WeWork is one of the companies at risk of imploding due to the coronavirus outbreak according to many top Wall Street executives and real estate experts. Still, people close to the coworking firm believe it is too soon to call it quits.
Recently, WeWork has created a plan that supposedly will help the company withstand the possible recession heading our way. The firm announced it would be hosting a quarterly town hall on Tuesday to discuss its future.
Reports have found that those with inside knowledge of WeWork’s operations deny that the company will enter bankruptcy, despite the company’s poor financial standing.
Currently, WeWork is cutting its costs by scaling back on investments, laying off employees and is in the process of renegotiating leases with landlords.
Now, the firm is pitching its core office business as a tool that can help people adapt to social distancing guidelines by showing how they could help clients space things out. This new move includes reconfiguring hallways that encourage one-way traffic, fewer chairs around conference tables and spacing out couches and desks.
“I cannot think of a worse business model in the era of this pandemic than the WeWork business model,” said Nori Gerardo, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School. “Their business model is to cram people together in the smallest amount of space.”