Is Lesley Based on a Real WeWork Employee?

‘WeCrashed‘ on Apple TV+ follows the story of the shared workspace firm WeWork and the tumultuous journey of its founders and staff. Below the chaotic management of co-founder Adam Neumann, the corporate rockets to huge valuations but additionally spends unsustainable quantities of cash, dropping thousands and thousands on daily basis. Although it’s entertaining to look at the antics of Neumann and his spouse, Rebekah, the occasional perspective of a clear-eyed worker exhibits simply how flawed the corporate is.

Lesley is one such worker and probably the primary actual critic that WeWork hires. Having met Adam and his co-founding accomplice Miguel McKelvey at a espresso store whereas they conduct hiring interviews, Lesley has seen the corporate’s humble beginnings. By episode 4, nonetheless, she appears to be fairly appalled at how Adam is working issues whilst Miguel stands passively by. Contemplating ‘WeCrashed’ attracts fairly a bit from actual life, we determined to see if Lesley could be primarily based on an precise WeWork worker. Right here’s what we discovered.

Was Lesley a Actual WeWork Worker?

No, Lesley just isn’t primarily based on a selected WeWork worker. However she is probably going impressed by a wide range of real-life early staff who joined WeWork with massive hopes however had been finally disappointed by the therapy meted out to them.

On the present, Lesley, essayed by Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, is without doubt one of the first people who Adam and Miguel personally rent. Conducting interviews in a espresso store, they undergo a lot of candidates whilst Lesley, nonetheless a stranger to them, sits at a close-by desk. When Adam belittles the idea of working at a espresso store, saying that working in his shared workspace can be so much higher, Lesley interjects, unknowingly giving Adam what seemingly turns into the core of his philosophy. She says that individuals come to work at espresso retailers for the corporate and feeling of group, which outweighs the obvious discomforts.

Adam is impressed and instantly gives Lesley a job. She finally accepts, changing into one of many first managers of WeWork. Quick ahead a couple of years to 2016 (on the present), and Lesley begins to have her doubts about how Adam is working issues. From the indiscriminate and unsustainable spending to shedding massive sections of the workforce, the early WeWork worker sees some severe issues with the corporate. Nevertheless, her loyalty stops her from leaving as she tries to steer Adam after which Miguel to alter course and repair the obtrusive lack of sustainability within the firm.

Although Lesley is a fictional character who’s seemingly scripted to push the narrative ahead, there might nonetheless be some actual individuals from whom the character takes explicit inspiration. In a September 2021 interview of a few of WeWork’s earliest staff, Marga Snyder, then Neighborhood Affiliate on the New York Metropolis workplaces, revealed that she had labored with the shared workspace firm for an astounding ten and a half years. Beginning out as an assistant constructing supervisor, Snyder most notably revealed that she had been straight employed by Neumann. Very like Lesley, Snyder additionally held a wide range of roles throughout the firm, together with that of occasions director.

In the end, Lesley is a fictional character that would have been drawn from a wide range of early staff at WeWork. The present is impressed by the Wondery podcast ‘WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork,’ which options interviews with precise (former) staff. Thus, the tv adaptation doubtless picks up real-life accounts and dramatizes them by way of fictional characters. If so, then it seems that Lesley’s character, although not actual, makes an attempt to make the present’s narrative appear concurrently real and dramatic.

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