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Fallout from Fawler report of toxic culture

Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 270) describes the response to ex-employee Susan Fawler’s blog about her experience at Uber:

Of all the scandals Uber had suffered to date, this Fowler memo struck the company the hardest. Chat rooms were in chaos. Email chains to leadership from angry employees were filled with demands and more allegations. Fowler’s memo was just the beginning. Her post had burst open a dam, through which now flowed a river of pent-up employee complaints, years in the making. Worse, for Travis, employees began airing some of their bad Uber experiences in public, on Twitter.

“This is outrageous and awful. My experience with Uber HR was similarly callous & unsupportive,” tweeted Chris Messina, another Uber employee who had recently left the company. “In Susan’s case, it was reprehensible.”

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No jackets for female employees

Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 268) describes an Uber team that was buying leather jackets for employees.  With 120 men, they could get a group discount on mens’ jackets — but no such discount was available for the 6 women on the team.  As a result, the team didn’t buy jackets for its six female members.

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Uber Xchange leases to marginal drivers

Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 265) describes perils in Uber’s Xchange program, in which Uber provided vehicles to high-risk driver with poor or nonexistent credit.  One, these drivers had disproportionate rates of safety incidents including speeding tickets and sexual assaults. Two, dealerships were pushing these drivers into expensive leases that lowered profits for both drivers and Uber — causing Uber to lose more than $9,000 per vehicle.  Furthermore vehicles were returned in far worse condition than anticipated.

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#deleteUber campaign

Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 254) describes users’ online protest against Uber, inspired by Uber’s apparent refusal to honor a taxi strike in response to a Trump travel ban. Chicago writer Dan O’Sullivan Tweeted “congrats to @Uber_NYC on breaking a strike to profit off of refugees being consigned to Hell”, then “Don’t like @Uber’s exploitative anti-labor policies & Trump collaboration, now profiting off xenophobia? #deleteUber.”  O’Sullivan then pointed out the surprisingly difficult task of deleting an Uber account.

Tens of thousands joined the #deleteUber protest, often posting screenshots of their account deletions.  Within a week, more than 500,000 people deleted their Uber accounts, while others removed the app from their phones.

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Employees questioned Kalanick’s discussions with Trump

Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 248) describes Travis Kalanick’s 2016 efforts to ingratiate himself with then-President-elect Donald Trump, seeking a photo opportunity and “a direct line to Trump.”  But employees protested. Isaac continues:

His employees disagreed. Grumbles traveled the hallways of 1455 Market Street, as many Uber employees wondered why their boss needed to embrace a man they considered xenophobic, ignorant, and racist. At internal all-hands meetings, they urged their boss to reconsider and step away from the council.

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Thailand manager assaulted employee and pushed her face into drugs

Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 240) describes a toxic workplace at Uber in Thailand, including drug use and visits from sex workers.  He continues:

One particularly raucous evening, a bunch of Uber Thailand employees were up late drinking and snorting coke, a semiregular occurrence at that office. One female Uber employee with the group had decided she didn’t want to do drugs with her colleagues, and tried to abstain. Before she could leave, her manager grabbed the woman and shook her, bruising her. Then he grabbed the back of her head and shoved her face-first into the pile of cocaine on the table, forcing her to snort the drugs in front of them.

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Uber employee feared rape, and manager offered company health care, not help

Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 240) describes an experience of a female employee in Malaysia who noticed men following her from work, leading her to fear she would be raped.  She texted multiple people seeking help, including her manager, the local Uber general manager.  Rather than rush to the scene or call the police, the manager texted: “Don’t worry, Uber has great health care. We will pay for your medical bills.”

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Disdain for drivers

Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 234) describes Uber leaders’ disdain for drivers.  As managers examined comments from drivers, “one manager expressed disgust with the spelling and grammatical errors the drivers included in their responses. ‘God, I can’t believe these people’s votes count the same as ours,” he quipped to his subordinates.”

Isaac also points out the high churn of drivers — how quickly drivers stop driving and don’t return.  As of early 2016, roughly a quarter of Uber’s drivers churned every three months — requiring the company to constantly seek other drivers.

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