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Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

nytimes.com

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Re: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

#11

Post by SwellJoe »

drenvuk wrote: post #4

I wonder if this is loyalty or fear of stock devaluation. I hope it's the former, that kind of thing is beautiful to see in employees.

I dunno. I've seen an awful lot of loyalty to ideas that don't deserve loyalty over the past several years, and it seems to keep ruining good things.

A toxic culture really isn't one that deserves loyalty, and Kalanick inarguably built a toxic culture into the fabric of Uber. He's not the only one, but he's ultimately the responsible party. If you want to kill a toxic culture that starts at the top, you simply can't leave him in charge.

It isn't surprising to me that ~1000 people in an organization would want the toxic culture to continue. There's a small subset of people who thrive in a toxic culture, and they, obviously, don't want it to go away.

I'm sure some of these folks just like the guy and never had any problems with him, personally, perhaps because they're a young white male. Those folks probably aren't actively defending the toxic culture of Uber; they're just naively assuming that because they didn't experience it, it doesn't exist and that Kalanick is the victim of a smear campaign.

Re: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

#12

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

I'm sure it's not "some" but a lot of employees, but most are afraid to speak out just because they have seen what happens to people who advocate for someone who's down.

I know for a fact that a lot of Uber employees nowadays can't talk freely outside about the fact that they work at Uber, when they used to be proud to talk about it just a couple of years ago.

I also know that many employees at Uber (men or women) are proud to work at the company, and again, too afraid to talk about it because the outside world will treat them like nazis.

Lastly, I'm pretty sure people will turn this into sexism discussion and call me a sexist, because they know no one can win over sexism. But I also know that if you ask Uber employees, most of them will say it's no different from working at any other tech company. But again, they can't say that out loud because they will be witch-hunted.

It's kind of sad that the Internet has become optimized for this type of witch hunt. A couple of years ago everyone wanted to get investment from Peter Thiel and "contrarian" beliefs were celebrated. But nowadays it's used as a tool for mockery because it's simply "hip" to talk shit about him. Same goes for Uber, not sure if you guys remember but if you think hard enough, just a few years ago Uber was celebrated as the "savior that fights for justice against the abusive taxi industry, even if it means operating in a gray zone". But nowadays media just loves to spin it as "Uber committed all kinds of illegal crimes, so the CEO has got to go"

Before I get downvoted to oblivion, let me emphasize that I'm not saying Uber is good. I'm saying we really need to stop witch hunt.

Re: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

#13

Post by dixie_land »

what happened to the good ol' days when Americans looked up to self made millionaires and think "I'm gonna make myself a million bucks just like that guy" rather than "hey fk you for getting your lazy ass off the coach and made your life better" then proceed with batshit PC crap to bring him down.

Re: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

#14

Post by gkoberger »

drenvuk wrote: post #4

I wonder if this is loyalty or fear of stock devaluation. I hope it's the former, that kind of thing is beautiful to see in employees.

My personal thoughts about Travis aside, it seems to be loyalty. I've seen a lot of support of Travis (as a leader/person) from Uber employees on Facebook the past few days. It's anecdotal, but there seems to be a number of people who are deeply loyal.

Re: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

#15

Post by thatswrong0 »

dixie_land wrote: post #13

what happened to the good ol' days when Americans looked up to self made millionaires and think "I'm gonna make myself a million bucks just like that guy" rather than "hey f k you for getting your lazy ass off the coach and made your life better" then proceed with batshit PC crap to bring him down.

I don't see how you can possibly look at the words and actions of Travis Kalanick and think that him being rich is the reason that he's hated.

Re: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

#16

Post by Steko »

SwellJoe wrote: post #11
drenvuk wrote: post #4

I wonder if this is loyalty or fear of stock devaluation. I hope it's the former, that kind of thing is beautiful to see in employees.

I dunno. I've seen an awful lot of loyalty to ideas that don't deserve loyalty over the past several years, and it seems to keep ruining good things. A toxic culture really isn't one that deserves loyalty, and Kalanick inarguably built a toxic culture into the fabric of Uber. He's not the only one, but he's ultimately the responsible party. If you want to kill a toxic culture that starts at the top, you simply can't…

I doubt you can pigeonhole everyone who supports travis into a single category. Some might not want any change at uber but I think more of them just like Travis and see the many positive things he's done for them, some think changes can be made with him still on top, some are just virtue signalling to the remaining management who are still Travis's people or for Travis himself if/when he returns.

Re: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

#17

Post by benicelifeshort »

No company can hire as fast as Uber and remain good. No company ever has and no company ever will.

His mistake was not being technical or creative enough to scale the company's service without scaling the headcount.

The specific symptoms are not particularly interesting or novel. In fact they were entirely predictable and the company is surprisingly good for how poorly it was built.

There are a number of major pitfalls every company must avoid. He failed to avoid a fatal one.

Re: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

#19

Post by CalChris »

benicelifeshort wrote: post #17

No company can hire as fast as Uber and remain good. No company ever has and no company ever will. His mistake was not being technical or creative enough to scale the company's service without scaling the headcount. The specific symptoms are not particularly interesting or novel. In fact they were entirely predictable and the company is surprisingly good for how poorly it was built. There are a number of major pitfal…

Everything else aside, and there's a lot to set aside, Uber should have focused on turning a profit with their core business model (difficult) rather than, oh look! a shiny object: automated cars. I give them no credit for growing big and unprofitable.

Re: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

#20

Post by CalChris »

jph wrote: post #5

Uber is in a difficult position. On the one hand, Kalanick has built a massive company. On the other hand, Holder's investigation turned up serious problems with the work culture. And employees, drivers, and investors are caught between these. To understand it from the inside, the best source I've seen is Susan Fowler's post "Reflecting on one very strange year at Uber". https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/re…

A massive unprofitable company. Anyone can do that. Anyone.
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