WEBVTT - WeWork Part 4: WeWork Sued Her the Same Day 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.559 Back in things were looking pretty rosy for We Work. 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:06.360 The company had just doubled its valuation and raised more 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.720 than four million dollars from investors, and it was using 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:13.400 some of that cash to buy up smaller companies. When 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.919 We Work bought a company, those employees became We Work employees, 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.599 and they would start coming to the all hands meetings. 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:24.280 We go to do the Monday night meeting and we 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.480 walk in and the way that it's set up is that, 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:28.560 you know, there's a stage and it's filled with people. 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:31.880 That's Joanna Strange. She's going to be our focus for 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.080 the first half of this episode. Up until the moment 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:38.320 she's describing, Joanna had been working for an architecture company 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:43.000 called Case. Case made software that helped architects design buildings faster. 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.560 We Worked bought Case, and she became an operations manager 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.479 and she found herself with this job at a company 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:53.200 she never applied to. Joanna remembers the first all hands 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:55.960 meeting that she attended, you know, the ones called thank 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:03.000 God it's Monday. Everyone was too white eyed and too eager, 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:07.120 and they we chanted, we work, we chanted, we work, 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.040 we work, And then we hit a gong. Oh yeah, 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:11.680 and I would yell we, and we would say work, 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:12.960 and then he would say we, and then we would 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:21.280 say work. And then at some point someone hit a gong. 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:23.480 I don't know why the gong was there. I don't 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:25.320 know why it was there. It was there was gong 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:30.160 hitting We worked. Customs left her feeling bewildered, and I 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.200 go to sit next to the stage and I'm sitting 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.560 with a couple of colleagues and Adam comes out to 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:41.160 talk and about ten minutes in, my colleague turns to 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.399 me and says, I think this is a fucking cult. 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:52.720 And I said, possibly, you're listening to Foundering. I'm your host, 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.560 Ellen Hewitt. Last week we talked about WE Worked sparkly 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.919 outward facing image. The company had fast growth, a big valuation, 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.200 a quirky CEO, and a cool looking product and that 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:06.920 all added up to an exciting public brand that was 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:13.200 attracting investors, employees, and customers alike. But by some cracks 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.000 and We Works facade were beginning to show. And that 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.360 was because some employees were starting to speak out publicly 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.840 about what they saw as problems inside the company. So 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.799 in this episode, we want to look at lawsuits as 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.520 we got bigger it got into more and more legal 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.200 conflicts with its employees. As a business reporter, I've always 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.160 paid attention to lawsuits because they show you the less 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:38.919 public side of the company. Not everything that's in a 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:43.079 lawsuit is true. Sometimes people exaggerate claims or present only 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:47.040 half the truth, but there's often something there. A lawsuit 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.400 can suggest. What does this company really prioritize? How does 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.920 it treat its employees? There are often gaps between what 0:02:53.960 --> 0:03:03.560 companies say they value and how they really act. This 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.200 episode will look at the stories of two very different employees. 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.520 Both of them felt wronged by We Work. Both of 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.120 them decided to speak out about it, and in return, 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.639 they say they got punished by the company. We've heard 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.440 in previous episodes how fun and chaotic it was to 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.080 work at We Work under normal circumstances. These stories are 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.120 a little different. They come from employees who say the 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.520 company showed a meaner side when things got ugly, when 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.320 there were conflicts. These are early examples of employees trying 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.280 to tell the public that they believed something was not 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.520 right at WE Work. They wanted to interrupt the public 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.360 image that We Work was presenting the world. A startup 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:50.680 with a booming business that was transforming the workplace by 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.280 the way. We asked We Work and a representative for 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.480 Adam Newman if they wanted to comment on the stuff 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.520 we describe in this episode. They largely declined to comment. 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.160 We Work only at one statement. We Work has zero 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.240 tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind, and we 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:07.680 are committed to moving the company forward and building an 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.680 organization and culture that our employees can be proud of. 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.600 Many employees I spoke to were frustrated by what they 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.000 saw as we Worked lack of transparency. They felt that 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.080 we Work should be transparent because the company said that 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.760 it valued authenticity they have on their site. We are 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.120 always honest and as transparent as we can be. We 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.159 are in this together. We always look out for one another, 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:36.640 and their employees believed them. A few months into her 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.520 time at We Work, Johanna found herself in a situation 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.440 that she felt was a little shady. At the time, 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.800 like at any company, there was some bureaucratic backlog of 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.080 tasks that needed doing. One of the tasks was approving 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.920 other employees self evaluations so they could receive their annual bonuses. 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.719 But the executive who was supposed to prove them. Didn't 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:57.920 have time to do it, so he came up with 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.760 an alternative plan. My I'm manager's manager had given me 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:06.680 his log into all of his stuff. So yeah, this 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.159 story begins with Joanna having an executive's password, but she 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:12.400 says she didn't steal it. It was given to her 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:17.600 to do specific work related tasks. But this executive, maybe 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.000 like some of us, reuss a password from time to time, 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.080 It was a password for all of his stuff. Every 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.200 single thing that he had was was, it was encapsulated 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:31.520 under this one password, and he gave it to me. 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:32.960 Not so I could do my job, but so I 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.080 could do a job that he either felt too busy 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:37.000 or too lazy to do. I don't know which one 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:39.960 it was. So Joanna says she was told to take 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.280 care of these evaluations. So he wrote his password down 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:44.880 on a post it note and handed it to me, 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.280 which I stuck on my monitor. So the password was 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:51.920 a log into everything. It was a log into email, 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:53.680 it was a log into docks, it was a log 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.200 into the work day, it was a log into I mean, 0:05:56.240 --> 0:06:00.719 it was a log into absolutely everything. Joanna used this 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.200 password often over the next few months to get stuff 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.479 done for her boss and for her coworkers. It wasn't 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.080 the most above board way of doing business or the 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.599 most secure. And one day Joanna said she was checking 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.760 email and she mixed up whose account she was logged into. 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:17.440 I was in his system. Forgetting that I was in 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.039 his system, I was, and I thought it was in mind. 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:25.039 And the first thing I saw is an email that 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.480 I had sent to my manager asking to be considered 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.920 for a different position. And I saw the first part 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:35.920 of his responses, which was something like that would be 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:41.200 a fucking disaster. But then I noticed in the response 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:45.120 was something like, but you know, we're not gonna she's 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.080 not gonna be around much longer anyway. So when Joanna 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.159 was logged into this executive's email, she found out she 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.200 was going to lose her job. Obviously, she was hurt, 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.799 and she kept scrolling. So then frankly, I just looked, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.720 because I had his log in, i'd you know, I 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.320 was in his email now, And that was when I 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.760 discovered that there was a call for a seven percent 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:16.800 headcount reduction. That's a big freaking reduction. Joanna read in 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.560 this executive's email that not only was she going to 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.160 lose her job, but a lot of her coworkers were 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.360 going to get cut as well, and this raised a 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.239 red flag for Joanna. She was already feeling resentful about 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.000 how we were spent money. She saw we work buying 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.680 expensive furniture that it didn't always use and flying employees 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.640 around the world. She felt like the company was careless 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.600 with cash, and now, in her eyes, her coworkers who 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:44.400 were about to be laid off and didn't know it, 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.520 we're bearing the brunt of we works freewheeling spending. You 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:51.679 realize you've been burning money, you've been throwing money away, 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.720 You've been managing it really poorly. Then she started to 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.120 see the job cuts actually happen. She asked her manager 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.320 if they were planning to say anything about out it, 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.200 and then people were disappearing. They did in phases, and 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.200 then people were disappearing, and I said, hey, you guys 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:07.800 are going to announce this right like that's a fairly 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.360 significant headcount. You can't just not announce it. And he goes, 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:12.840 I mean there was no plans to, And I said, well, 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.880 maybe you should plan to, because you're creating a lot 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.200 of fear and a lot of anks. So people were 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.560 just being fired from teams escorted out the building and 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.760 nobody knew what was happening, and people were looking for coworkers. 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.679 In Joanna's mind, we Work was also being careless about 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.560 how they dismissed their employees. There was one incident with 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.960 one of her colleagues that really infuriated her. One of 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.520 the women on our team was getting let go, but 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:42.400 she got invited to a meeting by the woman who 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:48.600 was doing the terminations and the room had been renamed 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.680 something like termination conference room. Yeah, that was real. It 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.680 was termination conference room. Termination conference room is a pretty 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.880 careless thing to put on a calendar invitation, and Joanna 0:08:59.920 --> 0:09:02.199 is someone who takes that kind of slip up personally, 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:05.520 Joanna said. When her coworkers saw the invite, she called 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.679 Joanna in a panic, and then Joanna got protective. I 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.720 call my supervisor and am livid and I'm like, this 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:19.439 is this is so egregious. How careless do you have 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:23.040 to be to do that? And if you're that careless, 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.640 then how much do you really care about your employees? 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.400 Like having a place for people to do yoga once 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:33.640 a day does not count. She felt especially infuriated that 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.400 we Work had said one thing and was doing another 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.920 given how the company presented itself, we should tell people 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.199 the truth because we say we're a different kind of company. 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:44.400 We talk about I mean, in our mission same we 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.040 talk about authenticity, right, are we going to be authentic? 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.120 Part of that is truth telling. So the answer was no, 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:53.679 we're not gonna be authentic, and that's one Frankly, I 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:57.360 just went digging. So remember, she's already looked in this 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.560 executive's email, but this is going further. Digging meant using 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.440 that executive's access to look for more information. I have 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.120 to imagine this was not what the executive had in 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.760 mind when he wrote that password on the post it note. 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:16.439 But again, I had been given somebody's access to everything 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.760 that they had, So I'd like to point out that 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:24.480 that's not actually a criminal offense. I looked through a 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.440 bunch of documents and downloaded a bunch of documents because 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.200 I just I knew that there was something horribly fishy 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.640 going on, and I knew that something was going wrong. 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.880 Joanna found some intriguing stuff. She found documents that said 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.640 we Work was cutting way back on its profit projections 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.559 by almost That meant that we Work had been way 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.960 too optimistic about its future and now had to face reality. 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.200 Joanna thought it was wrong that we Work wasn't telling 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:55.600 its employees that its projections had been too rosy. They 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.720 were having to constantly revise internal figures down because they 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:00.680 weren't making as much money as they said they were, 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.120 and employees did not know that. And bear in mind, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.960 employees technically are shareholders in the organization because they're all 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.720 given equity. Let me make a quick as sign here. Yes, 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.400 the employees are shareholders since they were given stock when 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.559 they joined we Work. Generally, if you're a shareholder in 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:22.440 a private company, you can get some information about its finances, 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:24.880 more than is available to the public, but it's not 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.320 a requirement that the company share it with you. All 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.920 of this, the secrecy around the job cuts, the wasteful spending, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.000 the wildly optimistic profit numbers. This brought Johanna to a 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.400 breaking point, and she felt she needed to make this public. 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:46.160 And I thought, fuck this, I'm telling somebody, and I'm 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:51.960 telling somebody because after everything I've seen, after all the 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.240 ways in which I've seen people break their backs to 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:57.320 be here, and so I thought, what's the worst that 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:00.000 can happen? And obviously, the worst that can happen is 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:01.760 it can get far fucking worse than you ever magic 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.160 that can happen. But anyway, I say, what's the worst 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:09.640 that can happen? And so I screenshot it, and I 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.880 talked to a reporter, and that reporter was me, So 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.920 now I have to pause again. Joanna shared internal recordings 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.520 and documents with me in the summer. Of those tapes 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.400 of we Works internal meetings that you hear throughout the series, 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.439 those were given to me by Joanna. A couple of 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.319 months after I met Joanna, I published a story about 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:35.160 we Work slashing its profit forecast by almost eight He 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.120 was one of the earliest stories to say that WE 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.839 Work sometimes projected that it would make tons and tons 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.640 of money, but that the reality was a lot more dismal. 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.480 The story was widely read and picked up by several 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:49.840 other outlets, and normally, because Joanna was a confidential source, 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.560 I would never be naming her on my own. But 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.640 some time has passed and Joanna said she wanted to 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.160 share her whole story, identity and all. She felt that 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:01.800 what she saw at WE Work and how they responded 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.199 to what she did, tells a lot about what kind 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:08.280 of company they are. Here's the thing. Joanna is kind 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.800 of a polarizing figure. Many people think that what she did, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.920 accessing internal information and sharing it with a reporter is 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.200 really wrong and hurtful to a company. Others might see 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.360 her as a whistleblower who wanted to get the truth 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:25.920 out about WE Work. I told people in two sixteen 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:31.360 they were doing funny things with their numbers. I told 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:35.400 people that, but I thought people would hold them accountable 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:37.840 because they were big, that a lot of money invested. 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.560 But it's not clear that people were ready to listen. 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.360 And regardless of whether you think what she did was 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.280 right or wrong, the things that happened to her next 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.800 no reporter wants to see happen to a source WE 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:53.080 Work came after her. Joanna is the first to admit 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.120 that when she was downloading those internal documents, she wasn't 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.920 the most careful about hiding her digital footprints. I all 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.520 most never remembered to try to use a VPN to 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.600 mask where I was. I don't think and ladies and gentlemen, 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.760 if you ever decide you need to leak documents, I 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.400 did not think about what the consequences would look like 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.480 for me. We Work was able to trace the leak 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.600 back to Joanna. Based on these clues, they knew she 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.160 had the executive's password, and when they looked at the 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.240 IP address that downloaded a lot of material, they could 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.480 see that it was in her neighborhood within New York City. 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.920 Joanna thought that speaking up would lead to more immediate consequences. 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:36.280 It did have an effect, a big one, but not 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.720 for we Work, for her. It didn't occur to me 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:41.920 that everybody would brush it under the rug and then 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.680 put my face everywhere and call me a criminal and 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.760 a thief and a horrible person and someone who was 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.400 out for for revenge. When my story came out, We 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.160 Work sued Joanna the very same day. In the lawsuit, 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.440 we Work alleged that Joanna stole the documents. They called 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:04.200 it corporate theft. Being sued was terrifying. I cried a lot. 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:08.640 I didn't sleep well. I felt like my world was collapsing. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.480 The lawsuit felt like such a punch to the chest, 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.680 and the lawsuit was just the beginning. Joanna spent the 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.480 next few years dealing with the fallout while the case 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:21.360 went on. Because other news outlets picked up the story, 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.000 so the first thing was is you couldn't google my name. 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.440 I was unemployed and I was looking for employment, and 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:30.880 you can't look for employment when if you google your name, 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.160 the first thing that pops up is that Real Deal 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:37.560 article with your face on it. So it was hard 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.000 for me to get a job. Just to clarify, the 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.880 Real Deal is a real estate news site which published 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.960 a story with the headline we worked. Sues ex employee 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:52.240 for allegedly leaking financial docs to Bloomberg. So yikes, And 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:57.920 then she says the FBI got involved. On Monday, January seventeen, 0:15:57.960 --> 0:15:59.640 the FBI showed up at my door at eight p m. 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:01.560 And I talked to them until and I talked to 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:06.240 them until midnight. And my civil lawyer shit a brick 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.440 when I told him that I talked to them, but 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.480 I didn't have anything to hide. This was about six 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.600 months after she was sued. They looked exactly like they 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.400 came straight out of Central Casting, Like if you call 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:19.320 the Hollywood and you were like, we need two guys 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.760 who look like FBI agents. They showed right up. I 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:24.120 was in the middle of washing my face and my 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:25.400 husband was like, the Feds are at the door, and 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:27.440 I was like, ha, He's like no, seriously, the Feds 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.720 are at the door, and I was like what Joanna said? 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:32.720 They were pretty polite and asked her a lot of 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.880 questions about WE Work, she said. They asked her over 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.400 and over again how she got the password, and then 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.960 nothing came of it. In my experience reporting on these 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.160 sorts of cases, that's kind of how it goes with 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:49.120 FBI inquiries. They visit people's houses, they asked questions, and 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.720 they never say exactly what for, and in the end 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:54.760 the case might be filed or it might just disappear 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.000 by the way. The FBI declined to comment on this. 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.520 As for joanna civil case, it ended in an unexpected 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.920 and quiet way as well. Joanna knew that WE Work 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.600 had the resources to draw out a lawsuit which could 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.080 bankrupt her. When she was trying to figure out what 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.840 to do, a lawyer friend gave her a piece of advice, 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.840 just don't show up. You don't have to pay a lawyer, 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.840 and the judge will probably award WE Work a default judgment, 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:22.280 which is kind of a standard amount of money she 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.960 might owe the company based on some details of the case. 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.520 And that was exactly what happened. But they in their 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.919 lawsuit were demanding like untold sums of money and what 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:38.440 they got was like with the default judgment, Joanna only 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.720 had to pay back her severance, which was just one 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:43.720 paycheck and some fees. It added up to a little 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:47.480 over three thousand dollars, and oddly enough, We Work never 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.400 collected the money and the window to do so closed 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.760 in so Joanna paid them nothing and when the case 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:58.640 was finally finished, she was hugely relieved. And I remember 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:00.679 looking at it online and I'm We're looking at my 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:02.360 husband and going, that has got to be the most 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:06.160 anti climactic thing that's ever happened in my life when 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.080 it started out as something that seemed like it was 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:12.600 going to destroy my life. So that's the story of Joanna, 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.359 the employee who in wanted to tell the world that 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.640 we Work was struggling to hit its financial goals. What's 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.399 interesting is that when my story came out, we were 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.560 confirmed that the documents Joanna shared were real, but at 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.080 the same time they dismissed what was in the documents. 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.400 A spokesperson told reporters, our business is performing incredibly well 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.440 and is stronger than ever. The stolen document was prepared 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:40.080 months ago and does not reflect our robust operating momentum. 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.000 By speaking out, Joanna wanted to tell the world that 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:45.439 We Work was falling short of its own projections and 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.280 was aware of it. The information that she put out 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.639 there was a peek into we work shaky finances years 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:53.959 before the rest of the world understood the full extent. 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:57.879 Joanna thought that her actions would make a difference in 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.479 how people saw the company, but they actually didn't, at 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.960 least not right away. In hindsight, We Work shouldn't have 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.640 been too worried. As far as I can tell, those 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.639 stories about making less money than they expected didn't slow 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.199 the company down. We Work continued to shoot upward with 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:27.800 this almost unstoppable momentum. We'll be right back. The majority 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.080 of we Work employees I've interviewed didn't come to the 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.240 company skeptical. Many of them joined We Work thrilled about 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.359 the new opportunity in front of them. And I was 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.159 really excited. I mean, everything I had seen in the 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:41.880 news was like hot and flashy and very exciting, and 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.120 everyone I met at the offices was really cool, um, 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.479 really good people. So I had just like a very 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:49.480 excited feeling I was in the right place at the 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:51.000 right time, and I think a lot of us felt 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:54.199 that way. That's Tara Zoomer. She was thirty years old 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:56.479 when she started at we Work. She was hired as 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.840 an associate community manager. Her last job was working at 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:03.159 an insurance company. Compared to that, we Work seemed like 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:08.119 a thrilling opportunity. Tara also joined we Work in around 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.880 the same time as Joanna. Her job was to help 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.119 run a we work office building in Berkeley, California, and 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.000 she felt lucky to get the job. She had heard 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:21.159 story after story about early tech startup employees would become millionaires. 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:24.160 When Tara joined we Work, it was only five years old. 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:26.879 It was valued at five billion dollars at the time, 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.479 and within just a few more months she watched as 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.679 its valuation doubled to ten. It wasn't hard to imagine 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.080 that this company was going to keep skyrocketing and carry 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:38.119 her with it. It's like the Willy Wonka's Golden ticket. 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:43.080 You know, you feel like you're you won already, and 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.000 at some day you would be able to cash out 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.720 and retire. You could pay off your student loans, you 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:51.080 could buy a house, maybe you could relocate, you could 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.520 go on more vacations. People were just excited, like really 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:57.240 felt like they were going to dedicate as many years 0:20:57.240 --> 0:20:59.920 as it was going to take to see this through, 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:03.520 to see what the possibilities were. Tara didn't know very 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.119 much about equity, but she had heard stories of how 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.480 it could transform people's lives. I mean, you hear the 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:11.919 stories of people who missed out on like early Google, 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:16.159 early Facebook. They're like tragic tales. So in our culture too, 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.679 we already have those those stories and narratives, and it 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.040 was a really easy thing for people to feel like 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.720 they were in that place. Everything was pointing to you're 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:27.320 in the right place at the right time. She started 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.720 work and immediately her new job was hecnic. I could 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.439 be doing something from like helping someone with the printer jam, 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.760 I'm taking someone on a tour for sales. Then I'm 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.119 setting up for an event, I'm shutting down an event, 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.640 um someone's birthday. We're ordering them special stuff, like really 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.680 anything that a building might need is what we would 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:52.640 run around all day doing. Tara was an associate community manager. 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.560 That's the title we work chose to describe the people 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:59.080 who do everything to keep buildings running with clean conference rooms, 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:03.680 fresh coffee and working internet. These positions had long hours. 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.679 Tara was working evenings and she wasn't being paid overtime. 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:11.520 Tara said that's because she was categorized as a manager, 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:15.320 and managers are often exempt from overtime pay. But she 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:19.040 says she wasn't managing any employees were making major business decisions. 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:20.919 I was called a manager, and I don't think I 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.720 was managing very much except like day to day simple operations. 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:26.720 But the number of hours I was working started to 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.439 be the real concerning point um because we're required to 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.520