[yelling_cat]

I'd used WeWork offices for solo work with no issues, so I didn't do sufficient diligence when I booked a conference room at one for a confidential client meeting. The room's walls were all clear and so thin that any conversation above a quiet murmur was easily heard from the hall outside. I asked the onsite manager for a more suitable room, but she told me they were all like that there. I ended up sticking the easel pad on the room's conference table and we spent the afternoon whispering to each other as we huddled around it.

Not checking things out in advance was on me of course, but it never dawned on me that their meeting rooms would be designed by people who'd apparently never been in a meeting before. In any case that was the last time I set foot in a WeWork.

[huehehue]

My experience with this extends to private offices as well. Maybe I just drew the short straw with my neighbors but, if I'm managing people, I want to give them the courtesy of a noise-free call where they don't feel like they're being spied on (or like I'm being distracted).

I tried maybe 3 or 4 private office solutions during the pandemic's height, and each suffered from this. The "phone booths" are the best solution, imo, but they eat up credits and/or are always occupied.

I'd unironically like a huge warehouse of phone booths (like 3x3 offices) I can hole myself in all day. Why does that not exist? Is that just a cubicle farm with extra steps? I joke to my partner about setting up shop in our closet because it's quiet and distraction free.

[MikeTheGreat]

Genuine question: Wouldn't this require a lot of ventilation / HVAC infrastructure?

It seems like in order to get 'really quiet' you need to have solid, noise-insulating walls on all 6 sides, which then makes it harder to ventilate (i.e., each cube gets it's own ductwork)

That said - I also like quiet spaces and if I was looking for a co-working space something that's mostly small, cozy, and quiet cubes would be perfect :)

[huehehue]

Probably, the rooms get stuffy fairly quickly. I've seen videos of private work booths in Japan that appear well-ventilated so it's possible but no idea about cost effectiveness.

If anyone wants this idea, you can even use the old WeWork signs, just flip the W upside down and change it to MeWork

[huevosabio]

I worked as a guest of a friend from a wework in SF. Took a meeting from a phone booth and then came back to one of the desks.

Later, another person went into the phone booth and I could hear everything. What's the purpose of the phone booth if it can isolate sound?

[csomar]

It looks cute and edgy. I thought that’s why people were paying the insane premium at wework?

[mavelikara]

> In any case that was the last time I set foot in a WeWork.

Why? From your description, it sounds like they were serving one of your use cases perfectly well, but was not a good fit for your other use case.

[numbsafari]

Probably because he would end up having to spend the same money on a place with better conference rooms. Why pay for two co-working facilities, just so you can use one that has quiet meeting spaces?

WeWork was less about getting work done, and more about LARPing the experience of working for a FAANG and flexing someone else's money.

[yelling_cat]

Exactly, and the facility with real conference rooms that we switched to had nice solo workspaces as well. The decor was a little more corporate, true, but we somehow struggled through that.

[jrflowers]

I like this question. Why would a person stop paying for something that doesn’t fully suit their basic needs? Obviously if a configuration that worked didn’t exist at WeWork, surely it couldn’t exist anywhere at all?

[mavelikara]

That wasn’t the question. Question was why stop using a thing which serves you well, because it couldn’t do another thing to your satisfaction? I don’t blame my toothpaste for not caffeinating me enough.

The OPs ask is a very specific niche - conference rooms that can be used for highly confidential meetings. Even in a typical SV open office, most office rooms have glass walls which do not provide the confidentiality the OP seeks. Maybe few “exec rooms” will have that.

[jrflowers]

> I don’t blame my toothpaste for not caffeinating me enough.

This illustrates why I like the question!

An office environment that includes even slightly private conference rooms is literally unthinkable.

I’m assuming maybe they have luxuries like that in the Pentagon and Cheyenne Mountain, but to picture a conference room that doesn’t require huddles and whispers in the same building as desk space is exactly the same as picturing tooth paste that serves the function of coffee. At worst it doesn’t exist at all or at best it’s a silly curio borne from a mad man’s flight of fancy.

[amluto]

I realize it’s legacy and not cool any more, but Regus has had a perfectly fine facility in Palo Alto with perfectly nice rooms for conferences and individual or small group work for considerably longer than WeWork has existed.

[pseingatl]

The problem was that they pivoted from offering on-demand offices to long-term contracts with companies seeking serviced offices with easier exit clauses. That made it difficult for the occasional, not everyday user to secure conference rooms, offices, helicopter in, etc.

[mavelikara]

Of course, the average office desk worker carries nuclear codes in their back pocket and communicate with each other using furtive glances and discreet hand signals. It is totally unpardonable that a mass-market hipster coworking space did not consider them when designing their spaces. /s

[ceejayoz]

Maybe not nuclear codes, but plenty of fairly mundane things like client calls subject to a NDA.

[jrflowers]

> It is totally unpardonable that a mass-market hipster coworking space did not consider them when designing their spaces.

Quite the opposite! If WeWork doesn’t offer conference rooms with any smidgeon of privacy, then that’s simply not something that’s offered anywhere else. This fact is the basis of why your original question was a good one: Why would anyone stop paying WeWork?

Perhaps given the lack of privacy in any conference rooms anywhere, GP simply retired from professional life altogether. This may be the only compelling possible reason to stop paying WeWork for their service of providing some but not all of their basic business needs.

[yelling_cat]

Only your coworkers can see what you're up to in a glass meeting room at your company office, though.