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Uber's SVP of engineering is out
- minimaxir 10y agoImportant note from article: "To be clear, Singhal’s dispute with Google has nothing to do with that situation [Susan's Fowler's article] or the recent lawsuit that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has waged against Uber’s Otto division."
- epistasis 10y ago"Nothing to do" seems like protesting too much, since the next sentence is: >But having Singhal at the head of an organization under siege over sexual harassment issues when he was not candid with Uber over his departure from Google was considered untenable. Which makes it sound like "we don't know what to believe but we're getting rid of him because it looks bad." This framing seems unenlightened and also not so flattering to Uber. I wonder if that's the framing Uber presented to recode, or if it was their own.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- rhizome 10y agoWhich makes it sound like "we don't know what to believe but we're getting rid of him because it looks bad." Wouldn't it be more reasonable to say that this might be an admission that their HR department has sucked for a very long time, and this is part of dealing with it?
- epistasis 10y agoI think that if Uber were to say that straight out, it would allay some of my negative feelings towards them! (And maybe they have and I missed it, I haven't had chance to follow this closely.)
- oh_sigh 10y agoIt seems like they didn't like that he didn't disclose the fact to them.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- dmourati 10y agoTrying to kill two birds with one stone here?
- kevinburke 10y agoEven without the recent allegations it feels like lying about the circumstances surrounding the exit from your last company would be a fire-able offense, especially at the executive level.
- mildbow 10y agoidk. Should he have disclosed it? Of course, because that would have lessened the impact when it did come out. Maybe he thought it was over and done with. And, since it was an allegation vs proven maybe he didn't want to muddy waters. However, to say that an allegation must be reported when taking a new job is pretty harsh. Innocent till proven guilty surely? >> "Uber execs found out about the situation after Recode informed them of the chain of events between Singhal and the search giant this week." Punish the person responsible in Susan's case. If anything, this feels like a person's career was taken down due to a witch hunt. To me, this action by Uber's executive team is not one of cleaning house: it shows a lack of spine.
- kevinburke 10y agoGoogle found the allegations credible and was prepared to fire him until he resigned. That seems like "guilty" to me, and certainly something you need to mention to a new employer, if only to avoid stories like this one.
- mildbow 10y agoYeah, I agree it should have been mentioned (literally my 2nd and 3rd lines) But, this firing has the smell of being one for appearances, rather than actual culpability. But then again, I don't know the actors so if anyone with additional info confirms that it's a fair firing, I would be happy to listen.
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- sna1l 10y ago"You could not tell that there were any problems, though, from the outward behavior of both sides. When Singhal left, said sources, Google settled major outstanding grants he had and his own goodbye letter read more like a retirement missive. More to the point, it gave no hint of acrimony between himself and his longtime employer." It is disappointing that because this guy was a superstar, Google acted like nothing happened.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- SilasX 10y agoIt looks like he may have been asked to leave as a result of the allegations, since they directly coincided with his departure, so that looks like Google did a lot more than "act like nothing happened".
- grandalf 10y agoWow, I think a lot of people learn from their successes and mistakes in previous jobs and bring that knowledge into their next job. It does not seem appropriate to fire someone who hasn't acted badly in his current job. The opportunity for finding out about his past was before he was offered the position.
- traek 10y agoHis reason for leaving Google (a "credible" sexual harassment allegation) is a liability for Uber. If he had disclosed it before he was offered the position, he likely would not have been offered it. It seems completely appropriate for a company to take steps to limit their liabilities.
- mamp 10y agoBased on what is being written about Uber's culture it's not obvious he wouldn't have been offered job if this had been known. Now it's clearly a liability.
- grandalf 10y agoUh, a credible allegation according to whom? If there had been disciplinary action or termination I think he perhaps ought to have disclosed it, but this seems like opportunism and scapegoating. The more we learn about Uber's culture I think the inescapable conclusion is that it might very much benefit from a different CEO.
- ogezi 10y agoI also read his post about wanting to do something else, so I was very surprised when I heard that he had gotten a job at Uber. I think that Kalanick made the right decision by asking him to resign. They can't afford to have any more controversies surrounding them especially at this time. I hope all that has happened at Uber can overall make the tech industry better for everyone.
- kaspm 10y agoIt's great that Kalanick moved quickly but between this and the other incidents, I don't think it's going to be enough. Kalanick himself may have to resign. Given a good competitor in Lyft and the relatively low barrier to entry on the core business, it will be difficult to weather this storm.
- ogezi 10y agoI think that after some time people will forget about this. I read an article [1] today about how the anger that a lot of people feel towards Uber right now will not be enough to push them through the discomfort of moving to smaller competitors like Lyft. it's great that Susan Fowler spoke out but it's gonna take more (a much bigger problem) to cause Kalanick to resign (or be pushed out by the board). [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/why-uber-probably-never-will-reform-itself-2017-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/why-uber-probably-never-will-...
- kaspm 10y agoI suspect the hits will keep coming [1] [1] https://medium.com/@amyvertino/my-name-is-not-amy-i-am-an-uber-survivor-c6d6541e632f#.n2hpo0pws https://medium.com/@amyvertino/my-name-is-not-amy-i-am-an-ub...
- ProAm 10y ago> I think that after some time people will forget about this. Except that it seems to come up every 8 months or so with Uber, so there's a constant reminder of what kind of company it is.
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- isanganak 10y agoWhat exactly did Singhal do at Google that got him in that situation?
- oh_sigh 10y agoThat almost certainly isn't going to be released publicly unless there is some kind of lawsuit that happens. The only thing we know is that Google labeled it 'credible', but we have no idea how they came to that decision.
- neduma 10y agoThat means it is true. Google is same boat as Uber in terms of sexual harassment events.
- joeletizia 10y agoReally? Links?
- r00fus 10y agoYou really need to add snark tags. Your deadpan is too convincing.
- dosgonlogs 10y agohttp://www.businessinsider.com/kelly-ellis-claims-she-was-sexually-harassed-at-google-2015-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/kelly-ellis-claims-she-was-se... http://www.gadgette.com/2016/01/19/what-i-learnt-from-being-sexually-harassed-at-google/ http://www.gadgette.com/2016/01/19/what-i-learnt-from-being-... https://prezi.com/jtikgiukl0tl/sexual-harassment-in-google/ https://prezi.com/jtikgiukl0tl/sexual-harassment-in-google/ http://nypost.com/2014/05/28/staffer-slaps-google-with-sexual-harassment-lawsuit/ http://nypost.com/2014/05/28/staffer-slaps-google-with-sexua... More light on todays news: http://gizmodo.com/former-google-engineer-blasts-companys-hr-after-sexual-1792802747 http://gizmodo.com/former-google-engineer-blasts-companys-hr...
- kchoudhu 10y agoOn a scale of 1-10, how hard is it to keep your dick in your pants at work? I just don't get the mindset that results in someone thinking "yeah man, it is totally ok to make a pass at a coworker in a professional environment"
- paki123 10y agoThey are rockstars.
- momentmaker 10y agoVery hard apparently.
- kneel 10y agoI'm not saying it's okay to proposition a coworker but I've seen several women flirt their way into favor in the office. It's happened to me a couple times, it's really confusing. Combine that with the socially inept male dominated software environment and you can pretty much expect scandalous things to happen.
- kchoudhu 10y agoThis just feeds into my 1-10 question: just because someone propositioned me because I happen to be in a position of power doesn't mean I'm going to respond to it by bestowing favor. The socially inept thing probably accounts for a lot of the problem.
- sidlls 10y agoYeah, and when I taught I'd regularly have some female students come to office hours in revealing clothes or try to sit closer than others and so on. Two things occur to me: 1) neither of those things means those students were engaging in "flirting their way to favor": maybe, just maybe, they were dressing comfortably for them or they absorbed our discussion better by sitting closer and my biases and (mis-?)perceptions were at work; 2) even if they were "flirting," as a responsible adult male it was my responsibility to ignore it, or even raise a concern if I felt it were intentional and damaging to the student-teacher relationship.
- VerizonIP 10y agoDownvote all you want, but these witch-hunts will put the final nail in the coffin of the American economic leadership in this century.
- MegaButts 10y agoI want to hear this. Please elaborate.
- kchoudhu 10y agoWhy feed a troll?
- tdb7893 10y agoAt least for me I find it fascinating how people justify things to themselves. Understanding how people believe these things helps me not fall into the same traps
- VerizonIP 10y agoSpecialization is good for any kind of production, as implemented by Henry Ford for example. Including the production of children. In the West (when the West was economically dominant, from 1300 to 1967) and in the far East, women used to specialize in rearing children, and men in procuring food and wealth. Both roles were equally important. The undermining of this specialization will lead to two things: 1. Lack of children (a good thing, however the societies that still have this specialization will simply replace the Western children), and 2. Loss of the leading technological/economic position.
- officelineback 10y ago>But within a year, rather than do good, Singhal had gotten a top job at Uber. Heh. A not too subtle burn.
- geodel 10y agoHe could have done good as ubermensch.
- r00fus 10y agoI think it's disingenuous to conflate Uber with "not do good". I say this as someone who deleted the Uber app after Susan Fowler's story. .
- kaspm 10y agoI think s/he was saying that the article implied that, not the commenter. Commenter was complimenting the good turn of phrase.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ScottBurson 10y agoI think the article is just saying that Singhal was not spending his time as a philanthropist.
- koolba 10y agoFrom the article (emphasis mine): > “As I entered the fifteenth year of working at Google, I've been asking myself the question, ‘What would you want to do for the next fifteen?’ The answer has overwhelmingly been: Give back to others. It has always been a priority for me to give back to people who are less fortunate, and make time for my family amidst competing work constraints — but on both fronts, I simply want to give and do more,” he wrote. “Now is a good time to make this important life change.” > But within a year, rather than do good, Singhal had gotten a top job at Uber. There's nothing inherently "not good" with changing jobs. If anything, you get an opportunity to make more money, make a bigger impact on new projects, and bring in others that you've worked with prior to join you. The latter can markedly improve their lives as well through the same (pay bump, new work, etc). Implying that leaving Google for Uber is inherently not "do[ing] good" is pretty slanted.
- sjbp 10y agoIn the time since he left Google, Amit did establish the Singhal Foundation[0] which focuses on education in India. [0]: www.singhalfoundation.org/about
- Kalium 10y ago> Implying that leaving Google for Uber is inherently not "do[ing] good" is pretty slanted. In some circles, some companies are inherently evil and "do[ing] good" seen as fundamentally incompatible with private enterprise. With that in mind, leaving Google for Uber and wishing to "do good" becomes the height of hypocrisy.
- SilasX 10y agoYes, but there's a standard meaning of "do good", which refers to philanthropic work, especially the kind with a managerial role in that very work. Certainly, there are ways to "do good" by optimizing your earnings and using them to bankroll the good, but then that no longer works as an explanation for leaving -- a different job in basically the same role would be the same "work constraint"; his MO for "doing good" would be unchanged, just with possibly a bigger source of income for it. His statement makes much more sense as a cover for the bad reasons, as when you hear "resigning to spend more time with his family [and totally not because of accounting fraud that we're still untangling]".
- alphonsegaston 10y agoI wonder how many execs the investors will let Kalanick burn through before they go after him. It seems like they could solve a lot of their image problems by deposing him. Just look how easily the public was deceived with Uber vs Lyft in the JFK immigration ban strike. He must be quite adept at managing them.
- hackuser 10y ago> I wonder how many execs the investors will let Kalanick burn through before they go after him. An interesting point. What value does he add by remaining? It's a serious question; what are his strengths and weaknesses as a CEO? A major part of the CEO's job is to be the public face, to maintain the business' reputation, and to handle crises. The results don't look good right now in terms of those requirements, but of course it's also not accurate to rely on a snapshot taken at someone's worst moment. Also, we all know that many founders don't make good CEOs of large organizations. Those are different skill sets.
- adrenalinelol 10y agoUber's valuation is contingent on it becoming a monopoly or something close to it. That isn't going to happen w/o a pitbull CEO. Travis knows the business better than anyone else @ this point. A threshold of bad PR that is counter to said goal would have to be met, and I don't think this is it.
- sremani 10y ago"In this City, you are innocent until you are investigated." - Syriana
- BadassFractal 10y agoThe inquisition is back and you too could be a heretic soon.
- e15ctr0n 10y ago> “As I entered the fifteenth year of working at Google, I've been asking myself the question, ‘What would you want to do for the next fifteen?’ Given that he joined Uber on January 20th [0], he's out in 5 weeks total. His interest in running his own philanthropic foundation also didn't last much more than a year [0]. Sounds like he needs to rethink what he's going to do for the next 15 years. [0] Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13445597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13445597
- keeptrying 10y agoScapegoating.
- perseusprime11 10y agoHow did he go from rewriting Google's search algorithm to managing an entire engineering workforce at Uber? That seems like a crazy shift from maker to manager.