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Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

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Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#31

I had an extended exchange with an Uber employee the other day, in which he steadfastly refused to believe that Uber was going after Fowler after the initial reports of this. Despite countless examples of this kind of behavior in the past, he kept insisting that everything was only "alleged" or "unverified." I'm not sure what kind of cargo cult they have going on over there, but it sure is effective at getting people…

It's not just Uber. When your identity gets caught up in your employment, political party, religion, etc. you end up suffering from serious cognitive dissonance regarding it.

They don't want to believe that an entity they identify with is a bad (ethical, political) actor. They see themselves as good (and maybe they are), and so this thing that they base their identity on must also be good (and in some ways, maybe even most, it could be). Criticism of the entity becomes criticism against the self, which they cannot help but deny because it destroys their own self-image.

Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#32
First off, I empathize her horrendous experiences of being harassed at Uber and applaud her courage to speak out.

Susan runs a book club [1][2] and is a published author[3]. Her quick fame rising from the recent press and a 24k+ follower and the amount of product placements on her tweet feed has reminded that old saying: All Press is Good Press.

[1]: https://twitter.com/susansbookclub

[2]: http://www.susansbookclub.com/

[3]: https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Fowler/e/B01L8LPRWK

Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#33

I had an extended exchange with an Uber employee the other day, in which he steadfastly refused to believe that Uber was going after Fowler after the initial reports of this. Despite countless examples of this kind of behavior in the past, he kept insisting that everything was only "alleged" or "unverified." I'm not sure what kind of cargo cult they have going on over there, but it sure is effective at getting people…

That's just a regular cult. It isn't as if they are applying poorly understood management advice here.

Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#34
I may be missing something but why isn't the burden of proving those allegations on Susan Fowler? Why are we so quick to point fingers at Uber without even giving them the chance to defend themselves?

Many people hate Uber and what they do. There is a strong incentive to smear the company. Smearing Uber has been done in the past when the whole #deleteUber was started becaude Uber drivers were not force to participate in the airport boycotts.

Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#35

I had an extended exchange with an Uber employee the other day, in which he steadfastly refused to believe that Uber was going after Fowler after the initial reports of this. Despite countless examples of this kind of behavior in the past, he kept insisting that everything was only "alleged" or "unverified." I'm not sure what kind of cargo cult they have going on over there, but it sure is effective at getting people…

I steadfastly refused to expect , pending more data, investigation with intent to discredit, disparage, or defame Susan Fowler. This is still unclear but I certainly agree that it is very worrying. You can bet that we'll be asking tough questions about it on Tuesday. As an aside, I believe you simply meant "cult" - "cargo cult" is specifically to do with performing actions superficially resembling things that work el…

Hey, thanks for commenting on this. I respect that you'll stand up internally against any attempt to go after Susan. Apologies for not giving you more credit in my original comment.

I used cargo cult because I expect that a lot of the willingness to dismiss this behavior is out of expectation of a maybe-never-to-be-delivered gift from the "IPO Gods."

Just to be clear, I'm not ascribing this to you, but I've had other conversations with Uber employees who were explicitly cynical in their stance, after this fashion.

Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#36
post #32

First off, I empathize her horrendous experiences of being harassed at Uber and applaud her courage to speak out. Susan runs a book club [1][2] and is a published author[3]. Her quick fame rising from the recent press and a 24k+ follower and the amount of product placements on her tweet feed has reminded that old saying: All Press is Good Press. [1]: https://twitter.com/susansbookclub [2]: http://www.susansbookclub.c…

It seems unwise to trot out "all press is good press" given the onslaught of bad (and objectively damaging) press that has gone Uber's way in the past week, which is to say nothing of the rest of your comment.

Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#37
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying a case via the media to push a large company into a settlement is hardly a new strategy, especially with a company like Uber that's getting large amounts of bad PR.

> that's getting large amounts of bad PR. Do you mean that is caught doing a lot of nasty stuff? The company has problems, it pushes against workers rights, it leaves towns that don't bow to their business tactics, it is sexist, etc. The "bad PR" is the symptom not the problem. Their actions are the problem.

The actions led to the bad PR. Without the bad PR, she wouldn't have spoken up on Twitter about it. I think we're all in agreement except in wording.

Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I steadfastly refused to expect , pending more data, investigation with intent to discredit, disparage, or defame Susan Fowler. This is still unclear but I certainly agree that it is very worrying. You can bet that we'll be asking tough questions about it on Tuesday. As an aside, I believe you simply meant "cult" - "cargo cult" is specifically to do with performing actions superficially resembling things that work el…

Hey, thanks for commenting on this. I respect that you'll stand up internally against any attempt to go after Susan. Apologies for not giving you more credit in my original comment. I used cargo cult because I expect that a lot of the willingness to dismiss this behavior is out of expectation of a maybe-never-to-be-delivered gift from the "IPO Gods." Just to be clear, I'm not ascribing this to you, but I've had other…

Thanks!

Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#39
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying a case via the media to push a large company into a settlement is hardly a new strategy, especially with a company like Uber that's getting large amounts of bad PR.

> that's getting large amounts of bad PR. Do you mean that is caught doing a lot of nasty stuff? The company has problems, it pushes against workers rights, it leaves towns that don't bow to their business tactics, it is sexist, etc. The "bad PR" is the symptom not the problem. Their actions are the problem.

It's very well deserved bad PR, yes.

Re: Uber has a law firm investigating me – Susan Fowler

#40
post #34

I may be missing something but why isn't the burden of proving those allegations on Susan Fowler? Why are we so quick to point fingers at Uber without even giving them the chance to defend themselves? Many people hate Uber and what they do. There is a strong incentive to smear the company. Smearing Uber has been done in the past when the whole #deleteUber was started becaude Uber drivers were not force to participate…

The reason I believe her is the track record. Uber is so sleazy it's hard to imagine a worse company imho.
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