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I am an Uber survivor

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Re: I am an Uber survivor

#461

Post by kpwagner »

Is a "ubersurvivor" hashtag really what's needed?

WARNING: this comment is not a safe place and contains my opinions.

Victim praising will do nothing to change Uber's behavior. Expecting Uber to change anything as the result of your words is a fools errand. The more likely outcome is Uber will only harden it's shell. Do you expect one of the most highly praised startups of the last decade to suddenly find religion and say, "oh we were wrong, you are all right? (and actually mean it)"?

People vote with their feet (Milton Friedman). Talk is cheap (Fat Tony). If you want to start a revolution, don't try to change others, change yourself (Jordan Peterson).

Uber is suffering for its transgressions in the form of talent loss. Susan Fowler indicated the number of female engineers at Uber significantly reduced during her time there. The nice thing about employment at will is that it works both ways. It's scary to leave a high-profile high-status job and go into the unknown; it's also a very powerful action.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#462

Post by lr4444lr »

enraged_camel wrote: post #404
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…

She posted anonymously, BUT also went out of her way to provide an awful lot of information about herself. Information that her ex-coworkers could presumably verify and figure out her real identity (especially since Uber seems to have very few women in engineering positions). Based on the article, she is: 1) A woman in her late 20s 2) who used to work at Uber in Engineering working on database and networking scalabil…

But the OP's point stands generally: If this were a smear campaign by a competing company, how different would it look?

I sympathize greatly with Ms. Fowler not least because she put her reputation out there and claimed to have documentation of the specific offenses, which a decently respectable journalism outfit like the NYTimes could fact-check. Fowler's story could be exaggerated, but I have reasonable doubt that it's true, or true enough to merit scorn toward Uber.

As inexcusable as this "Amy"'s story is if true, we have to keep our heads and recognize when we have a falsifiability problem on our hands with the current facts.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#463

Post by bigiain »

CodeSheikh wrote: post #96

A very sad read. Uber is in deep ethical trouble recently. Postpone that IPO plan guys. Would not it be better if HR of your company can be managed by some third party with 100% transparency?

"Recently"? They're in deep public relations trouble recently. They've been ethically reprehensible for ever.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#464

Post by gmarx »

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…

One doesn't retain Eric Holder to investigate. When a company has a race problem they pay a high profile member of that race some dough to appear to set things right. Does anyone know of such a case in which things were actually set right? I'm willing to believe that I've never heard the story because it's boring news, but still

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#465

Post by revscat »

nanolith wrote: post #317
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…

If I saw a manager do what she described, no matter how high up the food chain he was, I'd frog march him to HR myself. I don't even care if they fire me for it. We don't tolerate stuff like this in this century.

Have you seen who is President these days?

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#466

Post by prophetjohn »

Arizhel wrote: post #359
matthewmacleod wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the problem is that most men in tech these days are "brogrammers" who approve of this behavior and engage in it themselves. Citation needed. I haven't yet, in a decade in the tech industry, worked with anybody who would act in this way, to the best of my knowledge. That said, I work in London and not SV, so I can't say if the culture is different. I know for a fact that it wouldn't be tolerated for a second…

>That said, I work in London and not SV, so I can't say if the culture is different. Yeah, that's your problem right there. I probably should have specified that this is largely a SV/USA problem. The work culture in the UK is very different from over here. Even here in the US, it's rather different by region; I don't think it's remotely as bad on the east coast.

Never seen anything like this in NYC

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#467

Post by santaclaus »

Arizhel wrote: post #359
matthewmacleod wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the problem is that most men in tech these days are "brogrammers" who approve of this behavior and engage in it themselves. Citation needed. I haven't yet, in a decade in the tech industry, worked with anybody who would act in this way, to the best of my knowledge. That said, I work in London and not SV, so I can't say if the culture is different. I know for a fact that it wouldn't be tolerated for a second…

>That said, I work in London and not SV, so I can't say if the culture is different. Yeah, that's your problem right there. I probably should have specified that this is largely a SV/USA problem. The work culture in the UK is very different from over here. Even here in the US, it's rather different by region; I don't think it's remotely as bad on the east coast.

I currently work in tech in the (east) bay, formerly in NYC, and have yet to encounter these frat types in technical roles.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#468

Post by FireBeyond »

stale2002 wrote: post #414
favorited wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Future Amy's should always be prepared to start recording at a moment's notice It's not always that simple. California is a 2-party consent state. INAL, but my understanding is that a private conversation (in a non-public place) means all parties have an expectation of privacy, which makes recording that conversation without the consent of all parties a felony. Presumably, getting consent from your harasser to reco…

What are they going to do? Sue you? This stuff is hard to prosecute. And if they start prosecuting... well... then their sexual harassment behavior will be made public.

Unfortunately, as but one option, yes.

Assuming it gets to that. Your tape won't see the light of the courtroom because it'll be ruled inadmissible (fruits of the poisoned tree).

It'll be sealed by the court over the felony hearing because it contains statements that could be materially damaging to be released (that the person said them is not in question, unfortunately, more their 'expectations', right or wrong, when they said them). Won't get out that way.

Oops. They got leaked, overtly or covertly? During one of those trials? Look forward to contempt proceedings.

After the trial, look forward to defamation proceedings.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#469

Post by mememachine »

eropple wrote: post #459
mememachine wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Do i believe what you quoted? Obviously. You'll have to explain to me how what you quoted is even remotely controversial.

Do I disagree with this?

>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.

Not at all. Your indication that I do is still dishonest, and I think anyone whos reasonable would find your behavior wholly worse than mine.

Also, gross? How was anything I said remotely gross? Maybe you should take a step back yourself, because it seems your response is based on what you imagine i believe rather than anything I said.

Re: I am an Uber survivor

#470

Post by iaml »

cosinetau wrote: post #118

You can delete your Uber account here: https://help.uber.com/h/24010fe7-7a67-4ee5-9938-c734000b144a

After reading the original blog post I went to remove my account from the app. It asked to provide always on access to location and when I refused I couldn't even reach app's menu. I removed the app and used the same link you provided to remove my account, and mentioned my experience in the comment section. Now they sent me an email saying that my account is still active and they'll fix the app. The fact that process of closing my account is not a single button press and is taking me more than two days is beyond ridiculous and infuriating to be honest.
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