WEBVTT - WeWork Part 3: Is Naked Pete Coming to Summer Camp? 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.760 It's we Work is growing super fast, which means it's 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:08.000 hiring a lot of new people. And every Monday at 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:11.200 we Works headquarters in New York City, that means one thing. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:17.840 New hire orientation orientations were massive. They were huge, Like 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:19.880 they were every Monday almost. I feel like they were 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.439 almost every single Monday, huge breakfast spread. Cody Quinn was 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.240 an executive assistant at we Work. You know, they've got 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:34.520 like a projection screen every single morning you walk in, Um, 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.519 what's that song? It's um Coldplay. Adventure of a Lifetime 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:43.320 was blasting, and everybody's walking around and like fifth pumping 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.559 and like all these new hires are high fiving and 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.640 people are standing up and whooping, and I'm like, what 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:54.880 is happening now? It like so that was the first 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.600 time that I really had this like holy moly, this 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.760 feels cultish, wow wow. Because like and then you've got um, 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.760 somebody from HR like doing a presentation and they're just 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:07.720 like I was excited to the air. It's like just 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.800 it's crazy, like a Pepper rally. It was nuts. It 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.440 was absolutely nuts. Honestly, it's still to this day blows 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.959 my mind. You're listening to Foundering, I'm your host, Ellen Hewitt. 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.600 In the previous episode, we heard about the explosive growth 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.200 in the early days of We Work. The company was 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:28.720 opening building so fast that they were launching new offices 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.680 literally without doors, without bathrooms, with the paints still drying 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:37.120 on the walls. This episode is about hype. As we 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.320 Work kept growing, It's CEO, Adam Newman, used a very 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:45.720 Silicon Valley combination of myth making and salesmanship to accelerate 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.800 we Works expansion, and he used it to pump up 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.600 we Works valuation and to attract young, passionate people to 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.680 build his vision for him. Remember, we Work at its 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.280 core is a real estate business. It's about renting debt asks. 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.320 But as it grew, Adam made it so much more. 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.640 He hyped it up in two ways. He gave it 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.959 a super lofty mission statement, one that would eventually become 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.760 to elevate the world's consciousness. And he was able to 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:18.200 convince influential people, especially investors, that We Work was a 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:22.760 tech company and deserved to be valued like one. When 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.280 We Work first started, the reporters who wrote about it 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:30.640 usually covered commercial real estate, but we Work started marketing 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.720 itself as a tech company instead and They also kept 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.840 hammering home their mission rather than speaking about the nuts 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.960 and bolts of renting office space. Here's Teddy Kramer, an 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.320 early employee. All of a sudden, we became a technology company. 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.280 All of a sudden, we were really hiring a lot 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.200 of engineers and bringing in executives who had experience with 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.839 big technology companies like get hub, or after I left, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.680 they were running people from Spotify or Apple. I was like, wow, 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.520 are we really a tech company? And again the cynical 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:02.919 side of me kind of like, no, we're not a 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.920 tech company. But myself and some others really questioned it heavily, 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.480 like how are we portraying ourselves this way? We Work 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.919 isn't alone. There are a number of big name startups 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.840 that say they're saving the world and using technology to 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:23.519 do it, you know, ones that sell products like taxi service, mattresses, suitcases, 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.360 and glasses. And the hype around we Work didn't just 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.040 influence the press coverage. It also influenced the talent. That 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.360 we Work was able to attract ambitious young people drawn 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:37.920 in by the mission and the marketing for This episode 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:42.320 will focus on one employee's journey, her initial excitement about 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.080 WE Work and it's promise of bringing community to the world. 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.760 How that belief kept her going even as things started 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.280 to sour, and how in the end her feelings turned 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.680 to resentment and a sense of betrayal. I took the 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.480 job at WE Worked because I did not anybody in 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:02.920 New York and I was really looking for like a 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.840 peer group and to like, you know, make a network 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:09.560 of friends in a brand new place. Cody Quinn started 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:11.760 at WE Work when she was twenty nine. She was 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.160 originally from Michigan, and she was brand new to New 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.600 York City. And the moment she walked into WE Works offices, 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:21.960 she was drawn in. This sounds so stupid, but you 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.120 walk in and like there's like cool, trendy people everywhere, 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.520 you know, like and and I'm like in this brand new, 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.320 big city and I'm like, oh my gosh, everybody's cool. 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.520 Like she's got cool hair, and like she's got a 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.719 nose ring, and like, I mean, when I interviewed, I 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.440 had like I was wearing a suit. Everybody was in jeans, 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.800 Like you know, it was like I was like, this 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.360 is amazing. Cody had spent the last four years at 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.400 a small, family run business. She had never worked in 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.080 such a big company before, so she had no idea 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.640 what to expect at we Work. I want to say, 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.479 like the first three months of working there, I didn't 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.359 know what was normal. So when Pete, well, are you 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:06.200 know There's an executive in the office next to the 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.039 one that I'm sitting in and he starts screaming and 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:12.919 rips a printer out of the wall and smashes it 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.279 on the floor. I'm like, is this what happens? Like? 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.560 Is this like? Am I a New York or now? Like? What? Like? 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.520 Is this normal? And I didn't have anything to compare 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.280 it to. I just want to rewind for a sec. 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.280 Cody says she actually saw someone pull a printer out 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.520 of a wall and smash it in a fit of rage. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.600 She was pretty green when she joined we Work, which 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:35.600 made it harder for her to know when to speak 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:37.960 up about the weird things she was seeing in the office, 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:40.520 or how to know if it was normal for her 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.760 to feel so stressed out. This is something that a 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.080 lot of former we Work employees told me too. They 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.960 felt like we Work purposely hired young or inexperienced workers 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.120 because they were more likely to go along with the 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:57.039 sometimes chaotic work environment employees in their thirties with a 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.080 few different jobs under their belt, felt ancient compared or 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.400 to their coworkers. Here's Teddy. The kind of people that 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:07.560 were being brought in were young folks who didn't have 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.960 a ton of experience, who were extremely passionate and wanted 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.880 to again get on the rocket ship to the moon. Um. 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.360 But I also believe they were malleable, right. They would 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.120 believe everything they were told. They wouldn't ask the tough questions. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.760 Cody was one of those employees, someone who was excited 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:25.919 to have the job and wanted to do well, but 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.080 was starting to get confused by the behavior around her. 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.479 She was an assistant to two we Work executives, and 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.919 she started to notice how the executives lives seemed to 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.000 be dictated by Adam. You know, if Adam was like 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:43.880 coming down the hall, it's like every executive's like butthole titans. 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.039 Like everybody just got really like oh my God, like 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.880 you know, like they like would drop anything for like 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.240 two seconds to talk to him. And I just started 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.320 to notice like how much anxiety there was amongst all 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.719 of these executives when it came to Adam. She noticed 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.960 that every Monday night, after the all hands meetings, executives 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.640 stuck around for another meeting with Adam. Then I started 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.200 to find out that executives were required to stay until 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.320 like sometimes two and three in the morning. Here's Adam 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.120 at an all hands meeting talking about these late nights. 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:19.480 And then every Monday night, either I do a second 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:21.320 meeting with the leadership team or I said, with the 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:23.480 real estate team. Usually ends at two. I am, we 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.960 do this every Monday. Cody said that sometimes the executives 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.480 would drop everything they were doing at Adam's win. Adam 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:35.960 would hijack their days frequently. Um, and I again didn't know, 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.840 is that a CEO thing? Oh? Is that just expected? 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:44.560 You know? I'd slave hours and hours on my computer 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:48.480 and email and trying to like organize all of their schedules, 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.560 and then Adam would come in and just drop a bomb, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.640 and like you know, and it happened so often that, 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.520 like I was worried that it was making me look 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.920 unprofessional to other people. You know that my executives are 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:02.960 supposed to have meetings with that all the time, I'm 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.520 having to say, like, I know what, you're supposed to 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.240 be here an hour, but we have to reschedule. She 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.920 was also running to her executives homes late at night, 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.200 so they were ready for Adam to pop in at 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.400 any hour. Cody was questioning if these assignments really had 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.360 to be done that night, and sometimes it did just like, well, 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:22.200 Adams coming to my house, so yeah, it has to 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.360 be to night, and he'd come over at like twelve 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.640 at night, and it's just bizarre. Like it just got 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.880 more and more bizarre. So this sort of CEO behavior 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.920 isn't entirely uncommon. A lot of big, splashy startups have 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.560 work cultures that burn people out and require long, late hours. 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.839 There's more than one messianic, demanding CEO in the tech world. 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:46.960 But here's where I think it's fair to call out 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.280 we work. For one thing, we were claimed to be better. 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.240 Remember we were promised to reinvent work to make it refreshing, 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.000 so you could argue that they should be held to 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:01.120 a higher standard. And also, we were was selling work 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.920 culture that was their product, so their own internal culture 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:09.360 with unhappy, burnt out employees shouldn't have been an afterthought. 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.040 And on top of that, much of the we were 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.120 culture that they were selling was fake, like it was 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.400 an actual performance. There was a ritual that a lot 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.960 of we Work employees had to perform when Adam was 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.880 giving a tour to an investor. He needed the space 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.720 to look exciting, to make a strong impression. This ritual 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:32.400 even had a name. It's called activating the space. That's 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:36.720 what it was called activating the space. So yeah, oh my, 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.480 oh my god, give me a second. I this was 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:43.520 like the thing I hated so much. Um, what it 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.080 really came down to was like pulling back the curtain 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.560 like the Wizard of Oz. I was like, this is 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.960 so stupid, Like it was so fake. It's like we're 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:57.040 bringing somebody in that's going to invest and like throw 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.600 a party, like just throw up. So like all the 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:05.200 community managers on whatever floor are like everybody get here now, 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.400 you know, like they're going around like yanking people out 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.000 of their offices, like get into the common area, like 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.800 we're activating space. And they were used to putting on 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:18.199 a good show. Here's Carl Pierre, a community manager in 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:22.600 d C. I'd get this frantic email or call Adams 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:25.280 coming to d C with investors. You know, activate the 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.520 space like user company credit, buy whatever you gotta buy, 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:29.800 but like make sure, everyone's having fun, so I'd like, 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.600 I don't order like two dollars worth of like nitrogen 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:37.040 frozen ice cream. And the cool thing was it totally 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.400 worked because when you walked in, it looked like an 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.160 ice cream party with a million different companies and everybody 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:44.680 was laughing and smiling and having good time. So we 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.040 made it happen. So when you first walked in, you're like, dude, 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.160 this place is awesome, Like what is going on? They 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.280 go into the liquor cabinet and they pull out all 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:56.800 the wine and they've got you know, people like doing 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.760 feels like they've got a big project. Are screened down 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:06.280 and someone's like, look at our growth like Adams walking 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:09.600 through people. It was cringe e. That's the best part 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.840 I can come up with. Cringe E. Activating the space 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:16.800 was a good way to lure investors, but it was 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.600 just a big show. When I was speaking to Cody, 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:22.319 she kept saying that it felt fake. She said she 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.280 felt like she was working in a dystopian sci fi movie. 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.040 People were like working themselves under the ground and they're 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.920 just doing it with this like crazy smile, like oh 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.599 my god, I'm so happy to be here. Like it 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.280 kind of felt like I was like, that's what it 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.480 felt like. It's like everybody is miserable, but nobody will 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:44.240 say anything. So things that we work could get pretty intense. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:49.319 But the company also rewarded its employees with massive blowout parties. 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:53.160 The most infamous one is Summer Camp. Summer Camp is 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.120 an annual festival that we worked through in the countryside, 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.679 first in Upstate New York, then in England. It was 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:04.280 open to employees and members. Carl went to several of them. 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.440 It first started with this lake in the Randex that 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:09.840 we work when it was a really small team, go 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:11.920 there and party for free and like as like a 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:13.600 way to blow off some steam and take a break, 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:15.680 and it was so cool. And then it grew to 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:17.400 them like all right, guys, this is so much fun, 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.240 which definite get a musical act to come and just 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:20.559 like play for us. And it was like a small 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.079 local band thing and it frontly just like kind of 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:28.200 scaled from there to my last Summer Camp. Um Chromeo 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.679 opened up for the weekend and the weekend was flowing 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.880 in on a helicopter. The weekend is a musician. By 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.640 the way, one of our editors was confused to me 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:40.440 as a reporter. Summer camp is just one of the 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.920 strangest and most notable things about we Work. Adam and 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.120 other executives gave speeches on stage during the day, and 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.840 at night they would put on these flashy, giant music performances. 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.120 It's like if you went to Coachella but it was 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.480 run by your boss. To me, it's just this perfect 0:12:57.520 --> 0:12:59.760 example of how we were going to blur that line 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.240 when your personal and professional life blurrett so completely it 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.000 was basically erased. We have a lot of tape from 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.680 all hands meetings where Adam talks about summer camp. Again, 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:13.320 this is the tape that was given to me by 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.000 a WEE Work employee, and in the recordings you can 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:20.160 hear Adam's excitement. Here he is talking about summer camps origins, 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.120 and we said, well, great, let's do a summer camp. 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:24.599 I've never been to one, but I saw them in 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.400 the movies and thought it sounded awesome. And it took 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.120 a minute to find a venue that would take on 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.120 the liability of such a big party. Why wouldn't you 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:38.400 want mature cycling intoxicated very we oriented members and employees 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.079 to come to your camp. It ended up getting hosted 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:46.560 at an executive's parents property. Here's Adam pitching Summer Camp 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.240 to his employees. If it's the first time you're doing it, 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.120 really come and enjoy it. We're gonna go a day 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:54.400 before as a company, all the employees and spend a 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:56.160 day getting to know each other, doing a lot of 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.120 social exercises, playing a lot of games, putting on some 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.960 shows in some competitions. By its third year, Summer Camp 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:06.680 already had some traditions and celebrities of its own. There's 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.160 a guy Adam calls Naked Pete. His Naked Pete coming. 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.320 But for those of you don't know Naked Pete. He's 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:22.440 one of our members and he loves parties. It's very 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:26.800 confident when he's in parties. Okay, no idea who Naked 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:31.560 Pete is, but he sounds fun. Summer Camp was a 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.800 place for people to get into all sorts of shenanigans. 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:38.240 No reporters this time, by the way, definitely no reporters 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:42.160 this time. We had a little problem there. The previous year. 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.000 A reporter came to Summer Camp and we work picked 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.480 some members for her to interview. The reporter looks at 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:48.960 him and says, what do you do last night? And 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.000 looks there mushrooms? What did you do that? Did you 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.120 catch that? We work member told the reporter that he 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:00.720 did mushrooms at summer camp, which is awkward. PR people 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.800 had to spend the next many hours talking to the 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.640 reporter saying he's a member, not an employee. We did 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:09.440 not supply it. Please do us a fever and don't 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.080 put it in the article. He never went into the article. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.920 Was a good thing members pay to go to summer camp, 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.920 but we worked foots the bill for its employees to come. 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:20.720 One thing I forgot to say for summer Camp, we 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:24.280 are flying over every single employee in every country, every 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:28.960 state around the world. It's not cheap. This is a 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:31.880 sort of extravagant spending that we work became famous for. 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:34.960 Just for summer Camp. For an example, it costs US 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:38.520 twelve dollars per employee, not including flights. So just do 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:40.800 the math and fift employees, you'll see here at two 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.400 million dollars, and you add the flights and this, and 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:45.880 before you know, to bring everybody together as an investment 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.600 of two and a a half million, and it's a great investment, 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.800 even though it's for a very short time. Two and 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.880 a half million dollars for an employee bonding trip is 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.640 a lot of money, but it made a huge impression 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.160 on his employees. Would be like partying all my an 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.360 open bar with like great tequila and shots, and everyone's 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.480 just like wrecked in the morning that these canoes packed 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:07.840 with ice and coconut water, and you would just like 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.560 everyone would rehydrate and they'd be like more beach games 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.560 and like team building and then more drinking and then 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:16.840 it's just you know, and again. I was one of 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.000 the guys who loved I loved my first summer camp 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:20.920 and my second summer camp and my third summer they 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:22.760 were all they were. They were dope. I had a 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.480 great time. I will I sole her being super hungover 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:27.800 at a table and looking over to my right, and 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.000 then St. Lucia, she was like one of my favorite bands, 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:31.840 was like eating breakfast next to me, and I was 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:36.800 like this is so cool. Um and I was like, um. 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:38.880 So we were down by the water at a bonfire 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.080 and out of nowhere, I hear one of the weekends 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.880 like really big songs that had come out like that summer, 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:49.560 and I was like, are you kidding me? So I 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.000 freaked out, and my sister and I hopped on a 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:53.760 golf cart and we were like, give us a ride, 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.280 you know, and like so we're like tearing up a 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.200 hill and we get to like the big field where 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.880 the stages, and I was like, this cannot be happening. 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:03.560 Like this cannot be happen. Was my one of my 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:07.240 favorite artists, and I'm like this, this is unreal. So 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.840 Cody and Carl had these incredibly memorable and exciting moments 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.520 at Summer Camp once in a lifetime stuff. But for Cody, 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.080 her day to day job at WE Work was wearing 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.159 her down. She was an executive assistant and her bosses 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:23.360 were tough on her. She started to feel stressed and exhausted. 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.920 She wasn't sure this company was treating her right. As 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.000 she spent more and more time at WE Work, she 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.720 started to notice something about Summer Camp. She realized these 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.600 big blowouts had another purpose beyond just having fun. I 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.160 think that they found a formula that worked really well 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:46.880 for UM, exhausting their workforce and then just giving them 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.400 a reason to keep doing it. Cody saw it as 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.240 a cycle of getting burned out and then reinspired. We 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:55.560 all know what we need to do. We all know, 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.919 like we all have to contribute because it's we and 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.639 we're a team. And and then you know, six months 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.200 goes by and like every you know, a few weeks, 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:11.600 like you're just getting you know, more and and more, 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:17.240 just like bogged down, dragged out. Things just start to deteriorate. 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.119 And then you hit summer Camp and so all of 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:24.080 a sudden, you're reinspired and like you're reinvigorated. So even 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.119 though Cody looks back on summer Camp fondly, she also 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.440 feels like maybe she was being manipulated, like summer Camp 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.040 was a debauchero's party, meant to distract you from the 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:35.800 not so great parts of the job. You know, when 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:37.640 you're in the middle of it, you're just sort of 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:43.000 like looking for like any outlets of like okay, it's 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.200 all it's okay, we're all fine. We're all gonna be fine. 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.040 We put up with a lot, we worked really hard. 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.840 We you know, we get yelled at, but it's all 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.959 worth it in the end because we're working for this 0:18:55.000 --> 0:19:00.600 awesome company. Is like the kool Aid disillusionment flip flap, 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.639 flip flap, Like it goes back and forth for most people. 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.720 And here's Adam on stage at summer Camp pepping up 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:12.200 his employees. Who is here last year? Raise your handy, 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:18.080 geer last year. I'm just gonna say, I'm just gonna 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.080 say one thing. All of this would not be possible 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.200 without all of you, So I just want to say 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:27.320 thank you so much. Adam turned to his favorite topics again, 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.199 meaning and intention, and he's doing this to inspire his 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.520 employees to keep going. Thank you, Thank you for being 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:38.200 part of something that actually has a meaning. I think 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:40.040 the thing that all of us know is if you 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.200 want to succeed in this world, you have to build 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.040 something that has intentions. You have to build something that 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:49.080 has true meaning behind it. And what puts us together, 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.199 all of us here is every one of us is 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:53.560 here because it hasn't mean, because we want to do 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:56.600 something that actually makes the world a better place and 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:04.440 we want to make money doing it. We'll be right back. 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.479 I want to revisit the tapes of all Hands meetings 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.359 that were given to me by we work employee after 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.160 she handed me the recordings she was sued by the company. 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:26.000 These tapes are special because they reveal a different side 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.800 of Adam. Adam gets really honest. In this clip I'm 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:32.400 about to play you, he's saying that we work knowingly 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:35.520 pays its employees less than they could earn elsewhere. I 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:37.240 can tell you right now and everyone here knows that 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:39.359 we are not the highest players in the market. We 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:42.200 just aren't its own purpose. We want people to come 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:44.280 here because they truly feel and that's what they want 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:46.399 to do. We're very generous with our equity, and in 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:48.920 the future we're going to be more generous with our equity. 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.440 But one of the things we do here to make 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.600 sure you really want to be here is we we 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:56.440 really ask you to tell us what is the bare 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.240 minimum that you need. We don't want you to lose money, 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:01.320 but we really want you to be here for the 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:03.800 right reasons. So we know that this employee that came 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:05.840 here is here for the right reasons. By the way, 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:07.920 if they're not not gonna last for a long time, 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.040 so we know that are you here for the right reasons? 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:15.439 Are you down for the cause? I remember feeling surprised 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:17.600 when I heard what Adam was saying in these tapes. 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:20.840 I know some startup managers think to themselves that they 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.359 want their staff to be motivated by the mission, not money. 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.800 But it's remarkable to me that a CEO would say 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.399 out loud to all his employees that he's intentionally paying 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:33.720 them less. When I showed adams quote to we Work, 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:37.520 a spokesperson gave me this statement. We Work is committed 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:41.760 to compensating employees fairly and competitively. But if you listen 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.280 to the tapes, you hear Adam come back to the 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:48.440 ideas of loyalty and dedication again and again. Here's another 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:51.320 all hands meeting where Adam tells his employees that they're 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.840 part of something bigger than themselves. The bottom line is simple, 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.119 you guys are all part of this. I don't need 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:00.080 to tell you what's happening here. I can't tell me 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:05.960 what's happening here. You know what's happening here, And if 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:08.120