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Uber Ex-engineer Who Alleged Sexism Retains Lawyer (usatoday.com)

Posted by msmash on from the come-at-me-bro dept.

Marco della Cava and Jessica Guynn, writing for USA Today: The former Uber engineer whose critical blog post has stirred a storm of controversy for the ride-hailing giant has retained an attorney, charging that her former employer is blaming her for a rash of app deletions. Susan Fowler, whose Feb. 19 essay detailed myriad examples of sexism, tweeted Thursday that "Uber names/blames me for account deletes, and has a different law firm - not Holders (sic) - investigating me."

19 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Breaking news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Man puts shoes on feet. Man proceeds to tie shoes. News at 11:00.

  2. Victim Blaming? by Archeopteryx · · Score: 2

    Worked so well for Cosby, after all...

    --
    Dog is my co-pilot.
    1. Re: Victim Blaming? by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Victim blaming happens far less than false claims

      I don't know, I feel like it happens every single time one of these stories comes up. It's important to figure out the truth in these situations, but the rest of us who are not involved can calm down, step back, and wait until the truth actually comes out instead of trying to blame.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re: Victim Blaming? by Tailhook · · Score: 2

      It's important to figure out the truth in these situations

      Is it? I'm told insisting on evidence is "dick waving."

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      Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
    3. Re: Victim Blaming? by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It depends on how you phrase it. If you say, "She might be lying, I won't believe her until evidence comes up" then yeah, that's bad. If you say something like, "What an awful situation. I feel so sorry for her, and everyone involved. I will wait until the evidence comes out before judging" then you're good.

      If you lead with sympathy, you're good. If you lead with accusations, then you're bad.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re: Victim Blaming? by lactose99 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >Victim blaming happens far less than false claims.

      This is the most demonstrably false statement I've read in quite a while.

      --
      Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
    5. Re: Victim Blaming? by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      It depends on how you phrase it.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re: Victim Blaming? by ranton · · Score: 2

      I'm sure you'll be more than happy to provide some data to that effect, right?

      It is so obvious no rational person would need data for this, similar to needing data proving things fall when dropped. But here you go anyway.

      It is nearly impossible to find out how many sexual harassment cases are unfounded, but you can get a rough idea of how many by comparing them to forcible rape statistics where there has been more investigation into false claims. According to the FBI about 8% of forcible rape cases are deemed to be unfounded. Other studies put the number closer to 2%. But even though false claims are very rare, only about half of rape cases end up in a conviction. For sexual harrassment, the plaintiff wins about 40% of the time (both this and the above 50% statistic for rape are only for ones which make it to trial).

      So considering the conviction rates are similar for both sexual harassment and rape claims, it is unreasonable to assume to rates of false claims are drastically different. Whatever the rate of false sexual discrimination claims are, they are probably somewhere around 5-10%.

      Compare that to the near certainty that someone blames the victims in cases of sexual misconduct or rape.

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      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  3. which car company? by phantomfive · · Score: 2

    I'm having trouble keeping track of all the sexual harassment claims at car companies.

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    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:which car company? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 4, Funny

      They're releasing an app for that.

  4. Re:... uh by quantaman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Right... if she's just retaining a lawyer now after posting that shows some lack of planning on her part. Regardless of the truth of her claims, she had to figure that she would be charged with defamation based on the heavy claims she's made against a aggressive company.

    Why? She wasn't suing them and her claims were verifiable, the logical response from Uber was ignore or apologize. A smear campaign, if that is what's happening, would be a really stupid response on their part.

    It should be noted from the article that it's not even clear that someone is going after her, or if Uber is that someone. I wouldn't be surprised if some MRAs weren't taking it upon themselves to make an example of her.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  5. Wait a min... by bobbied · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So, now after her Blog post might have caused a PR nightmare for Uber, they are apparently strong arming her by hiring a law firm to "investigate" her? This is NOT good for either party here. Lady, it's time to fie suit or apologize.

    Now I have no first hand knowledge of either party, but it sure seems like Uber is convinced that she cannot substantiate her story about what happens inside Uber so they are going to legally muzzle her to stem the PR damage she's doing. My guess is Uber has determined that just letting this go and weathering the PR storm is not in their best interest, that they need to take some kind of legal action to stop this woman from making her claims. They didn't choose to settle with her, pay her to be quiet or even sue her (yet) and are willing to keep the story alive. They apparently believe they can make this stop by taking action faster than letting the news cycle run it's course.

    Uber is either being uber stupid or this lady is making stuff up. I'm thinking that's it is more likely this lady is making stuff up and Uber is making legal moves to stop her from lying about them. Uber may not be totally ethical at times, but I don't think they are stupid...

    One thing is sure, now that lawyers are involved on both sides, nothing good is going to happen.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    1. Re:Wait a min... by barc0001 · · Score: 5, Informative

      If this was out of the blue, that might be a reasonable question.

      However, Uber being a sexist and shit place to work is well known gossip in the vallet tech scene, and add to that the fact that you've got the SVP of engineering resigning last week for not disclosing his sexual harassment problems at his former employer - Google, AND there was the dashcam video of Uber's shithead CEO badgering one of his drivers. So with all of that in hand, it's not hard to see Uber as a company with a systemic problem of harassment. Plus, she states in her post that she does in fact have documentation:

      " I pointed out that everything I had reported came with extensive documentation and I clearly wasn't the instigator (or even a main character) in the majority of them - she countered by saying that there was absolutely no record in HR of any of the incidents I was claiming I had reported (which, of course, was a lie, and I reminded her I had email and chat records to prove it was a lie)."

      If she actually has copies of the documentation, chat logs and emails, then Uber doesn't have a pot to piss in, metaphorically speaking.

    2. Re:Wait a min... by hey! · · Score: 2

      what if she's a lying sack of shit and none of the stories she tells were true?

      Simple, Then everyone involved ends up in the shit hole.

      Nobody will believe Uber, because most people have concluded by now they're bastards anyway and their childish CEO doesn't help. But then anybody who actually needs to know whether they can trust her (e.g., future employers) wouldn't be quite sure about her after all the conflicting stories come out.

      And they'd have to. Given the sheer magnitude of the culture of dickishness she describes (sexism is one of the many forms of dickishness she describes) if it were all a fabrication people would be standing up saying it's not like that at all. I'm surprised it hasn't happened anyway, given the number of them who must have stock as part of their compensation.

      So it boils down to this: does she seem like the kind of person willing to blow up her own future in order to get some dirt on them.

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      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    3. Re:Wait a min... by bobbied · · Score: 2

      what if she's a lying sack of shit and none of the stories she tells were true?

      Then she's about to get legally reamed by Uber, and she deserves it. Which is why I'm thinking the smart play here is to beg for mercy, unless she has a good case on Uber, in which case she needs to file suit ASAP. Remember, Uber knows the truth here or they have a pretty good idea how this would play in court (and the lowly ex-employee vrs the Big Bad Rich Company NEVER plays well in court). It sure looks like she's got nothing, but who of us knows?

      For her It's put up or shut up time. Given Uber's behavior, I think it's most likely time to beg for mercy, but Uber could be doing something extremely stupid, in which case she needs to file suit for lots of money now. If Uber is truly being stupid, she's going to have them by the short hairs in court so she needs to pull and twist as hard as she can, if not for the money, for the next ex-employee who wants to vent about their bad experiences at Uber. But if she's "stretching the truth" they will have their way with her (legally speaking) in court and she could end up in a really bad financial place so she needs to end this soon.

      If she's bluffing they are setting up to call her hand, she better have the cards to beat them, because they don't seem to be backing down and they can afford to keep betting.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  6. Re:... uh by lactose99 · · Score: 2

    This is a reasonable response and got modded as flamebait? Christ

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    Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
  7. Re:Women are dangerous by Grog6 · · Score: 2

    Yes, and unfortunately, the more dangerous, the more Fun. :)

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    Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
  8. Re: ... uh by Lordpidey · · Score: 2

    You're only upset with women because the only lady who'll fuck you is Palmela Handerson.

    Look at this guy! He can't get laid! His opinion must be invalid!

    --
    Some people encrypt by using rot-13 twice. I prefer the more secure method of using rot-1 a total of twenty six times.
  9. Re:... uh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Replace MRA with feminist. Your idiotic reply carries no weight.