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- WeWork founder Adam Neumann once smashed his office glass with a bottle of tequila, according to a new book.
- “The Cult of We,” says Neumann often urged staff to drink shots of tequila while they were on the clock.
- He claims he missed a meeting because he passed out in his hotel room after a night of drinking.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
WeWork founder Adam Neumann once smashed a glass panel in his office when he threw a bottle of tequila at him at a staff party, according to a new book.
Another employee followed suit, and the chaos did not end until the entire glass wall between Neumann’s office and his employees was destroyed, according to “The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann , and the Great Startup Delusion ”.
The book’s authors, Wall Street Journal reporters Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell, write that the former WeWork CEO threw the party in 2015 to celebrate an investment from Fidelity that raised the company’s valuation to $ 10 billion. dollars.
Neumann has bragged about his party habits, including the incident, WeWork employees have previously told Insider.
An employee told Insider at the time that the tequila spray was irresponsible, saying of those involved: “You are not rock stars – you left this mess for people to clean up. were so cool and they were so badass. It was really unprofessional. “
At the time, Neumann’s representative described the broken windows as an accident. “We wanted it cleaned up in the morning so no one was hurt by the broken glass,” the person told Insider.
The incident is one of many alcohol or drug-fueled antics at WeWork that were described in the book:
- While on a business trip to India, Neumann allegedly missed an investor meeting because he had passed out in his hotel room after a night of drinking; Security had to enter his room to find him after he failed to show up, the book says.
- At a staff party in 2014, the company’s human resources manager at the time was so drunk that she had to be taken to a hospital, according to the book.
- On another occasion, Neumann and then CFO Michael Gross showed up on a tour of a building in an SUV that “reeked of marijuana,” the book says. It was still morning, but Neumann reportedly insisted that the broker they met there drink two glasses of tequila before the tour.
Neumann often got hangovers during morning meetings, the book says, adding that alcohol featured regularly in fundraising conversations. In 2015, his office reportedly featured a punching bag for his kickboxing lessons and a smoke eater to deal with marijuana smoke.
Read more: WeWork promises that it will finally be profitable by the end of 2021. Experts believe the projection “looks a little aggressive.”
Tequila and marijuana were also common on WeWork’s private flights, according to the book.
In 2015, an aircraft charter company was ordered to keep bottles of Don Julio 1942 tequila on hand “even if it is early,” according to the book. The jets often had to be taken out of service for cleaning after flights, due to spills of alcohol, vomit and passengers “spitting tequila at each other,” the book says. On a Neumann flight, the crew should have taken the oxygen masks off the plane because there was so much marijuana smoke in the cabin.
WeWork’s party culture has spread to lower-ranking employees as well.
Monday night’s barehanded meetings meant beer and the occasional tequila shot, the book says.
In a meeting repeatedly in 2016, Neumann discussed layoffs made to cut costs before welcoming a member of hip-hop Run-DMC on stage to perform while tequila was circling, according to the book. . In another meeting, a drunk Neumann reportedly told employees to cut back and spontaneously set new targets for lease signings, exceeding annual targets by more than 20%.
The company also held annual retreats called Summer Camp for many years, which were mandatory because one manager learned it the hard way when she was fired for her early departure, the book says.
In 2018, the event featured attractions such as zipline, mini horses, paddleboarding and EDM-themed tents, the book says. Participants carried bottles of rosé and bar stations handed out beer and wine, according to the book, which noted the prevalence of marijuana and even harsher drugs.
Staff members slept in six-person tents and shared shared bathrooms. Meanwhile, Neumann and his wife, Rebekah, and their children stayed in a luxury mini trailer complex on a hill overlooking the employees, the book says.
Neumann resigned as CEO in September 2019 at the request of the WeWork board of directors. Her philosophy of hard work, coupled with her frantic spending of the company’s money for personal and professional reasons, had opened the company to further scrutiny when it filed for an IPO a month earlier.
WeWork declined to comment when contacted by Insider.
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