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I am an Uber survivor

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Re: I am an Uber survivor

#341

Post by Arizhel »

MaxfordAndSons wrote: post #65
joezydeco wrote: post #28

"In essence, the HR department blackmailed me that if I make noise, I’d be fired. I was distraught by the HR department’s response especially considering that most of the HR folks I dealt with were women." Say it over and over, say it loud, and say it to every single person entering the US workforce from day one: H/R ACTS AND WILL ALWAYS ACT IN THE COMPANY'S BEST INTERESTS. NOT YOURS. Amy's situation was grave, and k…

The genius of labeling it "human resources" just struck me. As an employee (and human) it seems reasonable to interpret it as "resources for humans" and thus assume it would be there to help. But its true meaning, to execs/stakeholders/corporate persons, is "[the department which manages the] human resources".

>As an employee (and human) it seems reasonable to interpret it as "resources for humans" and thus assume it would be there to help.

Where'd you ever get that crazy idea?

>But its true meaning, to execs/stakeholders/corporate persons, is "[the department which manages the] human resources".

Not exactly. The true meaning is "the department which works to exploit the human resources as much as possible".

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#342

Post by Jemmeh »

31reasons wrote: post #105
Jemmeh wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber is huge, it's recognizable, it's got interesting problems. Susan Fowler even wrote a bestselling book related to some of her work there. You get to work with a lot of smart people. That's a lot of motivation to try to stay despite bad things happening. It's easy to say in hindsight how bad it was, but I'd say most people want to try to do a good job and will expect some problems that they will just "have to deal…

She wrote: "Even though I don’t work at Uber any longer, the damage that was done to me by Uber’s work environment ruined my spirit." you have stay until they kill your spirit just because Uber is a cool company? I can imagine people keep staying there if they have to feed their hungry children and pay mortgage in a very bad economy, but not just because its a "Cool" company.

Like I said hindsight is also the issue here.

It's easy to look back and say "Oh this is a bad company" but as it's happening it's easy to say "Oh this just happened once." or "Maybe it's me." or "Well Mike sucks, but I can deal with it, it's not that big of a deal, and there's a lot of benefits to staying like fulfilling work and being able to work with great minds. I've learned a lot from my other coworkers." or "Maybe I can change things, maybe things will get better." or "I can resolve this if I keep working with HR, it will be fixed soon."

Not-Amy said it was exhilarating the first 2 months, if overly hard work. In a company of that size, I too would totally expect working with HR to be the fix, as it usually is. I mean do you quit your job the instant you have a shitty coworker? I too would try to resolve my issues first internally first. Because that usually works. When that didn't work, she quit and rightly called them out on being ridiculous.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#343

Post by Kiro »

user5994461 wrote: post #84

> It was normal for me to get to work at 7 in the morning and leave late at night with only a thirty minute break in between. Yep, sounds like a bad place to work. Just a reminder that you can change jobs after 6 months in the valley, there is really no need to put up with that or wait for evil managers to make the place hell.

> Just a reminder that you can change jobs after 6 months in the valley

What does this mean?

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#344

Post by Cofike »

user5994461 wrote: post #170
Cofike wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that the acceptable minimum there? Like the two years in other areas?

Yes. Especially when you are young.

Hmmm, good to know thanks. I'm planning on heading over there for a while and I wasn't sure what the general attitude was towards employees leaving after 0.5/1/2 years.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#346

Post by legostormtroopr »

jhgaylor wrote: post #252
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.

Because if true and provable, this is a federal case that she can sue over and win.

In reality the wage gap is rarely as cut and dry as "women get paid less than men for the same jobs".

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#347

Post by jimmywanger »

cyberpunk wrote: post #286
soheil wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am trying to verify its legitimacy, how can you silently accept such a critical post on face-value, no I don't work there. Giving voice to false claims intensifies their illegitimate power and in societies that this prevails that same power can be used by propagandists to advance their goal, so it's not about Uber it's about giving homage to truth, as every person's responsibility should be.

I've not accepted it as genuine at all; I'm saying that regardless of if it's real or not, the point here is that if it was it wouldn't surprise us.. I'd really really like it if we could get to the point where if stories like this came out for any company, we would be more surprised by them.. As for the illegitimate power (I'm not even sure what that is...) and propagandists comments; I don't really see how this fit…

> As a general trend in tech that I've certainly experienced

What do you mean by that? Do you mean you've experienced an upswing in these incidents, or an upswing in the number of news stories about these sorts of incidents?

There are numerous incidents where broad media coverage of unsubstantiated claims cause public outrage over exaggerated incidents. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_controver... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-care_sex-abuse_hysteria for examples.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#348

Post by eropple »

mememachine wrote: post #254

>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 cl…

If one is so utterly devoid of empathy as to be unable to pick up when they are making others (caveat: unnecessarily) uncomfortable--which is to say that an uncomfortable conversation about job performance is different in kind from being a shithead sexist--then they should be nowhere near a position of authority in the first place.

This victim-blaming nonsense should end, pronto.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#349

Post by joatmon-snoo »

gcr wrote: post #185
vkou wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> There's nothing that says we should make barriers to litigation and cost of failure so high.

Who said anything about "should"? The fact is that the barriers are that high.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#350

Post by eropple »

jastingo wrote: post #257

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…

To be frank? Uber gets the benefit of the doubt when they demonstrate that they've earned it. Every bit of smoke I have seen, both online and in my social circles, has had fire behind it. Every one, without exception.

So I'm going to believe this until I have a compelling reason not to, and "but it could be fake" isn't one.

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