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I am an Uber survivor

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Re: I am an Uber survivor

#451
post #313

Are there any female Uber employees on HN? I wonder what they think about a) the veracity of this claim and b) why they are sticking with Uber.

What do _you_ think about "the veracity of this claim"? Is there really _any_ doubt in your mind about Uber's management and culture? Seriously?

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is far from unheard of for someone to kill themselves in these situations. Also, still working in the industry could be considered surviving and someone who left the industry due to this treatment could be considered someone who didn't survive. So i'd say survivor fits perfectly.

Committing suicide over something like this seems a bit extreme. Don't want to trivialize her suffering, or the gravity of what happened, but infantilizing people also doesn't help in making them stronger. Of course it's not up to me to decide when committing suicide makes sense (does it ever?), but this is the issue I see with the word "survivor": it seems to want to portray what happened in terms of a life threaten…

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Re: I am an Uber survivor

#453

>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.

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Re: I am an Uber survivor

#454
post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are clearly cases in which attempting to stand up to abusive behaviour has the potential to cause more problems (at the very least in the short term) than by staying silent You seem to be confusing "standing up to abuse" and "indicating that behavior is abusive." The second is very risk-free and what I demand from anyone who wants to call themselves a victim. Again, it doesnt have to be verbal. But if youre ma…

You say people should indicate when behavior is inappropriate. Notice the disagreement and downvotes. That's telling you your behavior is inappropriate. Perhaps you should reconsider your position on the issue.

So is your comment basically suggesting that I'm autistic?

I'm fairly certain I have no respect for the people who are downvoting me. And when you suggest I should adjust my opinion because its unpopular, obviously no one has respect for you.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#455
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It's not an independent investigation if you hire the investigators.

Who else could hire the investigators? It's a tricky problem, but ultimately you rely on the investigators caring more about their reputation than any one contract. If it gets out that firm X doesn't do objective reviews, then future companies in hot water won't hire them. The real challenge here is that these investigators are not independent. Eric Holder has done prior work on behalf of Uber, which means he could r…

With a functional regulatory framework, you wouldn't need private entities handling this; public ones could.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#456
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…

What specifically is the move forward here, though? I suppose hn as a community has the power to boycott applying to the company, but how else can we drive internal change from an external position? Uninstalling the app and simply choosing to use a competitor's services are another option, but sapping the entire organization of revenue seems like it would hurt drivers and developers at least as much as management, if…

i think public pressure of the board of directors is the right approach here:

Shervin Pishevar, John Gurley, David Bonderman, David Drummond, Arianna Huffington, Garrett Camp, Ryan Graves

some of these people have reputations that are worth more than their stake in uber. the desire to uphold their reputations may be enough to get them to truly act on this matter.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#458
post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If they dont stand up for themselves on any level, then they simply arent being abused" This is, hands down, the worst take ever.

Care to explain? If your "explanation" is just dramatic grandstanding, ill be disappointed.

Some behaviors are generally considered unethical, regardless of whether a victim complains. If you murder someone, that's (generally) unethical, even if the victim's family doesn't seem to mind. Saying the victim was too apathetic to care will not change the verdict.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is unethical, even if the (wo)man pretends to like it.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No it shouldnt, because its not nonsense, instead youve responded to a strawman. Thats ok. Its a shame though. To be clear, youve said a bunch of things nobody would disagree with, as though i disagree with them. Its pretty dishonest of you.

> If you cant express your own discomfort, its not anyone but your fault youre uncomfortable.

Forgive me if I don't buy your bleats of "strawman". You not only believe it, but you believe it so much you wished to express it in probably the grossest way I've seen somebody express an idea around here who wasn't literally advocating "race realism".

It is always the asshole's fault for being an asshole and making others uncomfortable. It is no one's responsibility but their own. Put this victim-blaming nonsense back in some dark hole where it belongs.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#460

Seems to me there are 4 issues here: 1. Racism. Not okay. Fire him. 2. Sexist behavior Not okay. Warn and then fire him. 3. Working people hard That's okay. I was made to work hard. Long days no breaks hard deadlines. That's the world we live in. 4. How this affected her I'm sorry she went through this and it's not okay. How she chooses to feel and deal with this are under her control. She shouldn't have perpetuated…

1,2. Why is racism considered a fireable offense, but sexism they should get a warning first? Either give them a warning on both or fire on both. 3. I think many would argue that we shouldn't have to live in a world where long days with no breaks is the accepted standard. I've worked that way, 10 hour days, 6-7 days a week, it's not sustainable and leads to burnout, poor quality work, and grumpy employees.

I think you are right on the first part. I don't view racism and sexism as exactly the same type of thing. Racism is just evil, and sexism is sometimes just ignorance (he hits on her and doesn't know it's not wanted). But, same ignorance could be argued for racism, even though I think it's different. I dont think uber wants or cares for my opinion, but if it's beyond the pale, in both case, fire on first offense. Else, one warning and then out.

Your second paragraph suggests an ideal that we should aspire to but it's not the reality for startups and high growth industries. If we seek out this part of this industry we shouldn't bellyache about the hours.

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