Uber is no stranger to controversy. They are frequently in the news for side stepping certain laws or recently for continuing to ferry people to and from JFK Airport during the travel ban to seven Muslim dominant countries. Also to a lesser extent for the CEO, Travis Kalanick, being part of President Trump’s advisory council. But in light of a former employee’s critical blog post Uber is in serious trouble. Susan J. Fowler, a former Uber employee, writes about the year she spent working for Uber. Much of it was great in terms of learning and working with smart talented engineers like herself but the entirety was marred by the alleged sexist environment.
On her https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber website, Susan details multiple instances where she was put in difficult and potentially sexually abusive situations by co-workers or superiors. She identifies one of her bosses that aggressively pursued her and when she went to the HR department, she was told she could do nothing because the other party was a “high performer.” Further, if she stayed in the team she was on, she would likely receive a poor performance review. She discovered that other female employees have gone through similar situations with the same result when trying to report the incidents.
There were other less sexual incidents of gender based bias. According to Susan, when leather jackets were ordered for the engineering teams there were none for women employees. The manager in charge of ordering the jackets said there weren’t enough women to justify ordering jackets for when they won’t get a bulk discount.
Over the weekend, the post has garnered a huge amount of attention. CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick even commented on the allegations.
1/ What's described here is abhorrent & against everything we believe in. Anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired. https://t.co/6q29N7AL6E
— travis kalanick (@travisk) February 20, 2017
Kalanick has launched an investigation into the allegations and even hired Eric Holder, former Attorney General, to lead the investigation. The investigation will also heavily involve Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post and an Uber board member as well as Liane Hornsey the new chief of human resources. Kalanick has promised to fire anyone who fails to treat women with equal respect and consideration from their male counterparts.
This revelation is nothing new. The tech industry and Silicon Valley specifically is notorious for gender inequality. Many companies view female employees/engineers as status symbols or mascots rather than serious employees despite strong work and some of the most innovative results coming from female engineers. Many high profile tech companies have come under fire for lack of gender and ethnic diversity. Will this be the turning point that forces a shift in the tech industry? Probably not, but if Uber, one of the biggest names in the tech space, takes action to diversify then there is a strong possibility that some other companies may take necessary steps for a more hospitable environment. Afterall, if this trend continues, the depressing percentage of girls who enter the tech industry will probably dwindle even further.
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