WeWork had DMC perform at a meeting justifying cost-cutting layoffs

Because when explaining massive layoffs to your employees, there’s nothing like a performance by legendary hip-hop artist Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC to make it all go down easier. 

So appeared to be the thinking of WeWork (since rebranded as The We Company) co-founder Adam Neumann who, at a 2016 all-hands meeting justifying the decision to layoff 7 percent of the company’s workforce in an effort to cut costs, brought out DMC to play a set for those lucky enough to still be employed by the newly penny-pinching business. And yes, the tequila shots flowed. 

So reports the Wall Street Journal in what is, frankly, a bonkers recounting of the co-founder’s escapades over the past few years. 

From megalomaniacal aspirations of becoming “president of the world,” to demanding the annual firing of 20 percent of The We Company’s staff, the 40-year-old Neumann is portrayed as a mercurial leader of a company currently valued at north of $15 billion. 

But back to that all-hands meeting. Here is how the Journal described it: 

A few weeks after Mr. Neumann fired 7% of the staff in 2016, he somberly addressed the issue at an evening all-hands meeting at headquarters, telling attendees the move was tough but necessary to cut costs, and the company would be better because of it.

Then employees carrying trays of plastic shot glasses filled with tequila came into the room, followed by toasts and drinks.

Soon after, Darryl McDaniels of hip-hop group Run-DMC entered the room, embraced Mr. Neumann and played a set for the staff. Workers danced to the 1980s hit “It’s Tricky” as the tequila trays made more rounds; some others, still focused on the firings, say they were stunned and confused.

It’s not clear if the obvious contradiction of professing a need to cut costs, and using that need to justify staff layoffs, while simultaneously having a famous musician drop jams at a company meeting was lost on Neumann.

However, maybe the co-founder — who the Journal writes “muses” about becoming a trillionaire and living forever — had other things on his mind. Like, for example, the fact that his wife Rebekah Neumann reportedly had multiple staff members fired because she allegedly “didn’t like their energy” only minutes after first meeting them. 

Or maybe he was too busy thinking about the time he banned meat at the company, only to be later seen eating it himself. 

If not that, perhaps Neumann was distracted by his alleged love of $110 bottles of Don Julio 1942, and the fact that, as the Journal put it, “pours sometimes start in the morning.” It could, of course, be the marijuana he allegedly loves smoking while flying on his private jet that took his mind off the absurdity of the situation — but that would be pure speculation. 

What we know for sure, however, is that Neumann’s idea of The We Company spans borders, time, and common sense. But hey, at least it has a dope soundtrack.