A former Uber engineer has shared an alarming account in which she accuses the company’s management of dismissing multiple reports of sexual harassment.
On Sunday, Susan. J Fowler published her story—which she describes as “strange, fascinating, and slightly horrifying”—on her blog, explaining why she decided to leave Uber after about a year. Fowler, who was hired as a site reliability engineer, claims she began experiencing problems after one day on the job, when her manager began sending her inappropriate messages about his sex life.
But HR did not handle the situation like Fowler expected. She said HR agreed that the messages clearly qualified as sexual harassment; however, they did not think it was necessary to give the manager anything more than a warning. Fowler claims management said they didn’t feel comfortable punishing the manager because it was his first offense and he "was a high performer.”
Fowler was reportedly told she could move to another team to avoid the manager, or she could continue working under his lead. She admits she wanted to stay with her original team because she had expertise in the project they were struggling with. But HR warned her that the manager would likely give her a bad performance review, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Fowler later discovered the “first offense” argument wasn’t true. After meeting more female engineers, she began hearing stories that were similar to her experience. Some reports involved the same manager she had previously reported.
Fowler said the manager eventually left the company; though she’s convinced he was terminated for an unknown reason.
Fowler’s problems didn’t end there, unfortunately. She also writes about a hostile culture at Uber, in which managers were shamelessly announcing their intentions to sabotage each other. This, of course, resulted in widespread fear and paranoia, as well as chaos.
Fowler claims her request was denied because the higher-ups said she “had undocumented performance problems.” But she pointed out all her reviews had perfect scores and she never received a complaint. Managers later told her that "performance problems aren't always something that has to do with work, but sometimes can be about things outside of work or your personal life." So she waited for the next performance review, which was positive, as usual. When she attempted to transfer again, her review was changed and was no longer eligible.
Fowler later requested for her review to be changed back, but was told it wasn’t necessary because it would have no real impact on her life. But it did. Uber was sponsoring her graduate studies at Stanford on the condition she maintained positive performance reviews and scores. Because of the change, she was no longer eligible for the sponsorship program.
So why didn’t they just accept her request and allow her to transfer? Well, Fowler said that keeping her on the team made her manager look good.
Fowler also points to other instances in which she and other women experienced sexism. Each of those cases were reported, but were ultimately ignored by HR.
Complex reached out to Uber for comment. The company's CEO Travis Kalanick said he was aware of the recent allegations and that it will be investigated.
"I have just read Susan Fowler's blog. What she describes is abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and believes in. It's the first time this has come to my attention so I have instructed Liane Hornsey our new Chief Human Resources Officer to conduct an urgent investigation into these allegations,” he said in a statement issued to Complex. "We seek to make Uber a just workplace FOR EVERYONE and there can be absolutely no place for this kind of behavior at Uber – and anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired.”