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Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

nytimes.com

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Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#71

Post by tomlock »

sychophant wrote: post #23

I see nothing wrong with the manager's behavior. Given: ------ - The manager indirectly fished for mutual sexual interest with a subordinate. - Managers and subordinates engage in workplace relationships across the country and the world. They all start with a "proposition" of one kind or another. Only when a manager is shown to abuse their power in support of a personal agenda should there be damages imposed. Not sim…

>Some of the women even had stories about reporting the exact same manager I had reported, and had reported inappropriate interactions with him long before I had even joined the company. It became obvious that both HR and management had been lying about this being "his first offense", and it certainly wasn't his last. Within a few months, he was reported once again for inappropriate behavior, and those who reported him were told it was still his "first offense". The situation was escalated as far up the chain as it could be escalated, and still nothing was done.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#72

Post by LandoCalrissian »

sychophant wrote: post #23

I see nothing wrong with the manager's behavior. Given: ------ - The manager indirectly fished for mutual sexual interest with a subordinate. - Managers and subordinates engage in workplace relationships across the country and the world. They all start with a "proposition" of one kind or another. Only when a manager is shown to abuse their power in support of a personal agenda should there be damages imposed. Not sim…

I don't think you understand what sexual harassment is then. I hope you take a closer look at this, because this is beyond acceptable workplace behavior.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#73

Post by [deleted] »

sychophant wrote: post #23

I see nothing wrong with the manager's behavior. Given: ------ - The manager indirectly fished for mutual sexual interest with a subordinate. - Managers and subordinates engage in workplace relationships across the country and the world. They all start with a "proposition" of one kind or another. Only when a manager is shown to abuse their power in support of a personal agenda should there be damages imposed. Not sim…

[deleted]

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#74

Post by searealist »

rockshassa wrote: post #56
searealist wrote: post #45

I have a hard time believing HR really behaved the way they are portrayed in that article. They really claimed that if she elected to stay in her current department she should expect to receive a negative review from the boss she rejected for a sexual relationship? This is just too much. And for someone as savvy and with as large an internet presence as the author, I can't imagine she would accept this resolution. Th…

HR could totally act in the way the article describes. They exist to protect the interests of the organization, and to minimize boat-rocking. It would be easy for HR to dismiss her claims in the very same way that you are. Before we start down the path of victim-blaming, lets at least consider the possibility her claims are valid.

Telling a victim that they should expect to be abused further (in the form of a negative review) does not minimize boat rocking or protect the interests of the organization. It leaves them open to lawsuits and antagonizes the victim into further action. And if it was true that they were protecting the manager because he was high-performing, why would you make this explicit. It just makes no sense and reeks of one side of a story.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#75

Post by justonepost »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #17

I wonder how much impact this will have. If they will discipline and fire people and put processes in place to keep the problem fixed, or if they will make a lot of noise about investigation and saying how terrible they feel and not have anything change. Someone here once asked me how I differentiated between a corporation run by people and a corporation structured as an institution. In the latter there are processes…

It will have impact. It won't move the needle 100% across the industry, but I can see a 5% movement. Well done Susan if she doesn't sue.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#76

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #36
gkoberger wrote: post #19

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.

Agreed. The "HR is not your friend" trope gets thrown out a lot, but in cases where your goals align with the company's (i.e. you don't want to get harassed, and the company doesn't want to get sued), HR is the place you should be able to go.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#77

Post by pjmlp »

chimeracoder wrote: post #37
pjmlp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

Which is why I added the remark "do work", not when they are just yet another way to take vacations.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#78

Post by Gatsky »

aisofteng wrote: post #60

> If they will discipline and fire people and put processes in place to keep the problem fixed You're assuming that that allegations are true. They have been neither proven nor corroborated, and the author advertises her book in her post. Edit: This comment has gone strongly negative in the matter of minutes. I offered no opinion and only stated fact; either there is vote manipulation on HN, or at least some portion…

It is valid to point out that the allegations are not corroborated. To suggest that the author invented a sexual harassment fantasy to advertise her book is however quite crazy.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#79

Post by camdenlock »

sychophant wrote: post #23

I see nothing wrong with the manager's behavior. Given: ------ - The manager indirectly fished for mutual sexual interest with a subordinate. - Managers and subordinates engage in workplace relationships across the country and the world. They all start with a "proposition" of one kind or another. Only when a manager is shown to abuse their power in support of a personal agenda should there be damages imposed. Not sim…

It's pretty sad that this comment is being flagged into /dev/null. The points are at least thoughtfully constructed and deserve proper responses from those who disagree, not just knee-jerk slamming of the flag button. Conversation is all we have. Let's make use of it.

Re: Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee

#80

Post by sarcasmdevil »

sychophant wrote: post #23

I see nothing wrong with the manager's behavior. Given: ------ - The manager indirectly fished for mutual sexual interest with a subordinate. - Managers and subordinates engage in workplace relationships across the country and the world. They all start with a "proposition" of one kind or another. Only when a manager is shown to abuse their power in support of a personal agenda should there be damages imposed. Not sim…

Common sense. Absolutely agree. If a woman flirts with me I dont go printing screenshots of the Google Chat and run to HR. I see no abuse of power by said manager at the point of expressing an interest. The rest, well that is odd way for HR to handle it I accept, if that is actually what happened - we need to hear the other side of the story.

This is like red bull for diversity and inclusion directors though.

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