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Uber CEO to take leave

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Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#81

Post by santaclaus »

navalsaini wrote: post #65
PatrickAuld wrote: post #20

Culture comes from the top and Uber's is pretty rotten. I did an interview there this year and it was the most aggressive questioning I've ever had. Two of 5 interviewers were really in my face while architecting systems; it was bizarre and I almost walked out. Nothing compared to the 'cultural' interview where there gave me an example of them knowingly breaking the law because "they knew they were right" and then as…

> never returned my calls or contacted me to say if I got the job or not. That is very unprofessional. Saddens to hear that.

Getting ghosted seems pretty common, especially with newly-large companies.

Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#82

Post by busterarm »

PatrickAuld wrote: post #20

Culture comes from the top and Uber's is pretty rotten. I did an interview there this year and it was the most aggressive questioning I've ever had. Two of 5 interviewers were really in my face while architecting systems; it was bizarre and I almost walked out. Nothing compared to the 'cultural' interview where there gave me an example of them knowingly breaking the law because "they knew they were right" and then as…

I had a phone interview with them 2 years ago and the interviewer was in the room with two other _very chatty_ people and the three of them were engaged in a separate conversation from my interview pretty much the entire time. I cut that one short and don't regret it in the least.

Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#83

Post by smacktoward »

dvt wrote: post #39
exogeny wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He presided over a culture of widespread sexual harassment that has been echoed repeatedly by multiple employees and you don't really understand why he's being criticized? Cool story, bro.

Uber has 12000 employees; 20 were reprimanded for sexual harassment. That's 0.001%

Sexual harassment cases are like cockroaches: by the time you see one, you can be sure there's lots more crawling around behind the walls.

Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#84

Post by AJ007 »

dvt wrote: post #21

I really don't buy the Travis Kalanik hate. Yeah, Uber started out as your typical SV unicorn (bro warts and all). Yeah, Uber's entire business model can be described as "grey-area" at best and its business practices as sometimes exploitative. But this is exactly how you're supposed to run a massively successful startup in its first decade. This is exactly how FB started out. And this follows every rule in the startu…

I am doubtful nice, rule following Uber would have ever been able to break in to the markets they did.

There are good examples here and bad ones. We've seen a few bad ones where startup founders do crazy stuff and end up in prison (and a few I suspect will be headed that way.) Whatever Uber did right and wrong, make sure you learn the correct lessons and not the wrong ones.

Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#85

Post by badcede »

navalsaini wrote: post #65
PatrickAuld wrote: post #20

Culture comes from the top and Uber's is pretty rotten. I did an interview there this year and it was the most aggressive questioning I've ever had. Two of 5 interviewers were really in my face while architecting systems; it was bizarre and I almost walked out. Nothing compared to the 'cultural' interview where there gave me an example of them knowingly breaking the law because "they knew they were right" and then as…

> never returned my calls or contacted me to say if I got the job or not. That is very unprofessional. Saddens to hear that.

Perhaps they realized he was "trying to use them to counter offer another company".

Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#86

Post by metaphorm »

dvt wrote: post #21

I really don't buy the Travis Kalanik hate. Yeah, Uber started out as your typical SV unicorn (bro warts and all). Yeah, Uber's entire business model can be described as "grey-area" at best and its business practices as sometimes exploitative. But this is exactly how you're supposed to run a massively successful startup in its first decade. This is exactly how FB started out. And this follows every rule in the startu…

I don't think there's anything gray about a car service booking app. The gray area is Uber's deliberate pushing of legal boundaries and using skechy business practices. Lyft is in the same business and has not become infamous for this kind of thing. They are fairly successful too, even if they are (for now) 2nd place behind Uber. In New York City anyway almost all the drivers are using multiple services anyway so it makes very little difference (in this market).

So why is it that other businesses doing exactly the same thing Uber is doing are able to do it successfully without the legal and cultural issues?

Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#87

Post by blfr »

vkou wrote: post #44
dvt wrote: post #21

I really don't buy the Travis Kalanik hate. Yeah, Uber started out as your typical SV unicorn (bro warts and all). Yeah, Uber's entire business model can be described as "grey-area" at best and its business practices as sometimes exploitative. But this is exactly how you're supposed to run a massively successful startup in its first decade. This is exactly how FB started out. And this follows every rule in the startu…

You are not supposed to run a massively successful startup by blatantly breaking every single consumer protection law that gets in the way of your profit margin. The e-mail by itself isn't the only problem. It's that it's just one line in a list of unethical, illegal or abusive behaviour that's as long as his arm. Keep in mind - this is also the guy that stole money from the IRS (By funding his previous company with…

These are consumer protection laws in name only. The laws/rules/regulations that Uber is breaking are first, foremost, and pretty much exclusively protecting the taxi industry.

Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#88

Post by [deleted] »

dvt wrote: post #21

I really don't buy the Travis Kalanik hate. Yeah, Uber started out as your typical SV unicorn (bro warts and all). Yeah, Uber's entire business model can be described as "grey-area" at best and its business practices as sometimes exploitative. But this is exactly how you're supposed to run a massively successful startup in its first decade. This is exactly how FB started out. And this follows every rule in the startu…

[deleted]

Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#89

Post by compiler-guy »

dvt wrote: post #39
exogeny wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He presided over a culture of widespread sexual harassment that has been echoed repeatedly by multiple employees and you don't really understand why he's being criticized? Cool story, bro.

Uber has 12000 employees; 20 were reprimanded for sexual harassment. That's 0.001%

Details matter--get this one right, please!

Twenty were _fired_ for sexual harassment issues.

Given what we know of Uber's internal culture, my money says that many, many more were counseled, reprimanded or whatever than just those twenty.

Re: Uber CEO to take leave

#90

Post by barsonme »

braveo wrote: post #74
barsonme wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not flip it around a bit: what percentage do you think? Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for Uber or sexual harassment or any nonsense like that. I (seriously) just want to know if you're advocating for giving every company with a > 0.0% harassment rate the Uber treatment.

The rate is a red herring, it's the reaction when it was reported. Imagine if your local PD reported that they only ignored .01% of 911 calls. Would you find that acceptable?

I don't disagree. The the parent comments focused on how often the harassment happened—not Uber's response—so it piqued my curiosity.
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