I worked in a WeWork for about a year. Their biggest gap, which they are nowhere near overcoming, is culture.
The culture at WeWork is incredibly artificial and made everyone there feel disconnected and unhappy. A huge focus on sports and drinking events. Art everywhere, but not that reflected the values of the people there; but rather art that was speaking at the people there.
Management was constantly changing out, and it was impossible to have a relationship with the people in charge and they often seemed not listen to the concerns and needs of the people renting space there. I felt zero connection to people at other companies there.
There was always this weird vibe from them trying to do a political song-and-dance too, like having the mayor come by for press events, and way too many suits running around acting like they were important.
This is in stark contrast to coworking at small, truly community driven places like betahouse (Central Square in Cambridge, now defunct due to difficulty to find new real-estate), which fostered deep and long lasting connections between its members. Even 5 years after we disbanded, we still all keep in frequent touch and rely on the connections we made there.
I'd make the comparison/analogy of culture-rich dormitories at places like MIT, and mega-corporate hotel-like dorms at Boston University (or just a hotel). WeWork is the soulless corporate hotel where you'll never get to know anyone.
Maybe I'm just too punk for WeWork. There's no way to have a soul/culture in a place like that. I shudder to think about living in a place run by them.
Betahouse sounds familiar but I don't think I ever visited. Cambridge is home to a number of culture driven coworking spaces, which are excellent. Pirate ship is a good example of a tight nit group. Perhaps the biggest is Industry Lab, which I would best describe as a 20k sqft hybrid between the media lab and the east campus dorm.
I just left a WeWork office (Boston) while waiting for an office to be renovated.
Things I won't miss:
The sound of a Ping Pong ball hitting the
table and paddles at 2pm every day.
The word "hustle"
The people who thought it'd be fine to
do photo shoots/meetings/interviews in the common areas
Glass walls EVERYWHERE
The culture at WeWork is incredibly artificial and made everyone there feel disconnected and unhappy. A huge focus on sports and drinking events. Art everywhere, but not that reflected the values of the people there; but rather art that was speaking at the people there.
Management was constantly changing out, and it was impossible to have a relationship with the people in charge and they often seemed not listen to the concerns and needs of the people renting space there. I felt zero connection to people at other companies there.
There was always this weird vibe from them trying to do a political song-and-dance too, like having the mayor come by for press events, and way too many suits running around acting like they were important.
This is in stark contrast to coworking at small, truly community driven places like betahouse (Central Square in Cambridge, now defunct due to difficulty to find new real-estate), which fostered deep and long lasting connections between its members. Even 5 years after we disbanded, we still all keep in frequent touch and rely on the connections we made there.
I'd make the comparison/analogy of culture-rich dormitories at places like MIT, and mega-corporate hotel-like dorms at Boston University (or just a hotel). WeWork is the soulless corporate hotel where you'll never get to know anyone.
Maybe I'm just too punk for WeWork. There's no way to have a soul/culture in a place like that. I shudder to think about living in a place run by them.