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Sexism at Uber from Female Management

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Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#21

Post by RickS »

brilliantcode wrote: post #18

Usually toxic work environments are a symptom of an underlying issue-they resemble the people who created it. Even if they are nice, grossly overlooking toxic individuals might be part of a results over process type of mentality. Another possibility is Uber is fucked and people are kicking the can down the road based on chauvinism. Reading her nightmare reminds me of this quote from The Sopranos. "Money flows uphill,…

During my exit from a previous employer over a CEO whose sexual misconduct makes Uber look like the ACLU, one of our investors gave me the advice that "the CEO sets the culture". The context there was that if the CEO and I didn't see eye to eye on something, that was never going to change while this person was CEO.

In the time since, I've found that advice to be so reliably true that it's one of the core things I use when deciding employers. A kind, pragmatic, ego-free CEO is mandatory for a culture that values the same. Likewise, the personality flaws in a CEO will propagate downward through the staff because everyone looks up to the CEO to signal what does and doesn't fly.

Anecdotally, I expect that Uber will not change while Travis is employed there, and as long as he makes more money than the lawsuits cost, (most of) his investors will find that perfectly agreeable.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#24

Post by brilliantcode »

RickS wrote: post #21
brilliantcode wrote: post #18

Usually toxic work environments are a symptom of an underlying issue-they resemble the people who created it. Even if they are nice, grossly overlooking toxic individuals might be part of a results over process type of mentality. Another possibility is Uber is fucked and people are kicking the can down the road based on chauvinism. Reading her nightmare reminds me of this quote from The Sopranos. "Money flows uphill,…

During my exit from a previous employer over a CEO whose sexual misconduct makes Uber look like the ACLU, one of our investors gave me the advice that "the CEO sets the culture". The context there was that if the CEO and I didn't see eye to eye on something, that was never going to change while this person was CEO. In the time since, I've found that advice to be so reliably true that it's one of the core things I use…

Literally, the age old wisdom holds true: "The fish rots from the head down".

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#25

Post by thewhitetulip »

While reading the account, it seems the Manager is from India perhaps?

Edit: I am an Indian and it is a big deal in India to wear "revealing clothes", albeit I have no idea what a tank top is neither do I care

Just FYI do you don't assume that I am a sexist and downvote me.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#26

Post by karlkatzke »

thehardsphere wrote: post #17

Is this what happens when a company gets too large too fast? I've only worked at small companies that would not be able to afford the waste generated by a manager like this Tina character. (Who has time for 6 hours of meetings?) I mean, I can imagine that characters like Tina existing in the world, hiring them, promoting them to management, and then learning that they have problems like this. It's hard to screen for…

> What's particularly odd about these stories coming out from Uber is that there are so many of them in a single company.

No, it's not. When toxic ideas are given a place at a company, only people who are toxic will embrace the toxic ideas enough to survive as managers. The non-toxic people either knuckle under, but don't fully "live the values" of the company, which shows. Or, they leave or are "managed out" of the organization.

Toxic management seems to happen when a company's management lives in an echo chamber made up of only themselves, and more than one member of that group has a personality disorder.

I had a similar experience with, sadly, a company with whom Y-Combinator leaders are still involved. The words "If you don't want to work in the way we want to work, you should just leave right this minute in good grace or you'll lose the fight and you'll be unemployable" (said in a meeting, by a C-level leader, in answer to an innocuous and helpful question) still echo in my mind.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#28

Post by purple-again »

jokipokito wrote: post #22
sargun wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes.

.

There IS something inherent about culture that leads to a greater incident rate of sexual harrasment. Most likely these are not racial Indians born and raised in US culture, who I would expect to have a sexual misconduct % no different from their white or black peers, but immigrants from India where there are higher incidents of sexual misconduct then Western nations at the moment.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#29

Post by TallGuyShort »

karlkatzke wrote: post #26
thehardsphere wrote: post #17

Is this what happens when a company gets too large too fast? I've only worked at small companies that would not be able to afford the waste generated by a manager like this Tina character. (Who has time for 6 hours of meetings?) I mean, I can imagine that characters like Tina existing in the world, hiring them, promoting them to management, and then learning that they have problems like this. It's hard to screen for…

> What's particularly odd about these stories coming out from Uber is that there are so many of them in a single company. No, it's not. When toxic ideas are given a place at a company, only people who are toxic will embrace the toxic ideas enough to survive as managers. The non-toxic people either knuckle under, but don't fully "live the values" of the company, which shows. Or, they leave or are "managed out" of the…

Plus, problems like this are known by many but talked about by few. One person goes public, and that triggers years of similar experiences that have been built up suddenly flooding out.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#30

Post by ryandrake »

brilliantcode wrote: post #24
RickS wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During my exit from a previous employer over a CEO whose sexual misconduct makes Uber look like the ACLU, one of our investors gave me the advice that "the CEO sets the culture". The context there was that if the CEO and I didn't see eye to eye on something, that was never going to change while this person was CEO. In the time since, I've found that advice to be so reliably true that it's one of the core things I use…

Literally, the age old wisdom holds true: "The fish rots from the head down".

Or "The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.”
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