The popular ride-sharing company Uber is facing very serious charges following allegations from an ex-employee of widespread sexual harassment and gender discrimination at their office in the San Francisco Bay area. The woman published a blog post talking about her time with Uber last year.
The post included several alarming incidents including superiors failing to properly address sexual harassment, lying about an employee’s repeated sexual harassment against several female employees and a Human Resources Department that also failed to properly address the situation and protect the employees who were being harassed. She also stated that she was threatened if she continued to report cases to the Human Resources Department at Uber.
The victim went on to say that when she started, Uber had 25 percent women in the organization. By the time she left that organization, however, it was down to six percent. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick posted a memo to employees stating that women account for a mere 15 percent of the workforce and as little as three percent of the engineering teams. Following her allegations, he made a statement that the events were abhorrent and not at all what Uber believes in and stands for. Uber recently hired Eric Holder, former United States Attorney General, to conduct an investigation into the incident and claims about the company.
It is unfortunate that the environment in certain workplaces can still be so toxic in nature to allow sexual harassment and gender discrimination. But, as we can see, even employees at large companies can be affected. To protect yourself, fellow employees and future employees, it is important to address any incident of sexual harassment or discrimination immediately. If the environment still exists even after meeting with Human Resources or your superiors, you may need to seek help from outside the company.
Source: Huffington Post, “Uber Taps Eric Holder To Lead Investigation Into Sexual Harassment Claims,” by Rebecca Shapiro, Feb. 21, 2017