Literally social insurance
On employer-sponsored premiums for employees' eroding sense of community
I always thought WeWork owed its success to the rise of Facebook and Google as hyper-efficient user acquisition machines. The more easily a business idea can be tested and scaled, so the thinking goes, the greater the number of companies form, the more desks are in demand.
After speaking to someone who was present for the company's founding, I think I was wrong about this. WeWork’s stated mission from the get-go was to build community in the workplace.
So why did the world need more community during the years of WeWork's growth?
In the same vein, Slack provides a functional service, but in many ways promises fulfillment through shared experience. In a world where shared experiences are scarcer, and meatspace grows less social, Slack helps fill the void by making work, a rare shared experience, funnier and more social.
Slack is the online version of WeWork. They're materially different but share a Job to Be Done. They also share another important trait: Much as people increasingly rely on their employer to pay the premium for health insurance, many people now rely on their employer to pay the premium for insurance against the erosion of their social life.
Hardly a cause for either company's success, but certainly a tailwind.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯