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I am an Uber survivor

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Re: I am an Uber survivor

#181

Post by sidlls »

Some of the responses to that article express a sentiment that women should fight back and not just silently take it.

I wonder (doubt) if they've ever been abused. It's hard for someone who has been abused to come forward, let alone stand up to an abuser.

Besides, men outnumber women in tech by a very large margin. It's on our shoulders to help women fight back. Strength in numbers is a thing, and having men who speak up on their own, and who support and reinforce women who come forward can only a be a good thing.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#182

Post by wyldfire »

aylmao wrote: post #52
wyldfire wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The front pageness is a function of the credibility and interestingness of the articles posted. HN is not journalism, it's a water cooler. There's some rules for decorum but little to no editorial function.

> The front pageness is a function of the credibility and interestingness of the articles posted. did you mean to say "is not"?

No, I meant "is". Though, to clarify, I meant credibility-in-the-eye-of-the-upvoter.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#183

Post by uptownfunk »

leggomylibro wrote: post #132

>Travis is well known to protect high performing team leaders no matter how abusive they are towards their employees. The HR team was known to be deftly[sic] afraid of Travis’s tendency to blame and ridicule the women and yell at HR whenever they went in with complaints of abuse. I heard about Travis personally congratulating Mike#2 for meeting strict deadlines months after I complained to HR about my abuse. This is…

Maybe I've watched too much Suits and The Good Wife, but it just seems that it's all futile. They're a huge corp, if you file suit against them they'll hit back harder with bigger and badder lawyers, and you either settle out of court, or play the lotto with the court system and try your hand at a judgement with whatever lawyers you can afford. It's really sad how stacked the odds seem.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#184

Post by spcelzrd »

dba7dba wrote: post #169

I would NEVER EVER approach HR department of corporate America for anything except for maybe asking for a tissue box at my desk. For those young enough to be thinking about approaching HR for issues as nefarious as this, well, now you know.

I disagree with this. Most HR departments are functional and would take care of this problem. If you approach HR and they are unhelpful or place the blame on you, it's time to switch jobs, if possible.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#185

Post by gcr »

vkou wrote: post #83
nappy-doo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> H/R ACTS AND WILL ALWAYS ACT IN THE COMPANY'S BEST INTERESTS. NOT YOURS. You're right, and here's the thing. It seems both women who've come forward would have open-and-shut cases against Uber for multi-millions in damages. It's surprising to me that neither have pursued Uber in this regard. Similarly, it's surprising to me that Uber HR hasn't done the mental calculus to figure out that these women have a solid cas…

> It's surprising to me that neither have pursued Uber in this regard. Reasons to pursue sexual harassment litigation: * You may make some money. Reasons to not pursue sexual harassment litigation: * You will have to devote an enormous amount of money, time, energy, health, and your emotional well-being. * Your lawyers will take half the settlement, either in up front fees, or as a portion of the bounty. * You will g…

Important other reason to pursue sexual harassment litigation:

* It gives other survivors a statement of solidarity and validates their experiences. It says that other survivors really weren't crazy; that others had this experience too. For someone who's left doubting their sanity after an incident like this happened, this kind of support is immensely powerful.

* It forces these incidents to be drawn into the eyes of the public.

Uber's rotten culture is only getting attention because someone spoke up.

I see all the negatives you mentioned as failures of our litigation-after-sexual-harassment model that we should seek to address. There's nothing that says we should make barriers to litigation and cost of failure so high.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#186

Post by sounds »

reledi wrote: post #134

Amy, many people believe your story. But based on the flags this story is getting, many don't, at least not yet. Is there any way you can verify the authenticity of your story without losing your anonymity to the public? For example, would Susan be able to verify you as an ex-employee?

Amy, I believe your story because it is a second independent set of events that closely parallels Susan's story.

You do not need to suffer more indignity by "being outed."

Best of luck!

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#187

Post by rubicon33 »

I assume (and have some anecdotal proof) that this type of stuff happens with regularity in other "older" industries. Go to any law office and you'll find women with horrifying stories.

Kudos to the tech community, the majority of whom, don't accept this type of reprehensible behavior.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#188

Post by slurple »

sidlls wrote: post #181

Some of the responses to that article express a sentiment that women should fight back and not just silently take it. I wonder (doubt) if they've ever been abused. It's hard for someone who has been abused to come forward, let alone stand up to an abuser. Besides, men outnumber women in tech by a very large margin. It's on our shoulders to help women fight back. Strength in numbers is a thing, and having men who spea…

The best way for men to counter this in a toxic environment is to call it out when they see it. This sends a message that being outwardly dehumanizing and dismissive is not okay, and is not the accepted norm.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#189

Post by ubercore »

_xhok wrote: post #176
ubercore wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty typical male privilege to enter this discussion to say "Nope, don't believe it, because it sounds unreasonable to me". It has a chilling effect. There's obviously no way to be sure of the story, but the speed with which people just presume it's fake speaks the overall lack of understanding of sexual harassment in the workplace. It's willfully ignorant to make that the basis for a discussion on this articl…

As it happens, I disagree with mjolk on this, in that I'm inclined from my experience to find Amy's story pretty believable. However, HN has lost its mind if merely saying you don't believe a story is now flag-worthy. Why should the odiousness of a claim influence our evaluation of whether or not it's true?

Fair point. I think discussion is the best response. TBH, I don't really understand the HN flag system, so I can't comment very much on it.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#190

Post by jimbokun »

sidlls wrote: post #181

Some of the responses to that article express a sentiment that women should fight back and not just silently take it. I wonder (doubt) if they've ever been abused. It's hard for someone who has been abused to come forward, let alone stand up to an abuser. Besides, men outnumber women in tech by a very large margin. It's on our shoulders to help women fight back. Strength in numbers is a thing, and having men who spea…

She did fight back, told HR about what was happening, stood up to the abusers in meetings. Then when she was physically handled and verbally threatened in a meeting with many eye witnesses, nothing was done to support her or protect her.

What else do they expect her to do? Bring a weapon to work and shoot everyone?

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