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With Her Blog Post About Toxic Bro-Culture at Uber, Susan Fowler Proved That One Person Can Make a Difference (recode.net)
Kara Swisher, writing for Recode: It was Lao Tzu who said that "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." In the case of complete and utter change reeling through Uber right now -- culminating in the resignation of its once untouchable CEO Travis Kalanick -- it turns out that it began with one of the most epic blog posts to be written about what happens when a hot company becomes hostage to its increasingly dysfunctional and toxic behaviors. It was clear from the moment you read the 3,000-word post by former engineer Susan Fowler about her time at the car-hailing company that nothing was going to be the same. Titled simply, "Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber," the essay deftly and surgically laid out the map that the media and others would use to prove to its out-to-lunch board and waffling investors that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick had to go. In her account, Fowler was neither mean nor self-righteous, although in reading the story that she laid out about her horrible time there, it would have been completely fair for her to have taken that tone.
In retrospect, it is interesting to see that a reflective blog post from an engineer ended up in the casualties of CEO, most of the senior leadership and a few board members. Maybe the cracks were already there but nevertheless it has been surreal seeing this unfold in the space of 5 months. It is almost like watching the butterfly effect in action.
"If you think you're too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito."
Film at 11.
It's doubtful that Travis was the only problem child at Uber. He probably hired like-minded pals who remain in power there, so this won't be the last we hear of problems at Uber.
But this isn't "bro culture" or "toxic masculinity", he's just an everyday, run-of-the-mill, common asshole. Plenty more where he came from.
slashdot: A failed experiment.
Since, you know, they investigated and found no actual evidence of her claims.
We see 30 articles like this but nothing on the AMD Epyc chip announcement this week.
I think we can safely conclude that Slashdot editors don't care about Technology.
And it's attitudes like this that bring the entire male species into disrepute.
lol when did we have a good reputation?
love is just extroverted narcissism
uber changed the world, lyft can kiss my mother fucker ass. fuck a "fast follower".
show me on the doll where the uber ceo touched you
Jokes on you, that AC is a woman.
It was an easy target. Let's see her try that with a real company with real money, not some damn unicorn that barely exists at all. This story is one about the triumph of political correctness, not civil rights.
I would argue she was an asset to the company.
It is now in the process of growing up a bit. It may not make it to grown up, but this was a needed kick in the slats.
emt 377 emt 4
People are supposed to be ASSETS for their companies, not liabilities.
That's the reason their CEO was worthless.
So with all the secret monitoring, law breaking, deal breaking, poor treatment of drivers, driver pay scandals, and a few other scandals made public that I'm forgetting and nothing happens...
1 sexual harassment case though and its like a total nightmare and the ceo steps down... WTF?!
So basically you can lie cheat and steal all you want, just dont have a "bro culture" and its all good!
Also, when did we become a species?
Although I agree with you that it was an inappropriate comment, I have to wonder if Susan Fowler would have gotten as much attention if she was not a young attractive female? If she was instead older, over weight, with stringy hair and grassy mole on her face, would people have rallied around her, or would just write her off as a stereotypical angry man hating lesbian?
captcha: displays
She writes how everyone was gunning for their bosses jobs, and so what does she do? she decides to gun for her bosses job by getting them fired for excessive broness.
If Lao Tzu wrote about it, we hardly call this news. We have had many examples of people who made a difference. Even if you do not pay any attention at history, you will know about sports or technics where there are people who made a difference.
Are we supposed to be in awe, because she was a woman, or what?
Yes, sometimes 1 person makes a difference. Most of the time they don't.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
No, simple "not interested" was insufficient.
In other words: "I expected they would fire him and promote me to his position."
But he was a "stellar performer", bringing a lot of money in, and she was a noob on first day in the team, fresh out of training. So that didn't happen.
And it just couldn't stand. After all, a corporation can't prioritize efficient employees and profit over entitled employees and their peace of mind...
So the shitstorm began, and... now HR will think twice before employing a female engineer.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
In terms of accounting employees are both. Calling someone who is suffering from an injustice a snowflake is just ignoring the problem. The gender equality in tech is a big problem. These companies are scaring off 50% of the potential workforce due to a bad environment.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
... if you say the politically correct things, that is. Which means no change whatsoever from the current agenda by the "powers that be", to be sufficiently cryptic as to stand the slightest chance of getting one upvote or however the hell these scores are calculated.
It looks as though she's not going to be applying for jobs anytime soon.
I'm represented by Verve and InkWell. And it looks like she's doing the public speaking circuit.
But, I have to agree with the GP, she's not going be hired by anyone ever. The HR software used these days will catch it and her application would be deleted. If she actually got a response, it'd be the lame "You don't have the skills." excuse.
Because if it turns out that what she said was not truthful, that would only be another example of SJW-witchhunts of which we have had way too many in the past decade.
No, I am not a friend of Uber at all. While they may shake up (positively) the encrusted taxi market in some countries, in others they have shown that they are unable to play by the rules while still making money. Like in Germany.
And round it goes...
She already works at Stripe and would be happily hired by any company that isn't run by a bunch of sexual predators! Suck it, regressives! Hahahahaha!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Mostly what it made clear to me was that I wouldn't want to be in the same company as her, let alone in the same room.
Mmm yes, delicious regressive tears, this is what I came here for! Now I can leave satisfied.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Not really, having children seems to be the only purpose of both sexes, why is the female's contribution to that celebrated, but the male's efforts reviled?
Of course not.
And young attractive females have always had an easy time âmaking a differenceâ: allegations of sexual improprieties against men have often been fatal to the careers of those men, or simply fatal when the abuser was a white woman and the male was black.
The idea that this is some newly developed superpower by women is not just laughably historically ignorant, it is offensive.
young attractive female
She's meh.
Is that you Travis? Maybe you need some anger management classes.
My wife works in the medical industry and more or less ignores what happens in technology. However this entire time with news stories on NPR and the nightly news she was firmly against 'bro-culture' and sexism in technology.
When the Uber Miami Memo leaked I showed it to her as 'evidence' for the toxic, misogynistic, bro-culture that was everywhere. She read it through twice and then came back with, "Ok, so where's the sexism that people are complaining about?". Every single thing in there she thought was completely reasonable. ("Don't have sex with someone that is above you or in the same group.", "Don't do drugs".)
There is a narrative that a lot of people are pushing and a lot of other people are onboard with defending without sitting down and listening to what some individuals consider offensive and toxic.
DYAC. abuser should be accuser
Michael Knight would be proud!
Well, okay, "person", not "man", but yeah, same thing. "Person" sounds very awkward in that context somehow. English needs to learn from these other languages that have gender-neutral pronouns that we can use to keep from offending the overly-sensitive. Otherwise it seems so forced when we have to force nouns into pronoun duties.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I think this is way too premature. She was complaining about the bro-culture. It still is a bro-culture. Firing a CEO is a nice consequence, but it is no where near a solution.
If I had to guess, I'd say that in one year, everything will revert back to the same.
It evidences monumentally bad practice.
Slashdot post #51238 on the identity politics at Uber. Still fail to see how this is Slashdot material at all.
Ease off, Travis, you'll be a CEO again. Don't worry.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Fortunately for me I feed off progressive tears not regressive ones. There has been an almost inexhaustible supply over the past year what with all the snowflakes having complete and total breakdowns on a daily basis.
Simply walk outside and listen for autistic shrieking. Then follow the sound until you find a group of sexually ambiguous people with unnatural hair color. Now just walk up to them while wearing your MAGA hat and presto! Instant feast!
Anyone else fed up of this anti bro shit? isn't it enough that people are making an effort to be over inclusive of women... bro culture is a result of lots of guys working together, you are essentially complaining about guys being guys... do you hear about men complaining how girly culture is so annoying in majority female work environments? NO because it's obvious WHY. No one expects women to stop being girly just cos some guys wana work in fashion design. If you want to change the balance of gender fine but that doesn't mean you get the CHANGE the other gender.
Found the 400lb childless cat lady who hates men because they "just can't accept a strong woman like her..."
That doesn't bother me much. I'm becoming kind of a fan of Trump these days.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You must travel in strange circles. My efforts and contributions to having children have never been reviled. Except that time my mum caught me practising.
On the other hand my wife's some of my wife's contributions deserve plenty more respect than mine - she was the one who suffered through 9 months of pregnancy (plus long term effects) and pushed giant meatsacks out her twat.
God, I'm such a sucker for a trolling.
I do not agree. They bring one AC in disrepute and that is it. People that generalize unsophisticated statement like that to a whole gender are not better than the one that just made that statement.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
and its called natural selection u fat faggot
Also, when did we become a species?
Since forever.
3. Logic.
One of the classes of things included with other classes in a genus.
The set of things within one of these classes.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
Last time I looked, male was a sex.
I don't think potential means what you think it means.
I'm a guy, and I know I feel uncomfortable when I get paired with some sales guy who's a walking sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen when visiting one of our customers. I think most guys who are somewhat normal and have regular relationships with the opposite sex do too. The problem comes when the organization you work for doesn't do anything to actively discourage douchbaggery of any kind. I may be old school, but I think workplace interactions should be professional, and any "extracurricular activities" shouldn't need to be discussed in a work context.
I hope she's getting a lifetime's worth of income from her settlements, because I know there are plenty of hiring managers who wouldn't touch someone who has a reputation like the one she has now. Maybe some things will change because of this, but I do know the technology world has shifted. It used to be exclusively nerds, so the complaints you'd get would be of the creeper/stalker variety associated with the "living in your mom's basement" crowd. Now, these web startups are using frameworks, APIs and SDKs to build software, so you're getting a lot of less technical people snapping Legos together to build apps...and just like the CS boom of the late 90s, you're seeing a lot of "bros" getting into the startup biz because of the money involved. If you want to see a parallel in another field, just look at how many former fraternity guys wind up in sales organizations and the culture that develops in most of them as a result.
I just don't understand why people can't be professionals at work. Maybe it's working 100 hours a week with the same people in a cramped office, but I've mostly encountered professional workplaces in my career...usually we're too busy doing work to harass co-workers...
I think if Uber didn't have 99 other problems, they would have been able to rally the troops to successfully bury this. She had help.
You saw Creimer naked at the gym? What a rough day you must have had.
He resigned because his mother died in a boating accident. Nothing in this article is true.
And it's attitudes like this that bring the entire male species into disrepute.
If Silicon Valley males were a species, then the local women would be unable to mate with them and their tribe would expand only through recruitment.
Oh wait --
I hope you had a wonderful feminist's father's day, and thanked all the women in your life.
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So... show me on the doll where the bad gay touched you.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
We don't really care how you feel about your mother.
She was hired by another company like a week or so after she left, dumbass. Do you bother paying attention to such important things like this or do you just cherry-pick a few statements and then refuse to do any critical thinking upon those statements before spouting off shit?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
Racists gonna race...
Someone needs to learn the definition of consent. Oh and to stop being a bigot.
The idea that this is some newly developed superpower by women is not just laughably historically ignorant, it is offensive.
Historically, do you think more women have harmed men with false allegations, or more men have harmed women with actual abuse?
How about today? Do you think it's more common that women allege abuse, or that abuse against women occurs?
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
It's true. When it's time to pass some shit, people start wanting the assholes back.
We wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't people who shared views like yours. Maybe you wouldn't have to hear about all of this "Gay Stuff" if the last several decades didn't involve thugs assaulting gays for sport, known "fag bashing". But eventually if you oppress people long enough, they have to rise up and defend themselves. If that means making people like you aware that gays exist, and straight people like me insisting that gays are perfectly acceptable people, then so be it. You and others who share your views have made your bed, now lie in it. I couldn't care less if it makes you feel uncomfortable or "disgusted", but it seems like a small price to pay considering the offense society has committed against gays. Grow a pair, snowflake.
That depends, did you get your wife pregnant and then run away for 9 months? Otherwise I think both of you deserve the same respect. You presumably couldn't have carried the child, even if you wanted to. So why give someone "plenty more" respect for this?
With all due respect to Ms Fowler, I don't think she brought down the CEO. The behaviour that she describes is in a lot of tech companies. I don't recall seeing their ceo's exiting. It was all of the other illegal stuff that uber we're doing and the major VC funders were afraid of losing their money that brought down Travis.
What does that even mean? If that's meant to be an insult then this is for you -
*golf clap*
If I'm a feminist then I can''t say it bothers me - I got there without trying. I just treat everyone with the respect I feel they deserve. If you're a cunt you get none.
Boohoo - was a woman once nasty to da poor wittle snowflake.
You're using terms like "harm" and "abuse" for a wide range of ill-defined behaviors subject to shifting moral views, so I don't think that question has an answer.
What I do know is that the idea that women were powerless, fragile little beings subject to the whims of male passion hasn't been true for centuries in the West. Even when women had no political power, unwanted sexual advances by men towards women often had severe consequences for the man, and in many cases, simply the word of the woman was sufficient.
You're using terms like "harm" and "abuse" for a wide range of ill-defined behaviors subject to shifting moral views, so I don't think that question has an answer.
Okay, replace "abuse" with "rape".
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
We were not talking about "rape", we were talking about Fowler's allegations of sexual harassment. And the point is not whether Fowler's accusations of harassment were true or false; the point is that regardless of whether they were true, going public with a blog post (or taking legal action) is going to hurt Fowler. It may not be fair, but life isn't fair and will never be fair.
I wasn't talking about Fowler's allegations. I was talking about the larger context, both historically and now.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
What's up with these millennial kids who expect to be hired, transferred 3 times and made boss in less than a year of being hired? Face it Susan, you were a squeaky wheel, a proverbial pain in the ass - and you got managed out the door.
So am I. I think people underestimate how much power women have had historically and how strong social prohibitions were against rape and harassment. And I think women in the US today are the most safe, protected, and privileged they have ever been in recorded history.