The HR chief at $1.4 billion Away told us the company wants employees to 'bring their full, authentic selves to work.' But a new bombshell investigation describes a cutthroat culture of bullying and burnout.
- The culture at unicorn startup Away was problematic, according to a new investigation by The Verge.
- In an earlier interview with Business Insider, Away's head of HR, Erin Grau, said the company cares about its employees' well being and career development.
- The Verge's portrayal of Away's culture suggests that working at a fast-growing startup may not always be as glamorous as it appears from the outside.
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A bombshell investigation published in The Verge describes a problematic workplace culture at the trendy unicorn startup Away. Reporter Zoe Schiffer spoke to 14 former employees of the $1.4 billion luggage brand, who said they were criticized by executives on company-wide Slack channels and pressured to work around the clock.
Business Insider spoke with Erin Grau, Away's vice president of people and culture, one week before the publication of The Verge article. Grau said Away leaders recognize the importance of taking care of their people, and that the company is developing HR practices that are unusually sophisticated for a relatively young startup.
A spokesperson for Away emailed Business Insider a statement from CEO Steph Korey (reproduced in full below), in which she apologized for the messages she sent employees, requesting immediate answers to questions after 10 pm and calling one staff member "brain dead." Korey said Away has been working to create a positive company culture.
The Verge's portrayal of Away's company culture suggests that working at a fast-growing startup may not always be as glamorous as it appears from the outside.
Away's ambitions for rapid growth may have cost them in employee morale
Away is one of a handful of female-led unicorn startups ("unicorn" means the company is worth at least $1 billion.) The company was founded in 2015 by Jen Rubio and Korey, who met while working at the buzzy eyewear company Warby Parker.
Earlier this year, Rubio, who is Away's president and chief brand officer, told Business Insider's Megan Hernbroth that the company started with luggage - products include fashionable tote bags and suitcases with built-in chargers - and ultimately plans to become a travel brand.
The Verge's Zoe Schiffer reports that the company's plans for rapid growth may have come at a cost. According to The Verge, Away employees were asked to work almost constantly and respond to messages instantly, and were discouraged from taking paid time off.
In the statement emailed to Business Insider, Korey wrote:
"I can imagine how people felt reading those messages from the past, because I was appalled to read them myself. I am sincerely sorry for what I said and how I said it. It was wrong, plain and simple.
"We want Away to be a company that sets the highest standards for how we treat our employees and help them grow. Over the last 12 months we've invested in creating a culture that allows our people to thrive, including executive coaching for the senior staff, diversity and inclusion training for everyone at the company, 360 reviews, establishing employee resource groups and adding 100 plus new team members to better divide workloads. I am working to be better every day and I promise to keep at it for the sake of our employees, our customers and our company."
On New Year's Eve 2017, The Verge reported, the customer experience team received a Slack message from a manager that gave them the option to take New Year's Day off as planned, which meant work would continue to pile up, or to work six hours that day and receive one month of paid time off to compensate. (The Verge article included an image of the Slack message.)
This account differs from Away's. In mid-November, a public relations manager at Away emailed Business Insider to introduce Grau. The email cited Away's "in-it-together" mentality, including the following example:
"On more than one occasion (especially during the peak holiday madness), the CX team was averaging hundreds of emails an hour and the small but mighty team looked to their colleagues for support. In true collaborative spirit, employees at every level (including our co-founders) jumped in to projects beyond their typical job descriptions -- including responding to over 1,000 customer emails -- in order to lend a helping hand."
An Away spokesperson also sent Business Insider a list of five "factual inaccuracies" in The Verge's reporting on Away's use of Slack.
The spokesperson said employees are not banned from sending emails or direct Slack messages, as The Verge reported they were. The spokesperson also said employees were not terminated for "venting" in a private Slack channel, as The Verge reported they were - instead these employees were terminated because they violated company policy and local laws.
Away's HR chief said the company wants to help employees develop in their careers
Away isn't the first high-profile startup to be called out for problematic company culture.
The US attorney general investigated claims of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation at Uber, which subsequently replaced its CEO and overhauled its company culture. Amazon has been widely criticized for its bruising work environment.
In fact, in a 2018 survey run by Blind, a message board app for employees to talk about work anonymously, found that 57% of the more than 11,000 tech employees surveyed said they were feeling burned out by their jobs.
In the interview with Business Insider, Grau described Away as an ideal place to work.
She said Away is widely perceived as innovative in the product space, but the company is just as innovative in the people space. "We have such a mature people operations function," she said, citing Away's processes for performance management and career development.
Grau joined Away in 2018 from The New York Times, where she was a vice president of transformation. As cochair of The Times' Women's Network, Grau also helped update the company's paid family leave policy to be more generous.
"Everyone who joins Away is joining for unprecedented growth," Grau said, which was also a reason she joined. Grau said new employees are excited not only about contributing to the company's growth, but also about the opportunities for their own career development.
It's important that Away employees feel empowered to "bring their full, authentic selves to work," Grau said, echoing the HR philosophy trumpeted by tech juggernauts like Google and Facebook. Team members should feel like "they're thought of as people and not just employees," she said.
She added that the company's leadership wants to "ensure that everybody who comes to Away is transformed by their time there."