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Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

nytimes.com

31–40 of 534 posts

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#31

>Ms. Fowler’s account is another sign of Silicon Valley’s struggle with women’s issues and diversity in a male-dominated engineering environment. That's a hell of a claim since this is a "typical corporate America" type of problem.

Well there are some typical corporate American companies that have this problem. But I would argue that (almost?) all tech companies have this problem.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#32

One thing that every employee needs to understand is that HR is not your friend. No matter how friendly or helpful they seem, their job is not to protect you. It's to protect the company.

Sure, but what's the alternative, especially in a case like this?

Your manager is engaging in harassment, HR is where you "should" raise this. Her following protocol also makes her case stronger I would argue. You gave your company the chance to make things right. After that I'd say the gloves could come off if that's the route you want to go.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#33
post #32

One thing that every employee needs to understand is that HR is not your friend. No matter how friendly or helpful they seem, their job is not to protect you. It's to protect the company.

Sure, but what's the alternative, especially in a case like this? Your manager is engaging in harassment, HR is where you "should" raise this. Her following protocol also makes her case stronger I would argue. You gave your company the chance to make things right. After that I'd say the gloves could come off if that's the route you want to go.

In countries where unions do work, that is another door to go search for help.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#34

One thing that every employee needs to understand is that HR is not your friend. No matter how friendly or helpful they seem, their job is not to protect you. It's to protect the company.

Yup.

This gets posted from time to time, but if you work for a company, you really owe it to yourself to read Corporate Confidential.

https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Confidential-Secrets-Compan...

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#35

One thing that every employee needs to understand is that HR is not your friend. No matter how friendly or helpful they seem, their job is not to protect you. It's to protect the company.

I hear this truism a lot, along with "companies must put the profit obligation first." It's only true in a very limited technical sense. When someone is harassing you, "protecting the company" generally means making sure that person doesn't harass you or anyone else, often by firing them. Because if they don't, the company is at risk of massive liability.

That doesn't mean they can't be terrible at their jobs, or fail to understand what the true purpose of their job is. But that's a potentiality that's not limited to HR.

*Not a lawyer, but this is what I was told at my employer's harassment and legal training, which all employees are obligated to attend.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#36

One thing that every employee needs to understand is that HR is not your friend. No matter how friendly or helpful they seem, their job is not to protect you. It's to protect the company.

Sure they're not your friend, but Jesus Christ, the amount of legal trouble this particular HR establishment exposed themselves to through their actions is breathtaking. THAT'S their job: to prevent the company from getting sued!!

In this case I'm completely bewildered as to why HR handled this particular situation so clumsily.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#37
post #33
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but what's the alternative, especially in a case like this? Your manager is engaging in harassment, HR is where you "should" raise this. Her following protocol also makes her case stronger I would argue. You gave your company the chance to make things right. After that I'd say the gloves could come off if that's the route you want to go.

In countries where unions do work, that is another door to go search for help.

> In countries where unions do work, that is another door to go search for help.

That assumes your union rep is inclined to help you. In practice (not principle), they have the same incentives as the other managers and HR do in this story. The union rep could decide that the harasser is more important to their union, politically, than you are, and decide not to take action.

Plus, the union can simply terminate your membership as retaliation. For a closed shop, that's equivalent to firing you, but without many of the legal protections that come against wrongful termination.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#40

>Ms. Fowler’s account is another sign of Silicon Valley’s struggle with women’s issues and diversity in a male-dominated engineering environment. That's a hell of a claim since this is a "typical corporate America" type of problem.

Well there are some typical corporate American companies that have this problem. But I would argue that (almost?) all tech companies have this problem.

Typical business problem around the world.
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