Away employees said they were pushed to breaking point: Zoe Schiffer

The Verge reporter Zoe Schiffer talks about luggage startup Away and its treatment of workers on CNBC's "Closing Bell."

As the fast growing startup tried to balance company growth and employee management, workers said they were constantly pushed to the breaking point, Schiffer said.

For instance, Away CEO Steph Korey used the company’s mission statement as a weapon to drive people to work longer hours, Schiffer said. Last year, she told customer experience managers that she was taking away their paid time off to encourage their career development and accountability.

Employees were also not allowed to direct message each other on Slack and that all communication had to be done on public channels. This was a push for more transparency, but it soon fostered an environment of fear, Schiffer said.

However, a private channel was created for venting difficulties of work and many were automatically fired without much warrant or communication when the CEO discovered it. Workers said the employee turnover rate was insane and they would often come to the office to learn that their close coworkers were let go without much warning.

Korey was also known to rip into people for minor mistakes and she also encouraged managers to be very vicious to employees on public channels, Schiffer said.

“Building a brand, let alone a billion dollar global company with 300+ incredible employees in such a short time is not without some challenges,” Korey said in her response.

On Friday, CNBC received a statement from Korey:

“I am sincerely sorry for what I said and how I said it,” it read. “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.”

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