionaire. Just convince 1 million people to give you £1 each. Then onto the next million, and the next.

 See also: The WeWork Documentary Explores a Decade of Delusion (April 5, 2021)

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