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I am an Uber survivor

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Re: I am an Uber survivor

#251

Post by mcmoose75 »

tyre wrote: post #210

I'm really happy she felt comfortable doing this. What an incredibly brave and strong person—I can't imagine what she must be feeling. What I really want to see is the other 20 men on her team tell their bosses to cut that shit out. We cannot rely on the abused to stand up for themselves; for every one who does there are thousands who cannot. It is on every one of us to report abhorrent behaviour, even if we think so…

A good deal of this is the entire system of control Uber has (or really, hasn't) implemented here.

We already know that managers at Uber use reviews to punish those on their team that are at all critical of them (especially for ethic issues). The "20 men on her team", even if they did want to say something, could reasonably expect to have their careers (and potentially a material amount of Uber stock vesting) impacted by standing up.

That's not to say that these men couldn't have or shouldn't have stood up, but they would've had to take some amount of risk to do so. In a company with better controls, these men would've felt comfortable criticizing this manager (and confident that they weren't endangering their careers or financial well-being by doing so).

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#252

Post by jhgaylor »

virtuexru wrote: post #213

> My paycheck is 18% less than my less qualified male colleagues. I stopped reading here.

Why? The pay gap is real and was nearly an aside in the article. This article is about a woman being mistreated by men in tech. This comment seems to be as well.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#253

Post by ryandrake »

geofft wrote: post #200
btilly wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm one of the flaggers. This is an entirely anonymous complaint with no particular reason why anyone would believe it. A lot of it read to me as too perfect. Too designed to hit all of the right buttons to generate outrage. I won't deny that it could be true. But I'd also give that possibility under even odds. And if stories like this are true, then we'll likely have enough opportunity to learn that later to give th…

I don't think that's an appropriate use of flag: > Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think a story is spam or off-topic, flag it by clicking on its 'flag' link. If you think a comment is egregious, click on its timestamp to go to its page, then click 'flag' at the top. The story is not spam, not off-topic, and has a good chance of being non-egregious. It'…

It might not technically break any HN rules, but it's kind of saddening to see what's so far an anonymous accusation it make it so deep into the front page.

Combined with the other recent bad press Uber's getting, it's admittedly not looking good for them, but on the other hand any of us _could_ have signed up for Medium and published an article like this.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#254

Post by mememachine »

>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.

If they dont stand up for themselves on any level, then they simply arent being abused i dont believe. If you cant express your own discomfort, its not anyone but your fault youre uncomfortable. This is a hard truth.

(copied from my other comment in this thread)

I'll give you a clear example. Suppose you have a pattern of behavior around me that offends and discomforts me. If I speak out, and complain, and you continue, you are probably being abusive (although not necessarily.) On the otherhand, if I make no attempt to express my discomfort in any way (doesnt mean verbal, could be anything), then the fault lies with ME, the supposed victim. I can't blame somebody for failing to read my mind. And this is the problem with professional victims.

Personally, the uber story absolutely did not read that way. The issue is with people in these comments making overly broad claims.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#255

Post by _xhok »

ubercore wrote: post #217
_xhok wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanting evidence is privileged? Is everything but complete credulity now considered "privileged?" She doesn't have to, but putting it that way, people don't have to believe her. Has the word "privileged" so lost all meaning that it's privileged to merely want evidence? I reject that I'm somehow contributing to an oppressive patriarchy by wanting claims to be substantiated in the post-Enlightenment way: with proof. Pe…

I hear you re: evidence. My point being, we're not in a courtroom, the bar for evidence is difference. I personally think it's worth calling out that the viewpoint being echoed that "Sounds absurd, don't believe" is a problematic one. I don't deny anyone wanting evidence that opinion, but I think it's also really easy for someone with the privilege of not having to deal with the things women in the tech workplace hav…

Fair enough, and further to your point, apparently men do react with disproportionately more shock than women in response to stories like these.

I think your point would've been better made if you'd written this comment first, instead of the privilege thing.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#256

Post by EpicEng »

snappy173 wrote: post #178
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…

>"Great, retain a Chicago politician so you know you'll get the answer you're paying for." right. regardless of where you stand on his performance as attorney general, hiring eric holder is a political move. if uber actually cared about investigating this, they wouldn't have hired a politician.

Eric Holder was AG. AG is not a political office, and he's not a politician. What you should be concerned with is the fact that he was associated with them previously and is a proponent of theirs.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#257

Post by jastingo »

I'm not in the business of defending Uber - quite the contrary - but reading through the comments it seems that most people are assuming that this post by an anonymous person is 100% true.

These types of posts are worrying to me. Why could this post not have been crafted by someone at Lyft? Or one of Uber's many other detractors? Given the PR nightmare that Uber is in why not pile on while the public seems primed for that type of information and stretch out the negative news cycle?

Just thought I'd throw out a word of caution: we know literally nothing about the credibility of this person.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#258

Post by mememachine »

If its clearly abusive and discomforting, of course. But often times the problem is the "victim".

I'll give you a clear example. Suppose you have a pattern of behavior around me that offends and discomforts me. If I speak out, and complain, and you continue, you are probably being abusive (although not necessarily.) On the otherhand, if I make no attempt to express my discomfort in any way (doesnt mean verbal, could be anything), then the fault lies with ME, the supposed victim. I can't blame somebody for failing to read my mind. And this is the problem with professional victims.

Personally, the uber story absolutely did not read that way. The issue is with people in these comments making overly broad claims.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#259

Post by einars »

mi100hael wrote: post #125

> I remember how the interviewers constantly tried to trigger me and insulted my intelligence to see if I break under pressure. What the fuck? I'd walk and never entertain an offer from a company that spent the interview insulting and provoking me. Who would be stoked to get an offer after an experience like that, much less accept it??

Have you not been in a stressful technical interview situation? I have even heard of people doing this on purpose to weed out people who don't "perform under pressure".

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#260

Post by spaceflunky »

brianpgordon wrote: post #215
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…

Eric Holder certainly does already have an existing business relationship with Uber- http://bigstory.ap.org/article/01685274cc944196af9016ad0a875...

Is it just me or are other people also constantly surprised by how many big names have their hands in the 'uber pot'?

It's like there's a massive list of investors and shareholders who are all riding this "sure thing" to big riches. Which makes me wonder two things: 1.) is uber too big too fail? are there so many rich and powerful people invested that they will make uber succeed no matter or 2.) this thing could be the biggest investor flop in recent memory.

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