
Away Fires CEO Steph Korey After Months-Long Search for Her Replacement - andygcook
https://daringfireball.net/2019/12/away_replaces_ceo
======
dang
We changed the URL from
[https://daringfireball.net/2019/12/away_replaces_ceo](https://daringfireball.net/2019/12/away_replaces_ceo)
to the article it points to, in keeping with the site guideline that asks for
original sources. It might be best to look at both articles, though, since
they cover different aspects.

Edit: someone pointed out that the OP adds an additional perspective that
isn't just copying what was said in the WSJ article, so we'll switch back to
that from [https://www.wsj.com/articles/online-luggage-startup-away-
say...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/online-luggage-startup-away-says-ceo-is-
stepping-down-11575930577). Thanks!

~~~
ghostly_s
Appreciated, Gruber is doing some real weird editorializing on this.

Edit: well I take it back. Gruber seems to taking his usual tack when covering
anything outside the Apple beat, ie. pure speculation and opinion of the sort
everyone posts on Twitter but at 500 words. And with a big "they are an active
sponsor of my site but I am impervious to bias" disclaimer at the top.

~~~
paulcole
> If a waiter served a customer a half-eaten sandwich, I’d expect the manager
> to immediately berate him in front of the other staff in the kitchen

Tells you all you need to know IMO. It’s never OK to yell at someone at work.

 _Edit:_ If you're downvoting me, let me know when you think it's OK to yell
at someone at work and where you work so I can never work there.

~~~
sephlietz
Berate doesn't mean yell, perhaps?

~~~
blaser-waffle
Semantics, but berate implies an aggressive dressing down or criticism.
Yelling -- as in raising a voice -- may be a part of that, or not.

I've definitely caught a verbal beatdown from people that sounded perfectly
calm and reasonably quiet the whole time.

------
shuckles
There is speculation in this article and elsewhere that the timing of this
forced change of leadership so soon after an anonymously sourced article
revealing Korey’s abrasive management is evidence of a larger PR proxy war
between governance and the CEO. I’d be curious to learn about whether this is
a common conspiracy and if anyone has other such examples.

~~~
dangus
This has to be the case. Think about it, why would the reading audience of the
general public care about working conditions in such a random, relatively
small company?

It’s a <500 employee company. The plight of tens of thousands of Amazon or
Uber employees and contractors is much more relatable, more people are likely
to know someone who has worked in those environments.

Some small startup company with a CEO with hubris isn’t exactly news.

~~~
Jasper_
Because Silicon Valley is seen as a utopia for innovation, and it massively
shapes our world and our culture? It's important to report on how it works.

This was a prominent Instagram brand. It has all the trimmings of the Silicon
Valley Startup: they make suitcases but talk about themselves as a "travel
company" with lofty missions, they "value transparency" but not when employees
actually use it.

This kind of story continually happens, at Uber, at WeWork, at Zenefits, at
Riot Games, at Nest, and at startups I've worked at too. The more we bring
these stories to light, the better working conditions will be at these places.

EDIT: Someone pointed out below that the company is actually in NYC, not
Silicon Valley. Still, this style of startup culture exists all around the
world.

~~~
OnlineGladiator
> Because Silicon Valley is seen as a utopia for innovation

Is this really the generally held consensus with the public? I certainly don't
believe this, but I work here so I'm biased.

I think most people think Silicon Valley is full of overpaid engineers
churning out things nobody actually wants - there's a reason the show Silicon
Valley was such a hit.

Also a fun fact - Mike Judge (creator of Silicon Valley) actually worked in
the Valley for a bit after college. He felt like people here were just
ridiculous - the basis for the show is largely rooted in his own experiences
working here.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Judge#1985%E2%80%9397:_Ea...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Judge#1985%E2%80%9397:_Early_science_career;_musician;_animation_and_Beavis_and_Butt-
Head)

~~~
Jasper_
Silicon Valley's writers met with Google X's boss, Astro Teller [0]. He got so
pissed they were making fun of him, he stormed out of the room, supposedly on
rollerskates, and yet _Google still pays him top dollar money_.

There are a large enough number of people here who believe it that they
continue to start startups and play startup-dressup, talk about changing the
world, and elevate the world's consciousness or whatever. The number of
applications to Y Combinator every year is growing, not shrinking.

[0] [https://www.businessinsider.com/google-x-astro-teller-hbo-
si...](https://www.businessinsider.com/google-x-astro-teller-hbo-silicon-
valley-2016-6)

~~~
C1sc0cat
Not sure what your point is - where they taking the piss in the meeting he
walked out of or was it just the show in general.

TBH Hollywood / film /tv does not have a good track record in portraying us do
they.

~~~
blaser-waffle
Given the inevitable bad behavior by big tech companies -- remember Google's
"don't be evil" slogan? -- it's amazing they have a track record of portraying
SV in a good light?

The sociopaths showed up in the 90s and have been there since. At this point
it's mostly Wall Street with pseudo-progressive window dressing.

------
quantified
Some of the Verge article is indeed hyperbolic. The writer may have needed to
hit a word count. It seems silly to sound outraged about: * leadership being a
clique * requesting that PR firestorms not be spread further * leadership
going apesh&t over bad products being received as the 2018 holiday season is
arriving and teams not addressing quickly But, IMHO some of the behavior
definitely was worth termination over. Framing the CX access as accountability
exercise they way she did, for example, was pretty bad, and some of the other
sarcasms I read were also just toxic. That kind of toxic is so very
counterproductive in any timeframe. You can communicate what you need, with
utmost clarity and punch, in other ways.

------
Ice_cream_suit
"When a co-worker invited Avery to join a private Slack channel called #Hot-
Topics filled with LGBTQ folks and people of color, she was relieved to find
that she wasn’t the only one who felt uncomfortable with Away’s purported
mission and company culture.

So when the executive’s name unexpectedly popped into #Hot-Topics the morning
of May 16th, 2018, employees knew something was wrong. She’d found out about
the channel from Erin Grau, the head of people... “I thought, Damn, she’s
gonna see us talking about some stupid stuff, but whatever,” recalls a former
marketing manager named Emily*. She hoped Korey would at least find the
conversations funny.

That hope evaporated the next day when Korey began calling people into a room
one by one. There, flanked by the company’s head of people and general
counsel, she told six people they were being let go. “You’ve been
discriminatory,” employees remember her saying. “... you no longer have a job
at this company.” Emily, who is a person of color, was shocked. “That was
jarring — three white people telling me I was racist,” she says.

~~~
jariel
This part is perplexing because it seems the employees fail to grasp that not
only minorities can be discriminated against.

The articles specific wording is: " But employees say she pointed to two
comments that called out “cis white men.” "

Calling out 'cis white men'? As though it's just a normal thing to do,
because, you know, those terrible 'straight white men'?

Can you imagine if that statement read 'calling out those gay blacks'?

The lack of self awareness among those staffers at least on this issue is
shocking.

It's definitely racist, and definitely a fireable offence.

Obviously, black->white/white->black racism is quite different, but it's still
racism in the worst way.

~~~
jessaustin
Since they're "quite different", only one of them is "the worst".

~~~
stronglikedan
But they're not "quite different". All racism is equally "the worst".

~~~
jessaustin
No, that's bogus. The century of lynching black men that followed the USA
civil war was definitely worse than the cab drivers who are rude to white
people in Asia.

~~~
asguy
What ever happened to “two wrongs don’t make a right?”

~~~
jessaustin
I haven't heard that since kindergarten. Here in the adult world, we care
about justice. Justice is not served when ignorant white yuppies appropriate
the struggles of others. Could "Emily" have better catered to the feelings of
her managers? Probably! However, we wouldn't all be laughing at Korey if she
had said "I'm firing you because you have been rude." She didn't _have_ to
pretend that she had suffered some sort of harm because one of her employees
didn't worship her.

~~~
asguy
There's a reason they teach it in kindergarten: it's a pretty fundamental
concept that people who want a functioning society should probably adhere to.

Here's another maxim for you: live by the sword, die by the sword. If you want
people to be treated equal, stop singling out groups (e.g. "ignorant white
yuppies") and playing identity politics.

~~~
jessaustin
This is adorable! It was _Korey_ who fired people for, as she claimed, being
"racist" and "discriminatory" to her, the lily-white CEO. I bet she wishes she
had heard your advice about playing identity politics before she had played
identity politics!

I encourage you to tell the legislatures about your wise "two wrongs" wisdom.
I bet they'll empty out the prisons immediately!

Jesus left us a variety of maxims. I must admit, however, that we didn't study
the Gospels in my kindergarten.

------
tyingq
_" Employees were not allowed to email each other, and direct messages were
supposed to be used rarely (never about work, and only for small requests,
like asking if someone wanted to eat lunch)."_

[https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-
ceo...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph-
korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion)

Youch. Sounds like a cult. All work conversations in a channel where the CEO
can eavesdrop and bust in for spurts of berating and micromanagement.

~~~
GaryNumanVevo
Policies like this are really weird to me, wouldn't they just encourage back
channeling more?

Ideally you'd encourage supposedly "private" conversations then snoop on
those.

------
vector_spaces
I was an initial hire at a company with a very similar culture of (the
alleged) publicly abusing employees on Slack, with all the hyperbolic cultish
nonsense, with plenty of gaslighting and classless psychological manipulation
("if you're on this team it means we think you're the best, but if you can't
handle it, maybe we were wrong"), and even the breathless idolization of (all
the worst parts of) Amazon to boot.

If you think you're in this situation now -- please: leave. I've since learned
that these things are a dime a dozen, and by and large they go up in flames.
And in the rare cases when they don't, it's still not worth it. In the worst
case at the end of it you'll be burned out, emotionally exhausted, struggling
with aggravated anxiety/depression/PTSD, not to mention the damage done to
your personal relationships.

This kind of shit is literally abuse, and as such can do actual and severe
damage to your life. Don't put up with it. Life is too short, and there's a
lot more at stake than your time and labor. There are plenty of companies to
work for including startups that won't do this to you.

~~~
taurath
Whatever validation you get from it that you’re not providing yourself, at the
very least find someone else to provide that validation but will give it
kindly and help you find it yourself, rather than under threat of constantly
taking it away.

------
9nGQluzmnq3M
This is a new low in corporate spin: "I hope everyone in this group
appreciates the thoughtfulness I’ve put into creating this career development
opportunity and that you’re all excited to operate consistently with our core
values", or in English, "You should be grateful that I'm cancelling all your
PTO" (srsly wtf).

~~~
koheripbal
This company tried to enter an extremely mature and cluttered market -
LUGGAGE. ...with almost no product innovation.

It should not be a surprise to anyone that all they had to offer is spin and
marketing-speak.

------
ChuckMcM
Human brains naturally look for patterns. Those patterns have a uniform
distribution with respect to the probability of them actually explaining the
data.

I remember pretty clearly when I first started seeing "the game", which is the
politics that course through an organization like the wind through a mountain
forest. It can be pretty heady at first, it is like wearing the special
sunglasses in "They Live", but for me I also "saw" some things that weren't
actually there at all. And acting on what I think I saw resulted in modest
embarrassment and some awkwardness.

So with experience, I learned to take what I saw with a bit of skepticism and
to figure out ways I could "test", without revealing what I suspected to be
true, whether or not something was what was actually going on.

That test for Gruber was apparently the belief that you "cannot" hire a new
CEO from another large company in the short amount of time that Away did it,
so the "truth" (or what is "really" going on) is that the Verge story was
cover for the swap and distracting from the distasteful element that a woman
in technology was being forced out and a man coming in to replace her.

I don't think that would be enough for me. Over my career I have met with a
number of executive search firms, both helping them to identify good
candidates, and sometimes as the candidate they were vetting for a possible
move. And that experience showed me that executives are just as trigger happy
as employees are for the 'right' move. That is especially true near the top
because the only way you move into the 'big' seat is for the person in it to
be ejected, and that can be a slow process for an aggressive person. Watching
Ed Zander give up on Scott ever stepping down so that he could take over Sun
he bailed and went to Motorola. It's a common story. So for me, I can see that
if you talked to the right executive search firm, they might have a couple of
candidates that were already 'loose in the socket' as they say. But it also
can't be a "hopeless" company, like Uber seemed to be when Kalanick was
clearly on the way out. But 'start up founder can't grow into the role' is a
common enough reason to slot in someone who has more experience, and if it
moves an executive closer to their ultimate goal, not as hard to pull off as
you might think. (I'll admit it is probably easier for CTO roles than CEO
roles but still)

I am not saying that Gruber is wrong, I agree it is a plausible explanation. I
just don't see the evidence as being as definitive as he does.

~~~
ec109685
More background from Verge:
[https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204276683588505600](https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1204276683588505600)

Would have been cool for Gruber to talk to someone at the Verge before
publishing his hit piece.

------
Jasper_
> If a waiter served a customer a half-eaten sandwich, I’d expect the manager
> to immediately berate him in front of the other staff in the kitchen — not
> take him aside and say “Hey, that isn’t cool.”

Gross.

Korey's own words, about teaching her direct reports "accountability" by
asking them to work overtime, presumably unpaid, is gross.

Korey's own actions, by forcing all employees to talk publicly in Slack
channels in "the interest of transparency", and then firing those who talk
about problems at the company, is gross.

If this level of irresponsibility made its way to the board, PR disaster in
stow, you sure imagine they'd try to get rid of her quick.

~~~
bwilliams18
I just lost a lot of respect for John.

I've worked in serious NYC restaurants for years, and made a lot of big
mistakes, including serving inch-worms to celebrities. I've almost always been
treated with respect and kindness when I made a mistake (save for some gentle
ribbing). When I first started I had a few sternly worded conversations, but
they were always respectful and very clearly delivered with the intention of
building me up, not putting me down.

The one and only time I was ever shouted at was in private and one-on-one, and
was a motivating factor in my putting in my notice a few days later.

Toxic culture is never acceptable, not in restaurants, or tech companies.

~~~
paggle
That’s just wrong that you got gentle ribbing if it was your fault that a worm
got served to a diner. I’d prefer to eat at restaurants where such an employee
was fired or severely castigated for such a screwup, but in private, and not
with glee.

~~~
krageon
If you can't even mess with your colleagues after the real problems have been
understood to be resolved, it's quite a stuffy workplace.

------
teamwork007
I worked with a company that worked with Away, Steph in particular, and her
abrasive style bled through to our entire company. Without diving into
specifics, she wasn't able to manage her own expectations on an important
issue and threatened to write a bad review of us. She was known by our whole
company as being someone who messed up on her end and rather than take blame
internally she blamed it on us. I get that founders are under a lot of
pressure, but she was hard up to repeat the success she saw at Warby Parker
and it was evident she was willing to be a crummy person to work with if it
looked like things were not headed in that direction regardless of who was at
fault.

------
elicash
Putting the specifics of the Away memo aside, the laws regarding policing
employee speech are actually more complicated than Gruber seems to understand.
See this NLRB decision for a fuller understanding of the complexities:

[https://www.employerlawreport.com/2015/10/articles/labor-
rel...](https://www.employerlawreport.com/2015/10/articles/labor-
relations/second-circuit-upholds-nlrb-finding-that-triple-play-sports-grille-
unlawfully-terminated-employees-for-facebook-postings/)

Of course, it's a different NLRB than it was when that decision was made.

------
sdan
Given that they got Lululemons’ COO, they probably already had a contract with
him/her. After the article came out they probably sped up when they were going
to announce it.

Also I feel like a lot of this type of stuff is coming out now towards the
holiday season so that a lot of people would somewhat forget about everything
thats going on now.

------
ramphastidae
The idea that a business with hundreds of employees can be run entirely
through public Slack is shockingly stupid.

Sorry for the harsh words, but this demonstrates complete incompetence and
zero business experience from Steph Korey all the way to the investors.

Away is clearly yet another terrible company that would have died long ago if
not for VC life support.

~~~
fastball
GitLab runs most of their company through _literally_ public git repos.

Exception that makes the rule perhaps, but I think you might be being a bit
hyperbolic.

~~~
ramphastidae
The GitLab internal communication policy is publicly available and clearly
mentions PRs, issues, email, video chat, and 1:1 communication as options:
[https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/#internal-
co...](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/#internal-
communication)

And no, I am not being hyperbolic. Did you read the article? Employees at Away
are banned from using everything above. No private Slack channels. No email.
Only public Slack. I challenge you to name a successful company where that is
the policy.

------
davidwitt415
I read The Verge daily, and generally like what they do, but they are
definitely working the outrage factor for eyeballs.

Today's editorial from Casey Newton is a another data point: He tries to drag
Slack into the controversy by claiming that it is 'not really neutral' and
that it contributed to the CEO's downfall by allowing her to so easily berate
employees and create a permanent record - as if email never existed.

------
mrburton
Well, if you want to be like Steph, there's a great Skillshare page by her
[https://www.skillshare.com/profile/Steph-
Korey/9215939](https://www.skillshare.com/profile/Steph-Korey/9215939)

Key Lessons:

\- Why consistent feedback builds trust \- How to embrace mistakes (and share
your own with your team) \- Why you should let go of giving answers, and start
asking questions \- How to treat you staff like shit

Wait. sorry I added the last one.. and only the last one :o) Okay
#TrollingDone

~~~
ranDOMscripts
The sheer hubris of this beggars belief. Maybe we can get a skillshare from
Elizabeth Holmes on how to build a lasting company or Adam Neumann on how to
con your way into making a billion dollars?

\- wait, that last one might actually be interesting...

~~~
fastball
Where is the hubris?

------
KoftaBob
Outside of the behavior of the CEO, I'm genuinely curious what it is about
their luggage that's supposed to be a unique selling point?

I went on their site, and it looks like it's just another carry-on suitcase
that's durable and has a charging port. What's the big deal?

~~~
remir
S'well water bottles as another example of this. These are just made in China
water bottles with some printed pattern on them, but some people are talking
about them like it's this new awesome thing.

------
neonate
[http://archive.is/uehXU](http://archive.is/uehXU)

------
kumarvvr
Off the topic : A decent suitcase, without battery, costs about 225 USD, as
per their website.

In India Rupees, that about 15,000 Rs. In India, the costliest similar
suitcase, from a well regarded brand, VIP is about 10,500 Rs. (
[https://www.vipbags.com/product/fairway-
graphite](https://www.vipbags.com/product/fairway-graphite) )

Are suitcases so costly to produce? Or is the cost the cumulative effect of
overheads?

15,000 Rs. is the median monthly income for many jobs in India. Especially
service jobs.

What is it about Away suitcases that demand such high prices?

~~~
probablyexists
Away's pitch is all around their claims of quality and lifetime warranty.

They definitely still break, but when they do you can walk into the store and
they hand you a new one.

------
landonxjames
> But read the memo. Away wasn’t “clamping down on employee speech” — they
> were dealing with a serious PR crisis. What company in the midst of a PR
> crisis would not tell employees not to talk about it?

I think they were pretty clearly cracking down on employee speech. Telling
them what they are allowed to do on their personal accounts outside of work
hours really rubs me the wrong way regardless of whether or not they are in
crisis mode.

------
ec109685
I don't know why this article complicates the situation. She apologized for
incidents that occurred last year, Verge reported on those incidents and those
incidents prompted the board to find her replacement:
[https://twitter.com/stephkorey/status/1203051598961954816](https://twitter.com/stephkorey/status/1203051598961954816)

~~~
Nextgrid
I love it how despite all that happened she still has “ want to transform
travel alongside an unbelievably talented team?
[http://awaytravel.com/careers”](http://awaytravel.com/careers”) in her
Twitter bio.

Also, I wish they’d just shut up about “transforming” travel... chill out and
get back to earth, you’re just a luggage company.

~~~
parthdesai
How will you get a tech valuation if you're not changing the world though? /s

------
sixtypoundhound
Wait. Pause.

I read the verge article. They put people through that kind of bullshit in NYC
for 40 grand a year? Are you kidding me?

(yes, well aware that many people make less than that. But sheesh... it's the
Devil wears Prada updated for 2019)

~~~
walrus01
40k a year for what sounds like 65-80 hour works weeks, and a daily torrent of
Slack abuse from the CEO just sounds like a new level of purgatory for the
rank and file workers. 40k gross in NYC with both federal, state and city
income taxes, and cost of living in NYC, is truly a pittance.

------
angry_octet
I just can't believe that the COO of an extremely successful company like Lulu
Lemon (LULO market cap $30B) would make the jump to a suitcase marketing
company? How many suitcases do you buy in a decade? Seems like a demotion.

~~~
omarhaneef
I don't have too many data points, but of the ones I do have, I think the vast
majority of C-level executives covet the CEO spot. I think they would love to
get in the seat to show what they can do.

You would have to look at the compensation packages, as well, but emotionally
I am sure there were many people who wanted a chance at the saddle.

------
kirillzubovsky
I didn't realize Benchmark was an investor.

~~~
wp381640
Uber, WeWork, Away - they kinda specialize in media litigated CEO firestorms
where they win in the end

------
acroback
Wait this company makes luggage? And has such high valuation, how?

~~~
undefined3840
You realize Lululemon makes yoga pants and has a valuation of $30B right?

And Nike makes shoes and has a valuation of $150B?

You don’t need to be a “tech” company to build something worth billions.

~~~
saagarjha
To be fair, a lot of people wear shoes and yoga pants. Probably more people
than have a smartphone for the former at least.

~~~
undefined3840
A lot of people travel and need luggage as well. I’m not suggesting Away would
ever be worth anything close to Nike but is it realistic to think it could be
worth several billion? Sure.

~~~
jen729w
The stocks app tells me that Samsonite is worth $3bn+. So yeah, why not?

------
7kmph
I misread the title to be “Apple fires CEO...”, got me excited for a moment

------
Khaine
I hate to bring gender into this, but I do wonder if Gruber would raise such a
stink if it was just a male CEO getting fired for this.

And as for his example of:

"If a waiter served a customer a half-eaten sandwich, I’d expect the manager
to immediately berate him in front of the other staff in the kitchen — not
take him aside and say “Hey, that isn’t cool.”

I would think it is highly inappropriate to berate a staff member in front of
other staff. That doesn't inspire leadership. Instead you would take them
aside and talk to them personally about what they had done, and talk to all
staff as a whole about the need to do better and explain the importance of
customer service and that a happy customer is likely to refer 2 other people,
but a dissatisfied person is likely to tell 20, so we need to stop people from
being dissatisfied (within reason).

In all of my roles, from retail, consulting, government, and everything else,
it has never been appropriate to berate staff.

