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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

#591

Post by tarr11 »

brudgers wrote: post #572
minimaxir wrote: post #414

Travis Kalanick's response: https://twitter.com/travisk/status/833480964315557888 > 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. > 2/ I've instructed our CHRO Liane to conduct an urgent investigation. There can be absolutely no place for this kind of behavior at Uber.

HR already investigated. Putting the Chief Human Resource Officer in charge implies what the investigation will conclude: rouge employees. Because if it was institutional, the CHRO would be responsible. Then again, it isn't a commitment to cleaning out HR beyond anyone there who says, 'Oh I think it is ok.' And the whole 'thinking' thing is a way of backing off under the cover of 'We don't want to be thought police.'…

Looks like the CHRO was hired in November.

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

#592

Post by smhost »

stevebmark wrote: post #575
smhost wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the downvotes might be from people who want to be super careful about victim-blaming. But I agree with you that we should be training people to detect bullshit early on and to just get the fuck out in those situations. Labeling her actions as rational and healthy is probably not helpful either.

You both should sit this one out. Talk to your women engineer friends to get a better understanding of the situation.

This isn't a sports match. What's wrong with what I said?

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

#593

Post by pvg »

dkarapetyan wrote: post #580
pvg wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the last lawsuit you voluntarily started? A lot of things are 'an option'.

As a typical white male my life is surprisingly easy even when it is not easy. I've never been wronged the way Susan was so I've never had to think about suing anyone really.

Very well.

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

#594

Post by user5994461 »

fibbery wrote: post #203
jacquesm wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's hard for me to understand why she didn't immediately start trying to GTFO, but instead stuck around for a year and tried to make things work. Some possibilities: - Because she's loyal to her co-workers - Maybe still not jaded enough to jump ship at the first reason - quite possibly didn't have another job lined up to jump ship to A year isn't all that long, and if things had been turned around who knows she mi…

Some companies also require repayment of signing bonuses/relocation if the employee leaves within a year. So that gives people incentive to try and make the best of things even if they would have otherwise left.

There is certainly something to see there.

There were multiple articles on HN relating to the Uber offers and contracts, which showed they gave terrible conditions and dangerous traps.

By the way, she said in the article that she was doing a CS degree, sponsored by Uber, and they retracted the grant at the last minute.

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

#595

Post by SeoxyS »

toothbrush wrote: post #465
PaulRobinson wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a "whiskey club", and regularly go to the pub where I work. We don't do it at lunchtime. We don't do it during the working day. 5:30pm on a Friday? Let's have a glass of whiskey together. Somebody joining/leaving, or we haven't been out together for a while? Let's go to the pub after work one evening. There is a #drinks channel in Slack where people who fancy a drink after work co-ordinate, and several of wil…

> As for team dynamics, it means we know each other better and bond more frequently. Not a problem, I think. Except for the non-drinkers in your team. I suspect that they either a) feel left out, because a non-drinker at a pub has a boring time, and has to keep justifying their empty glass b) probably miss out on important decisions if a majority of the important people in a team are present, which is bad dynamics c)…

Drink soda water w/ bitters. Looks like a drink, tastes good, and satisfies anyone actually drinking.

I drink regularly; but every now and then I'll go a week or month without drinking. I'm currently in the middle of one of these periods; but I've still gone out to happy hour or events that involved drinking every day since it's started. I manage to have just as much fun sober drinking soda + bitters.

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

#597

Post by sattoshi »

Apocryphon wrote: post #478
home_boi wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm of the opinion that the average software engineer in the USA is already overpaid and underworked with excellent benefits and low incentive to unionize. I'm simplifying it a bit but if you don't like your job, just grab a copy of Cracking the Coding Interview and apply to big companies. The big companies pay very well, have good benefits and interview everyone because of the need for a high head count

Doctors, lawyers, professional athletes, and leading Hollywood actors and actresses might all be overpaid relative to other professions, and yet they all have professional organizations, even unions, representing them. What makes software engineers so exceptional?

What do we, collectively, as tech workers want?

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

#598

Post by user5994461 »

kevinburke wrote: post #53
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 t…

If you work at a company that already fires anyone who acts like that, and later use them during the on-boarding given to all new employees as real life examples of how you do NOT run a proper business... well, enjoy your workplace :D

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

#599

Post by Apocryphon »

sattoshi wrote: post #597
Apocryphon wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctors, lawyers, professional athletes, and leading Hollywood actors and actresses might all be overpaid relative to other professions, and yet they all have professional organizations, even unions, representing them. What makes software engineers so exceptional?

What do we, collectively, as tech workers want?

More equity?

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

#600

Post by flootch »

tptacek wrote: post #252
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.

I fully expected this thread to be a shitshow, but comments here are overwhelmingly supportive of Fowler, and except perhaps for the very bottom of the thread, I don't see much much "this is unbelievable" at all. I'm pleasantly surprised.

This thread IS a shitshow.

Did Fowler or anyone in this thread apart from jacquesm discuss the massively unethical ways Uber treats drivers and breaks the law and undermines society?

No, all you pinheads care about is how Uber treats the very privileged engineers who enable all that unethical behavior.

What happened to Fowler is inexcusable.

It's a scorpion and the tortoise story and she should be ashamed of herself for ever working for Uber in the first place.

What the hell do they teach engineers these days? In my day we knew we were ethically complicit in the output of our employers.

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