Those with shares in private company Uber might want to pull out now
Uber, the tech company that gained success a couple of years ago with an app that allows customers to request transportation with a simple click of a button, has recently been placed under multiple scrutinies and criticisms. One of the most prominent of these was the company’s treatment of women in the workplace, revealed by a former Uber engineer, Susan Fowler, who published a blog post on her experience at the company earlier this year. In the blog, it was stated that after Fowler reported the harassment incident to Human Resources, she was informed that the harasser would not be punished due to the fact that he had great performance reviews from his superiors. Later, Fowler learned that other female employees had also filed sexual harassment complaints against the same man.
The blog prompted two investigations of harassment claims, and today Uber has reportedly fired more than 20 of its employees after the investigation. According to Bloomberg, some of the employees were senior executives. Amidst Uber’s recent controversies, several high-placed executives also resigned; one of which was the head of engineering, who had failed to disclose the harassment complaints aimed towards his former employer.
However, the investigation was not without several difficulties and failings. Bloomberg reported that Perkins Coie, an international law firm based in Seattle, had investigated 215 harassment and discrimination claims but took no action in 100 of them.
Uber has also got a hold of Eric Holder, an attorney general who worked under former US President Barack Obama, to help investigate the company’s broader culture.
Uber employs more than 12,000 people globally, about 36% of which are female, according to a diversity report from the company released earlier this year. Women hold about 15% of the technology positions. In her blog, Fowler noted that out of over 150 engineers in the SRE teams, 3% were women.
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