| Why you should stop trying to be happy at work | | |  | FRI, AUG 16, 2019 | | | | | | TECH, TRANSFORMATION AND THE FUTURE OF WORK | | | | Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up.
WeWork's parent company filed to go public this week, giving the world a look at its financial performance. It also raised a question for me: How much of the future workplace experience will be outsourced to specialists?
A quick primer on WeWork: It takes out long-term leases on office space around the world and then sells the space on short-term leases to businesses large and small. The spaces are urban, modern, hip.
Meanwhile, WeWork is losing tons of money. In the first half of this year it had a $1.37 billion operating loss on $1.54 billion in sales.
You'll be forgiven for thinking that looks insane. No, WeWork is not setting money on fire. Not literally, anyway. The company is trying to grow so fast – leasing office buildings and building them out – that it is incurring massive costs before it has customers to pay them.
This makes sense if you believe this "on-demand" era stretches way beyond AWS clouds, Uber rides and Airbnb vacations. If enough companies will never fully mature and stabilize, settle down and plant roots – well, maybe they'll want WeWork's short-term lease for a long time.
Color me skeptical for a couple of reasons. One, things have changed dramatically, just in the 25 years I've been in the workforce. When I was an intern in 1994, the gold standard was the suburban headquarters campus. Ten years later, the growth of broadband made telework the new trend. Five years after that, after the financial crisis, drop-in spaces took off. In the unprecedented 10-year economic expansion that followed, city living and urban campuses became the "it" thing.
More likely, it seems to me, we'll welcome a "hybrid" era with office space the way we have with data centers and clouds. There will still be demand for polished and convenient spaces like WeWork's, particularly for quick expansions or temporary projects. Smaller businesses might continue to rely on them exclusively. But in many cases larger businesses will find excuses to move into their own facilities again, and to do without the snacks and mood lighting that a boutique work space provides.
| TALENT
Happiness, who needs it? | | So much is written about happiness at work — yet judging from Gallup statistics that show 85% of employees aren't engaged, few know how to attain it. Read more from Harvard Business review on why you should stop trying to be happy at work. | | | | | CAPITAL
All Eyes on this IPO | | The now-rebranded We Company is widely expected to hold its IPO as soon as next month, joining a flurry of tech companies that have gone public this year. The much-anticipated IPO prospectus revealed, among many things, a reported net loss of more than $900 million in the first half of 2019. Read more from CNBC. | | | | | PRODUCTIVITY
The Ethics of AI in the Workplace | | Technology developers, manufacturers and marketers have a responsibility to be open to scrutiny and consider the ethical implications of artificial intelligence in the workplace. Read more from this Colorado-based AI company founder and CEO. | | | | @Work People + Machines
Technology, Talent and the Future of Work
In the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, CIOs and CTOs hold the key roles managing corporate digital transformation and leveraging new, game-changing technologies. This edition of CNBC's @Work series examines the human-machine interface, how to balance the needs of today with the possibilities of tomorrow, and the winning strategies of best-in-class companies.
| | @Work People + Machines November 4, 2019
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