Steph Korey Goodwin

Toxic workplace allegations

On December 5, 2019, a report by The Verge reporter Zoë Schiffer described a toxic workplace and "culture of intimidation and constant surveillance" at Away in which employee communications channels were restricted while executives used Slack as an internal megaphone to publicly humiliate employees. Employees reported expectations to work long hours, on holidays, at night and late into the evening, and without paid time off. In an apology, Korey, the CEO, said that she was "appalled" to read her own messages and listed steps taken to improve the company's work culture in the last year. Korey initially resigned as CEO on December 9, and the company announced that she would be succeeded by Stuart Haselden, former COO of Lululemon.

Korey renounced her resignation on January 13, 2020, and said that she and Haselden would be co-CEOs of Away. In an interview with The New York Times, Korey said that The Verge's reporting was "inaccurate" and that it was "not right" for her to resign. The Verge replied, "Steph Korey responding to our reporting by saying her behavior and comments were 'wrong, plain and simple' and then choosing to step down as C.E.O. speaks for itself." Erin Grau, Away's human resources chief, resigned the same day in response to Korey returning. On July 2, 2020, however, Rubio and Haseldon announced that Korey would be stepping down as co-CEO "within the year", after comments she made on social media attacking digital-only media companies. Away employees were concerned that her comments meant she had learned nothing from the events in December 2019.