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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.

17 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Uber Gets High Kalanick by FrankHaynes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Uber Gets High Kalanick by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But this isn't "bro culture" or "toxic masculinity", he's just an everyday, run-of-the-mill, common asshole.

      "Bro-culture" and "toxic masculinity" are just side-effects of being a common asshole while having a penis.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    2. Re:Uber Gets High Kalanick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Toxic femininity is just side-effect of being a common asshole while having a vagina.

  2. Re:butterfly erection by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    NOw...let's see if anyone will hire her now, after all of this....

    She brought down a 'toxic' CEO, ok....but now, is she a bit 'toxic' too?

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  3. BAH! Everybody hates Uber by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:BAH! Everybody hates Uber by hackertourist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This wasn't about political correctness, it was about common decency, and Uber's lack thereof.

    2. Re:BAH! Everybody hates Uber by zbobet2012 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Being sexually propositioned on your first day by an immediate superior and then punished when you turned them down is not and never will be okay. And that has nothing to do with political correctness. These facts have been more or less confirmed by Uber themselves. If she "tried" this at a "real" company, her boss would have been fired on the spot.

      I had the pleasure of meeting Susan at a conference before this all started and it saddens me that someone obviously so bright had to deal with that kind of bullshit.

    3. Re:BAH! Everybody hates Uber by hackertourist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Now, every pat on the butt or peck on the cheek is 'harassment'.

      no, it's harassment, without scare quotes. The chivalrous thing to do is to keep your hands off your coworkers until you're invited.

  4. Re:butterfly erection by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He wasn't fired due to the blog post. The VCs wanted him out for a long time. There is a long history of "articles" about it on the web. It is possible the VCs wanted to get rid of him because of the culture though.

  5. Re:butterfly erection by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, it is definitely related to the IPO for sure. The VCs hinted that they wanted a more "mature" CEO before they did an IPO.

  6. Re:butterfly erection by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    NOw...let's see if anyone will hire her now, after all of this....

    According to her blog post that she wrote in February, she left Uber in December and started work at Stripe in January. When a push came to a shove at Uber, "I had a new job offer in my hands less than a week later."

    She brought down a 'toxic' CEO, ok....but now, is she a bit 'toxic' too?

    The men who work at Uber should probably be viewed as "toxic" by future employers, as the bad boy mentality drives out good people.

  7. Re: Sounds like ... by ooloorie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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

    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.

  8. Toxic to who? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  9. Re:butterfly erection by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not excusing harassment, but going the HR route is the worst way to handle what should be an adult-adult situation.

    You're assuming that the other person is an adult. It might surprise you that not everyone who grows up is an adult. I've met more than a few children in the workplace. HR can either send them away or babysit them. If HR decides to babysit them, it's time to find a new job elsewhere.

  10. Re:Slashdot editors don't care about Tech by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a community site.
    Everyone, even ACs can post articles.

    Sure, you can 'write your own site' and then you still complain that certain news is not posted in time ... so what is your point?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  11. Re:She's out on her own. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You are a buffoon, and a fraudulent blow-hard, who could not engineer his way out of a wet paper bag, even armed with a skill knife and a pair of scissors.

    Not sure why everyone keeps mistaking me for an engineer. Not everyone in IT is in engineering or management.

  12. Re:butterfly erection by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If she has the skills and can do the job, then I'd hire her. If she 'whistleblows' on sexist practices, so what? I don't want that kind of stuff at my company. She would make the place better.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."