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David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

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Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#51

Post by rayiner »

ohreally123 wrote: post #35

Because white males are a generic, misogynistic, power-hungry/greedy subspecies I guess? Come on.

A man's perspective on these issues is always going to be an academic rather than experiential one. It's like a business school professor versus a startup founder, or a professor of military history versus a veteran. The former have a lot of important things to say and are worth listening to. But if you are, for example, trying to address the issues veterans have reintegrating into civil society, you probably want some people who have really fought in war to help drive your effort.

Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#52

Post by qq66 »

you_go_first wrote: post #43
comex wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several reasons why diversity is desirable in all positions, including the tendency of implicit bias to diminish perceived qualifications. But in this specific case, being a woman actually is a qualification. One of the key jobs for Uber's leadership in the immediate future is reducing sexism, and women are likely to have at least some personal experience being on the receiving end of it in their lives, whi…

What about an openly gay white male? Or an immigrant? Or a black person? A muslim? A disabled person? An atheist that grew up in the south? A baptist that grew up in the Bay Area? There are plenty of different individuals out there that would be qualified to give perspective on being on the receiving end of a toxic culture. What about a straight while male with strong prior experience changing the culture at a compan…

But in Uber's particular case, the company has a serious problem with women in particular. There haven't been accusations of problems with gay men, or immigrants, or black people. There have been multiple accusations of Uber taking a flippant or dismissive approach to sexual harrassment of women.

Imagine Uber had persistent database consistency problems, and a nontechnical member of the board laughed them off, and had to resign as a result. Shouldn't they be replaced with someone with direct experience in database consistency?

Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#53

Post by [deleted] »

you_go_first wrote: post #46
landon32 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because females have different life experiences than males. There is no way around that. Society treats females and males differently from birth. Running short on time, but this page links to a bunch of relevant studies: http://www.spertus.com/ellen/Gender/pap/node7.html

> Society treats females and males differently from birth. So what you're saying is that both are on the receiving end of sexism because both are treated different on account of their gender.

[deleted]

Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#54

Post by gsylvie »

BigJono wrote: post #6

Preparing to be bombarded with downvotes for this, but resigning over such a remark seems like an overreaction. His apology seems sincere, that should be enough. On the scale of things said about women by men in power this is about a 2/10, there's many much more egregious examples of sexism out there for people to be upset about.

Resigning as a board member is not quite the same as resigning as staff or executive.

Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#55

Post by hashmymustache »

It seems like teachable moments have become fireable offenses. I understand the seriousness of the issue and context, but is this really worth the level of outrage it has received?

Edit: Curious at the downvotes for an honest attempt at a reasonable discussion on the issue. Such are the times.

Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#56

Post by jolux »

pgodzin wrote: post #20

Really can't make this up. The board has spent months trying to figure out how to deal with their culture issues, and minutes into the all-hands presenting their findings, he says a disparaging offhand comment about women.

And interrupts Arianna Huffington to do so, too.

Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#57

Post by [deleted] »

qq66 wrote: post #52
you_go_first wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about an openly gay white male? Or an immigrant? Or a black person? A muslim? A disabled person? An atheist that grew up in the south? A baptist that grew up in the Bay Area? There are plenty of different individuals out there that would be qualified to give perspective on being on the receiving end of a toxic culture. What about a straight while male with strong prior experience changing the culture at a compan…

But in Uber's particular case, the company has a serious problem with women in particular. There haven't been accusations of problems with gay men, or immigrants, or black people. There have been multiple accusations of Uber taking a flippant or dismissive approach to sexual harrassment of women. Imagine Uber had persistent database consistency problems, and a nontechnical member of the board laughed them off, and ha…

[deleted]

Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#58

Post by zoomzippity »

qq66 wrote: post #52
you_go_first wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about an openly gay white male? Or an immigrant? Or a black person? A muslim? A disabled person? An atheist that grew up in the south? A baptist that grew up in the Bay Area? There are plenty of different individuals out there that would be qualified to give perspective on being on the receiving end of a toxic culture. What about a straight while male with strong prior experience changing the culture at a compan…

But in Uber's particular case, the company has a serious problem with women in particular. There haven't been accusations of problems with gay men, or immigrants, or black people. There have been multiple accusations of Uber taking a flippant or dismissive approach to sexual harrassment of women. Imagine Uber had persistent database consistency problems, and a nontechnical member of the board laughed them off, and ha…

    After five months of examining the company's culture, 
    Uber's new human resources officer, Liane Hornsey 
    concluded that the firm's treatment of women was no 
    worse than what occurs at other companies.

    Uber's biggest employee problems are pay and pride, not 
    sexism, says HR boss “Wherever I have worked, I have 
    seen things that are not great for women,” Hornsey said 
    in a USA TODAY interview. “I don’t think it’s about tech, 
    or this city or this company. I think it’s about the 
    world of work, and I think that it’s something that we 
    have to take really super seriously.”
source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/06/11/reports-uber....

Liane Hornsey was formerly the VP of People Operations at Google for like 5 years I think. I'm far more inclined to believe her account of what things are like than any journalist lazily trolling for any disgruntled former employee to recount a story that will generate ad impressions.

Does Uber have a problem with women in particular because there is something special about Uber or does it have "a problem with women in particular" because it's a tech company and the media established a narrative with momentum that it is somehow worse than other companies in this respect. If Facebook or Github had been founded in 2009, they'd be the scapegoat for what is an industry-wide problem.

Thinking this is specific to Uber and that Uber is somehow worse, just leaves all other companies with an unexamined culture. Worse yet, it leads other companies to think "Our culture is fine because at least we're not Uber" when they probably have all the same problems.

Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#59

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

threeseed wrote: post #25
initstick wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FTFY: He needs to be replaced by a more qualified individual. It doesn't matter what gender they identify as.

There is the theory. And there is the reality. The theory says it shouldn't matter who you are it should only be based on your professional ability. And in theory it wouldn't make a difference to the ability of a company to function whether the gender or racial mix was one sided or not. The reality is different. The reality is that having a uniform gender and race mix across a company causes all sorts of problems to…

How does this reality, this idea that companies are dysfunctional if gender and race are uniform, fit the data of the previous few thousand years of human progress?

Has the world changed? Can groups of uniform gender-race people no longer act cordially to people who aren't same gender-race?

Re: David Bonderman Resigns from Uber Board

#60

Post by notatoad »

initstick wrote: post #12
lancewiggs wrote: post #2

The right thing to do. He needs to be replaced by a woman, and to Ariana's point they need several on the board. Plenty of work required to change the toxic culture at Uber.

FTFY: He needs to be replaced by a more qualified individual. It doesn't matter what gender they identify as.

If he were an engineer, you'd be right. But for a board seat, being a woman is exactly the sort of qualification that is needed at Uber right now.
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