Uber launches ‘urgent investigation’ into sexism allegations
A former female engineer’s blog post is going viral, and it doesn’t paint the ride-hailing company in a positive light. Here’s how its chief responded.
In the wake of a damning blog post from former Uber engineer Susan Fowler, the ride-hailing company is launching an “urgent investigation” into claims of rampant sexism.
In her blog post, “Reflecting on One Very, Very Strange Year at Uber,” Fowler wrote that the negative experience started her first day working on her new team:
On my first official day rotating on the team, my new manager sent me a string of messages over company chat. He was in an open relationship, he said, and his girlfriend was having an easy time finding new partners but he wasn’t. He was trying to stay out of trouble at work, he said, but he couldn’t help getting in trouble, because he was looking for women to have sex with. It was clear that he was trying to get me to have sex with him, and it was so clearly out of line that I immediately took screenshots of these chat messages and reported him to HR.
From there, she said that HR and upper management “wouldn’t feel comfortable giving him anything other than a warning and a stern talking-to.”
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