I have a fix that reliably works for me. It seems there is something wrong with the emulated Apple SMC that is causing the problem. You can change the SMC version by editing the vmx config file for the VM. 

So first make sure you have shutdown the VM and then backup or take a snapshot before editing the VMX file. If you haven't done this before follow the directions here https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1014782

Add the following line to the VMX file in a text editor:

smc.version = "0"

Save and then start the VM. You can revert by deleting the line or changing the version to 1.