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Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

susanjfowler.com

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Re: Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

#51

Post by tfar »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #30
jackweirdy wrote: post #13

> The HR rep began the meeting by asking me if I had noticed that I was the common theme in all of the reports I had been making That's such a meaningless thing for an HR person to ask someone, that it clearly only serves to be patronising and hopefully stop them bringing problems up. I mean, how could you as an HR staffer possibly justify your inaction with an argument like that? "We didn't act on any of their compl…

HR serves to protect the company, you have to think in HR's shoes. If the complainant goes away and finds another job the problem is solved. Most harassment cases tend not to end up in court, usually the aggrieved party quits.

  "HR serves to protect the company"
That point comes up every time a bad-HR related post is placed here. However, isn't it very short sighted to consider silencing/removing the accusers a protection of the company. This results in a bad culture and bad PR about that culture in developer circles. Won't the reduced diversity and all that comes with it have bad effect on the company long term?

Re: Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

#53

Post by kevinburke »

jmduke wrote: post #17

I am struggling to think of something productive to contribute to this discussion, because this absolutely incensed me. In lieu of anything else: Susan deserves to be commended for her bravery in writing this.

If an Uber recruiter contacts you, bring this up and tell them their nonfunctioning HR department makes working for their company a non starter.

If you work at Uber, quit, and/or contact the board and tell them that this behavior is unacceptable and the people responsible need to be fired. If the culture won't change, the CEO needs to be fired.

If you work in tech, bring up this article with your manager or CEO and tell them that this behavior is unacceptable, opens the company up to ridiculous amounts of lawsuit risk, will hurt recruiting, depress morale, and that you will quit if harassment complaints aren't taken seriously.

Re: Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

#54

Post by u_wot_m8 »

davedx wrote: post #29
elmar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am shocked, how is possible to get away with this toxic company culture.

Because they're "high performers". Screw Uber. Just delete that app and never use it.

I'd like the think that eventually karma will catch up with Uber. Hard to think of a single positive thing to say about the company.

Re: Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

#55

Post by pvg »

symlinkk wrote: post #46
pvg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much 'easy lawsuit money' have you collected? Or anyone you personally know?

admittedly, none. but this still seems like an open and shut case.

The operative phrase here is 'it seems'. Lawsuits don't just materialize out of nothing without time and significant costs, simply because you happen to be in the right.

Re: Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

#56

Post by warent »

twblalock wrote: post #34
tsunamifury wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you dig into the package, a lot of the value is locked up in unsellable shares. Vs immediately liquid RSUs of any public company.

I'm referring to the cash salary only.

tsunamifury said pay, not cash salary... There's more to pay than cash, especially for private companies.

Re: Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

#57

Post by grzm »

angry-hacker wrote: post #47
elmar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am shocked, how is possible to get away with this toxic company culture.

They are used to break the laws, it's called disruption, I think.

Disruption doesn't necessarily imply illegal activity.

Re: Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

#58

Post by traek »

twblalock wrote: post #34
tsunamifury wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you dig into the package, a lot of the value is locked up in unsellable shares. Vs immediately liquid RSUs of any public company.

I'm referring to the cash salary only.

Comparing two offers where one is cash + liquid equity (the case at most major tech companies) and the other is the same amount of cash + equity in a company that has no near-term plans to IPO (the case at Uber), most people would consider the first offer to be worth more.

Even if nominally the equity is worth the same in the both cases, liquidity is also valuable. (And the equity might not really be worth the same--companies have been forced to IPO at a valuation lower than their last round of funding.)

Re: Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

#60

Post by jacquesm »

minimaxir wrote: post #49
jacquesm wrote: post #44

What's with all the 'this is unbelievable' comments here? This is absolutely believable, Uber has pretty much made it their standard to break the laws where-ever they can, why should work place conduct be any different? In for a penny, in for a pound. You'd never hear something even close to this from Stripe or some other company run by upstanding folks. Fish rots from the head.

If anything, OP's subsequent employment by Stripe is a very strong endorsement for the workplace culture of the company.

I actually used Stripe as an example before I realized that's where she had moved to so consider that a double endorsement, it's not like I have any dog in that particular race but I know some people that work there and without fault they report working there is a dream come true.

The brothers have something good going there and I'll bet that when the dust settles Uber will be part of that dust and Stripe will have IPO'd or similar (possibly even this year).

This is how it's done:

https://stripe.com/code-of-conduct

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