Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
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Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
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Re: Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
#2Please know that if you are feeling hopeless, like you are a failure, and that there is no recovering, there are people who will help you. You are not your job or your accomplishments, you are worth it and there are people who love you and will help you.
In the Bay Area, call (415) 781-0500 to talk with someone who can help. http://www.sfsuicide.org/
Re: Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
#3Just remember there no point earning the mega $$$$ when you're going to put a bullet in a gun and shot yourself in the head because of the stress. Look after yourself first.
Re: Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
#4It's really mind-boggling this happened after less than 6 months at Uber. I wonder what it must be to work there. Sounds absolutely horrifying.
Re: Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
#5This is so depressing. Shame on you, Uber.
Re: Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
#6Meta but relevant: 57 points in 35 minutes with no heated debates in comments, but not top story, suggesting high number of flags by users if I remember correctly about HN ranking algorithm.
Edit: Apparently this was a repost of the story, initially posted 15 hours ago (and 8 hours ago again):
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14194112
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14198372
Edit again: Now this submission has also been marked as dupe after 1 hour of front-page. Looks like mods don't really want this story to get too much attention.
Re: Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
#7This is kind of ridiculous. My condolences to the bereaved and all that, but come on. High-paying jobs can often times be extremely stressful, and whenever I have worked in a pressure cooker environment I have often found myself questioning whether or not it is worth it to continue working there. Sometimes, the answer has been no, at which point I figured out my exit strategy. What I have not found myself questioning is whether or not I should take my own life.
Obviously, quitting is a much better solution than immediately jumping to suicide. Of course depression doesn't work logically like that, but unless he was being systematically bullied or hazed it seems completely unfair to blame the employer in a situation like this rather than his own psychological makeup.
I'm not saying that an incident like this shouldn't be alarming and merit internal investigation and rethinking of cultural norms. Sure, and I'm sure they did that. But I don't think it's a good precedent for an employer to be held responsible every time an employee self-harms. They aren't your parents; it is after all "At Will" employment.
Re: Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
#8It's really mind-boggling this happened after less than 6 months at Uber. I wonder what it must be to work there. Sounds absolutely horrifying.
I know someone who left after 6 months for similar reasons, fortunately things didn't go as far for them as this poor man. I was warned off joining the company by that engineer and often think about how lucky I am to have dodged such a toxic place.
Re: Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
#9Meta but relevant: 57 points in 35 minutes with no heated debates in comments, but not top story, suggesting high number of flags by users if I remember correctly about HN ranking algorithm. Edit: Apparently this was a repost of the story, initially posted 15 hours ago (and 8 hours ago again): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14194112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14198372 Edit again: Now this submission h…
There seems to be a trend where anything negative against a major company (most often microsoft, apple and google) is flagged rather quickly. My guess is that they realise how important HN is for public perception by tech people and run PR teams here.
Re: Suicide of an Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress
#10There's a lot of talk about fake news. Am I the only one who is noticing that Uber is being bullied a hell of a lot by the media? Don't get me wrong. Uber have some major faults. However, compared to other companies, are they really that bad? Under Marissa Mayer, Yahoo reportedly sacked most of their senior male staff and the media didn't even blink. That was one of those jaw-dropping things that the media collectively ignored and continues to ignore.
We talk about media collusion. We talk about media integrity. I've got a strong feeling that there is some serious collusion going on against Uber.
I have no vested interest in Uber. I do not defend anything Uber has done. I even posted a negative review of Uber based on my limited experience with them. I am simply asking if I am reading too much into potential industry-wide collusion by the media as I am seeing too many coincidences.
I recently read about the media's secret jList - where the media supposedly don't collude, but, I keep on seeing themes across the media spring up out of nowhere. The negative focus on Uber might just be one more coincidence.