In February 2017, Susan Fowler, a female engineer who had worked at Uber published a blog post detailing cases of sexual harassment and conflict in the company. In the blog post, Fowler writes how she was sexually harassed at the company, adding that she also experienced incidences of gender bias while working at Uber. She states that a manager cornered her and asked for sexual favors from her, and that her complaints to the company’s human resource department were not heard, given that the manager was a performer (Bosa, Balakrishna, & Haselton, 2017). Fowler further details a history of sexual harassment and discrimination by the manager, which was fostered and stoked by senior leaders of the firm. Employees, like herself who reported the matter were often left stranded, and that the top officials argued that the accused was a key player in the company, and could not be punished for whatever reason ( Isaac, 2017) . In the blog post, she notes that occasionally, problematic managers in the company were just shuffled around after numerous complaints about their sexual harassment behaviors, with no serious actions being taken.
Fowler’s revelations exposed how unfriendly the workplace was, particularly to women, thus provoking an internal crisis at the company. This prompted Travis Kalanick, who was the company’s CEO, to open an internal investigation to look into the allegations raised by Fowler. He brought in the board, Arianna Huffington to help Eric Holder, the ex-attorney general of the U.S, with an independent investigation into the organization’s culture (Bosa, Balakrishna, & Haselton, 2017). Additionally, the CEO held a one and a half all-hands meeting, in which he, alongside other executives, were overwhelmed with numerous questions and appeals from workers who were amazed and concerned about Fowler’s story, demanding change. In this emotional moment, the company’s CEO apologized to the workers for leading Uber and the company’s culture to that point. He promised the employees that the situation will get better with every single day, adding that he was genuinely dedicated to get to the bottom of the matter (Bosa, Balakrishna, & Haselton, 2017). In the meeting, the company’s board members also promised that Uber would make another critical change. In particular, they confessed that the firm would no longer hire “brilliant jerks.” It was further noted that henceforth, serious actions would be taken against employees who would behave in manners likely to discriminate others or perpetuate sexism in the workplace.
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Some of the Company’s employees stated that the CEO’s speedy efforts were constructive, adding that they were pleased with how the leader responded to the matter. Through the meeting, they noted, they were better positioned to address the issue than they had ever been in the past ( Isaac, 2017) . In a period following the meeting, more than twenty employees were fired as part of the internal investigation conducted. The dismissals included workers at all levels, including top-level employees. However, when the dismissals were announced, the CEO was not in attendance ( Isaac, 2017) . Notably, he was with his family in Fresno, California, condoling with them following a tragic accident that killed a member of his family. Additionally, in an outing in Las Vegas, the CEO held a nationwide lecture where he reviewed the fourteen core values of Uber ( Isaac, 2017) . Moreover, during the public lecture, the CEO pulled onstage personnel, among them Mr. Michael, who he believed demonstrated each of the values ( Isaac, 2017) . Following the actions of the top executives, many employees stated that they were hopeful that the company would change. The CEO promised to provide a diversity report that would comprehensively detail the number of minorities and women that work at the company, adding that the firm would hold listening sessions with the personnel.
References
Bosa, D., Balakrishna, A., & Haselton, T., (2017). “ Uber Fires More Than 20 Workers — Including Some Senior Employees — After Internal Investigation.” Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/06/more-than-20-employees-fired-at-uber-in-sexual-harassment-investigation-report.html
Isaac, M. (2017). “Inside Uber’s Aggressive, Unrestrained Workplace Culture.” Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/technology/uber-workplace-culture.html
