The solution that actually worked for me was to down the following:
1. Quit VMWare.
2. System Preferences --> Notifications ---.> right click on VMWare, 'reset notifications'.
3. Double click on VMWare Fusion.app.
4. 'Don't allow' push notifications for VMWare.
This forces VMWare to ask for permission to send push notifications, including 'added items that can run in te background'.
Granted, it does mean othe notifications for VMWare won't come through - but this seems like a reasonabel tradeoff.
