Executive Briefing
Away, ‘toxic culture’ stories, and Slack
In the cancel-culture era, do customers care if the boss is demanding?
By Dan Frommer on Friday, December 6, 2019 at 7:00 am
Away, the fast-growing direct-to-consumer luggage startup, has mostly managed to avoid controversy in its four years of existence. Not this week: The Verge’s Zoe Schiffer posted a feature story at 11am ET Thursday morning — “Emotional Baggage” — about the company’s supposed “toxic work environment,” which has been making the rounds all day.
The piece relies mostly on anecdotes from pseudonymous and anonymous former employees and “leaked” screenshots from Slack, the workplace chat app, where co-founder and CEO Steph Korey was seen reprimanding employees, and generally being demanding, in public.
It is hardly the worst thing I’ve read this week, and those screenshots could have just as easily come from many ambitious, growth-focused, high-standards CEOs. But it’s not a good look, especially for a company where a large portion of its success can be attributed to its clean, smart, “premium economy” brand.
In this post:
- Why takedown stories about loosely defined “toxic culture” happen — including journalists’ incentives, and work culture trends — and will likely happen more.
- Why Slack is potentially a real liability, despite being a useful communication tool.
- My assessment whether this will hurt Away, and why companies like Away are particularly sensitive to stories like these.
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