Was I part of the problem at Away?
Hi!
I felt rather foolish this week as I read about the workplace culture scandal at Away. An investigation by The Verge revealed a terrifying workplace culture of public scoldings, burnout, and expectations for employees to push beyond their limits in the name of company values, and the great career opportunity they had been given.
Before reading this, I liked Away. I recall being so impressed as I stepped into their store in LA. They sold a good product at a fair price, and backed it with great travel-lifestyle marketing, endorsed by Karlie Kloss. Now, I feel cheated for having bought into this.
Aside from the opinions this has generated about growth at all costs, and workplace culture, I cannot help but wonder, as the buyer, did I have a role in all of this?
The article showed slack chats where Away's CEO was berating a team for failing to hit 100% precision on gold foiled monogrammed luggage tags, and expecting 100% responses within 4 hours. 100%. That is a tough number to hit. A quick check on google shows that Stephen Curry's free throw rating is 90.47%, he might have been fired at Away.
Do we really need 100% accuracy on gold monogramming? Or instantaneous service responses? It feels rather entitled that we cannot take some mistakes or delays in our stride without it spoiling our mood and getting us angry. I am conflicted by this though, since we also have to hold businesses to account when they fail to deliver on their promises to us. The responses to the Away saga show that people rather not have these frills at the cost of a burnout culture. Perhaps as customers we should send the right signals that these are not integral to our experience. If something goes wrong, we can respond respectfully rather than with outrage, and give a fair chance to make amends.
Having bought from Away before, I wonder if I could have figured this out in advance, and not supported them at all, to cast my own vote that this was unacceptable. Am I buying from other brands which are committing the same or even worse atrocities?
Love to hear what you all think about this, whether on my thoughts above or about workplace culture in general. Also, do share if you know of any easy way for an outsider to assess the culture of a company, so I can make better decisions before buying from them.
Have a great week!
James
About Ideothetic Flow
Ideothetic Flow is a small passion project following my own thoughts about living life better. Every 2 weeks I share something I find interesting, usually related to mental models which challenge common expectations or ideas.