
WeWork cofounder demanded employees be fired because she disliked their 'energy' - txsoftwaredev
https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-rebekah-neumann-adam-gwyneth-paltrow-energy-goop-2019-9
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goobynight
I've seen cofounders like this. Sometimes they let someone go because they
simply don't like that they look old or something.

Fwiw, the person I speak of was also looking for a hype-based exit and the
mission was to sell, not build, a business. It worked.

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stallmanite
Wow can’t imagine leaving kids aged 2-11 at WeGrow the “entrepreneurial
school” she runs. Hate for my kids to be punished or expelled for bad energy.
What a wackjob.

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justanothersys
But if my kids get free WeGrow branded Yoni eggs then what’s the problem?

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par
These two are really coming up as some of the most toxic cofounders I've seen
in a while.

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JohnFen
They seem to be up there, but I think there are a lot of more toxic ones ahead
of them in the line.

They may win on the "biggest nutcase" scale, though.

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oceliker
When I read the headline, I thought "that's not too bad, she just thinks they
are a bad cultural fit with the company".

Then I read the article and went "ohh, she means THAT kind of energy".

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forgottenpass
Open secret: "culture fit" sounds more serious, that doesn't mean the
evaluation criteria used always is.

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TazeTSchnitzel
It can easily be a smokescreen for, for example, racism (perhaps
unintentionally).

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vivekd
Certainly, and it puts the company at risk of a discrimination suit along with
the associated fallout when you have arbitrary whim based termination
practices like this.

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harimau777
Wouldn't that constitute firing someone for religious reasons and therefore be
illegal?

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JohnFen
IANAL, but I don't think so. In the US, you can't discriminate against someone
because of their religious beliefs, but I doubt that "having bad energy"
counts as "religious belief", even if that "bad energy" thing is itself a
religious belief on the part of the employer. If I objected to the color
yellow because of a weird religious stance, I think that I could legally fire
someone because they drove a yellow car. I couldn't fire them because they
didn't share my religious belief, though.

But this may be one of those weird edge cases where an argument can be made
either way.

