Uber has hired former Attorney General Holder to probe allegations of sexism

http://www.recode.net/2017/2/20/14677546/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-eric-holder-memo

by donjh • 9 years ago

46 7 9 years ago

joshmn• 9 years ago

This doesn't address, not to mention even attempt to fix the underlying problem. This just points fingers. You can say "shame on you, don't do this again" but it doesn't change the fact that (an) individual(s) thought their behavior was acceptable, tolerable, appreciated, appropriate...

Just PR as far as I'm concerned. A "yeah, you're right, we've been noted for this before; I (Travis) take responsibility, as it's my duty to ensure that all employees at Uber are treated with respect regardless of gender. I have put in place x and y program, with a required z course which, I believe, are necessary steps in the right direction in eliminating this at our great company" would suffice.

Fej• 9 years ago

It is in Uber's best interest to cultivate a welcoming workplace. Uber has done some shady stuff but I don't think this one is just PR. If tons of people quit Uber because the workplace culture is terrible, they'll suffer brain drain.

danielvf• 9 years ago

Hiring Hoder to head an investigation is essentialy the strongest possible response from Uber. Time will tell if it's enough to win back Uber's urban, progressive leaning US market.

Both Holder and Huffington have reputations of using positions of power to advance progressive causes. Because that's their personal brand, it's pretty safe to assume that they will be giving more weight to that than to making the company look good.

system16• 9 years ago

Maybe I'm just cynical, but their response comes off as disingenuous.

If the toxic culture is as widespread as is being reported, there is absolutely no way the CEO could not know about it - either by participating in it, condoning it, or just turning a blind eye to it. To come off as so shocked, dismayed, and completely unaware that there is such an issue is ridiculous.

To be fair, I don't see any other way he could respond to this and still save himself.

Arizhel2• 9 years ago

I really hate to defend a CEO with a devil's advocate response, as I generally say only bad things about executives, but I feel I must here, but note that I really know nothing about Uber's corporate culture or very much about the facts in this case. What I do know, from my work at some corporations, is that the people in the executive suite can frequently be very isolated from what's going on below them. So if the misogyny was kept at the lower levels, I think it's quite possible the CEO just didn't know. I've also noticed that, frequently, HR departments act like they're the ones running the company, and don't actually tell the execs what they're doing, so it's quite possible too that the HR goons were in on it, but since they have Napoleon complexes and liked to act like they're really in charge, they didn't tell the CEO anything.

So while I have little love for CEOs, I have far less love for HR directors, and if this ends up getting blamed on the HR people and their whole department is sacked, I'll by laughing my ass off. It's ridiculous how many horror stories I've heard about insane HR directors.

ashayh• 9 years ago

And then what?

Apparently, many other individuals either directly participated, or indirectly did nothing. Both are equally bad. This indicates a broken culture not just for the company, but for Silicon Valley and the industry as a whole.

It is likely that Uber employee demographics closely match Bay area. Are we to believe that for all the talk about liberalism, & progressiveness, when it comes to real action, SV employees will choose stock options instead?

Arizhel2• 9 years ago

This indicates a broken culture not just for the company, but for Silicon Valley and the industry as a whole.

Well, we've been hearing about "brogrammers" now for quite some time. There definitely seems to be a giant amount of misogyny among the under-35 programmer crowd, according to numerous sources and stories. So I don't think that this incident at Uber is unusual for the industry, sadly, but rather the work culture at SV companies is broken.

It is likely that Uber employee demographics closely match Bay area. Are we to believe that for all the talk about liberalism, & progressiveness, when it comes to real action, SV employees will choose stock options instead?

I think your assumption is faulty. While there's certainly a lot of tech employees in the Bay Area, I think it's faulty to assume that the vast majority of the population of the Bay Area works as programmers (or in closely related fields). No economy can work that way. Yes, there's a lot of progressivism among the Bay Area population; I think it would be ridiculous to deny that. But I think it's apparent that SV programmers only give lip service to it, at best, and they're a small subset of the overall population there.

Uber has hired former Attorney General Holder to probe allegations of sexism

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