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A profound apology

newsroom.uber.com

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Re: A profound apology

#321

Post by cmdrfred »

cylinder wrote: post #306
synicalx wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should he have to apologise for this? This is normal 'robust' conversation between an employer and an employee who have a disagreement. The driver is apparently bankrupt (well done), so I would not be at all surprised if he deliberately tried to bait Travis into this conversation so he'd have a story to sell. At the end of the Bloomberg article where this surfaced, they noted that the driver got 1 Star for that r…

You one of those who never ever talks to their Uber drivers? Talk to them sometime. Here in NYC, it's their full time gig, requires TLC license and expensive commercial insurance paid upfront. Not to mention the car which is financed. People take a big risk investing in Uber driving and they get lured with deceptive ads promising "guaranteed income" they can't actually attain. The money the drivers are making is an a…

> People relied on Uber

For future reference, that is always a bad idea no matter what the company.

Re: A profound apology

#322

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #131
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name some.

You. 10 years from now. Mark my words, remember this comment, come back here and tell me if you've changed.

I don't doubt I will change, but his or her comment was implying people can radically change and do a complete 180. In my experience in life so far, that almost never happens and I was asking for famous examples.

Re: A profound apology

#323

Post by dominotw »

Uber needs to stop playing this game. They need to be quite and let the courts/legal system deal with any issues. 99.99% of people don't give a shit about any of this and people have really really short memory.

Someone is giving them bad PR advice.

Re: A profound apology

#324

Post by crimsonalucard »

chasing wrote: post #159
crimsonalucard wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being an ass hole is sometimes an effective form of leadership. This event may be a datapoint FOR keeping him as a leader. Steve Jobs was an ass hole.

Don't confuse someone being successful because they're an asshole with someone being successful despite being an asshole.

Part of Steve Jobs success was attributed to the fact that he was an asshole not despite of it. Read his biography.

Re: A profound apology

#325

Post by crimsonalucard »

remarkEon wrote: post #163
crimsonalucard wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being an ass hole is sometimes an effective form of leadership. This event may be a datapoint FOR keeping him as a leader. Steve Jobs was an ass hole.

Travis Kalanick is not Steve Jobs.

Never said he was.

Re: A profound apology

#326

Post by smdz »

> By now I’m sure you’ve seen the video where I treated an Uber driver disrespectfully. To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement. My job as your leader is to lead…and that starts with behaving in a way that makes us all proud. That is not what I did, and it cannot be explained away. > It’s clear this video is a reflection of me—and the criticism we’ve received is a stark reminder that I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up....

I watched the video 3 times, and did not find anything wrong with the CEO's behavior. And don't understand why the CEO should be issuing any apology at all for this video.

He was explaining the situation politely. Its when the driver started placing his $97K bankruptcy charge on the CEO - the CEO lost his cool.

If the CEO is contemplating changing this polite no-nonsense behavior -investors should be very concerned

EDIT: I came across this interesting comment from gpawl, somewhere down this thread

>>> It's a good tactic -- blow off all the worse things you do, then apologize for the one time you weren't at fault, people notice and give you sympathy, and start to forget those worse things.

Re: A profound apology

#327

Post by tyingq »

crazy2be wrote: post #255
nstj wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any evidence provided that the per-mile amount paid to drivers of Uber Black cars has gone down? I saw the article mention that the price to customers has gone down from $4.90 to $3.75, but is there any evidence of this actually flowing through to the drivers? Just a thought.

Actually, this is a good point. Uber subsidizes fares ~20% or so currently. Assuming they didn't used to do this, the payout to drivers seems like it would be about the same: 3.75 / 0.8 => 4.6875 (vs $4.90 originally) The per-minute fees are still quite a bit lower, admittedly: 0.65 / 0.8 => 0.8125 (vs $1.25 originally)

There's also the move where Uber Black drivers are forced to take Uber X fares. Refusing pickups has consequences after a certain number. In that case, the driver is certainly being paid less.

https://pando.com/2014/09/04/uber-continues-to-screw-its-par...

I think it's a valid complaint. He invested in the car based on a business model that changed underneath him. Uber may not be legally liable for that, and may have had valid reasons, but it still sucks. I would want to vent as well.

Re: A profound apology

#328

Post by mi100hael »

jhayward wrote: post #272
gingerbread-man wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Fowler post is grounds for questioning Kalanick's leadership; this just shows that he's not in PR mode 24/7. Being kind-of-a-dick is tolerable, as long as you're good at your job. The bigger leadership issue is that he can't seem to maintain happy drivers (or employees.)

> Being kind-of-a-dick is tolerable, as long as you're good at your job It's hard to believe someone would say this today. It seems you missed the whole point of the "but he's a high performer" excuse that Uber has (allegedly) been making when not addressing harassment and worse.

I think there's a difference in being "kind of a dick" and criminal discrimination and harassment.

Re: A profound apology

#329

Post by alimoeeny »

This looks to me as if Uber wants to say we are so sensitive to be fair and honest that even for such a minor thing CEO publicly apologizes. Imagine what we do with real problems like sexual harassment in the office.

Re: A profound apology

#330

Post by burkaman »

cmdrfred wrote: post #321
cylinder wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You one of those who never ever talks to their Uber drivers? Talk to them sometime. Here in NYC, it's their full time gig, requires TLC license and expensive commercial insurance paid upfront. Not to mention the car which is financed. People take a big risk investing in Uber driving and they get lured with deceptive ads promising "guaranteed income" they can't actually attain. The money the drivers are making is an a…

> People relied on Uber For future reference, that is always a bad idea no matter what the company.

Most people don't have the ability to choose not to rely on their employer.
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