16 ms·
Uber Executive, Linked to an Old Harassment Claim, Resigns
- startupdiscuss 10y ago“Harassment is unacceptable in any setting,” Mr. Singhal said in a statement. “I certainly want everyone to know that I do not condone and have not committed such behavior. In my 20-year career, I’ve never been accused of anything like this before, and the decision to leave Google was my own.”
- fullshark 10y agoSo the implication is then what? Uber made the whole thing up? He's never been accused before he was accused at Google, or before he was accused in the media?
- startupdiscuss 10y agoJust to be clear: I have no way of knowing the facts and am just commenting based on my memory of what I read. What he says doesn't contradict what Uber said. Uber let him go for not revealing the accusations. They have no way of knowing what the results of the investigation were.
- gwern 10y ago"What he says doesn't contradict what Uber said. Uber let him go for not revealing the accusations" What he said directly contradicts what Uber said. Uber said there was an accusation. He says there has never been an accusation. These are direct contradictions. 1!=0.
- cjhopman 10y agoI think that's an incorrect interpretation of what he said. He does not say there has never been an accusation, he says there has never _before_ been an accusation.
- startupdiscuss 10y agoHe does admit that there was a Google accusation.
- netsharc 10y agoOr Uber and this guy did a deal because of his clean record (just like all the guys that the 2 girls complained about to HR and HR said "it's the first complaint about him!" multiple times). Now he's lost his job, and the other side will say "the feminist witch hunt caused the jobs of innocent people!"
- FireBeyond 10y ago> In my 20-year career, I’ve never been accused of anything like this before That reads to me as "until now". > and the decision to leave Google was my own "We need you to resign immediately, or we will have no option but to terminate your employment." "Then I choose to resign."
- bla2 10y agoIt does feel a bit like Uber's CEO trying to get rid of credible replacements.
- rattray 10y agoThis seems like an absurd attempt at trying to lay the blame for recent reports on someone who was hired a month ago?
- Ensorceled 10y agoOr an effort to actually clean house. There is not enough evidence from this one act to make ANY judgment on whether Uber is fixing their problem or carrying on as usual.
- HelloNurse 10y agoIn the best case, firing a very expendable recent hire for a good reason is much less painful than getting rid of an important engineer, or even HR and top management. Fixing the problem would require company-destroying purges.
- FireBeyond 10y agoNo, the best case would be actually fixing the problem. Heaven forbid we "get rid of an important engineer", when, literally, that's the exact problem that got Uber into this mess. Multiple times complaints were met with "well, he's a high performer, so try to stay on his good side, and well, if he gives you a negative review, we can't do anything about that". If removing the problem would destroy the company, that's a much bigger issue in itself.
- HelloNurse 10y agoI meant "the best case" as the morally best possibility in which Uber is least evil: neglecting the serious behaviour problems, but at least firing someone who deserved to be fired. They might also have fired an innocent, or a conniving expendable employee, to improve their image. Today's commotion about their CEO insulting a humble Uber driver suggests a ruthless PR campaign of distraction and damage control.
- DigitalSea 10y agoTravis is such a coward. How is firing someone hired last month going to fix the rampant toxicity over at Uber? I think the biggest action Travis could take is stepping down as CEO. It sounds like he is central to all of the reports of the culture of sexism and harassment over at Uber we've heard thus far. Travis needs to go, the entire HR team needs to go and all higher up executives and management staff needs to go as well.
- hvass 10y agoI recommend that you read Brad Stone's new book on Uber and Airbnb. You'd get a sense of how much Uber means to Travis. In my opinion, the last thing he'd do is to step down (I am not making a comment whether he should or shouldn't—it's just something that I clearly don't see happening voluntarily.)
- btian 10y agoThen the board should remove him, and his lieutenant Emil Michael who threatened to stalk journalists.
- austenallred 10y agoThey can't; he controls the board
- yeukhon 10y agoWell considered he built Uber Taxi two decades ago and then Uber almost a decade ago, this means a lot to him for sure. He must have waited years to get this rich get this much of influence.
- ant6n 10y agoIf he worked hard and waited long ... why threaten it all with this juvenile BS?
- deleted 10y ago
- giis 10y agoLooks like they hired him without complete background check. Its good attempt. This will look like PR stunt unless they step-up and take action on their long-term employee(s) - regardless of high performer or not - who might have involved in the harassments.
- ykzui 10y agoI think the more plausible occurrence is that Kalanick knew about it before hiring him, then hired him anyway, and only fired him after the Susan Fowler story came out. Surely someone of Kalanick's stature would have been able to find out about this through back channels when he was vetting Singhal.
- tbrowbdidnso 10y agoI think it's insane that "allegations" of harassment are enough to get you fired. That sets the bar far too low, below any standard of evidence. Replace google with some shit company that didn't want you to leave and you'll see what I mean. I warned my boss at my current job that my last one ain't gonna be too happy about me leaving since I was nearly irreplaceable. I'm still betting they said terrible things about me, but what kind of bullshit evidence is that?
- untog 10y agoAccording to the article, he was not fired because of the allegations, but fired because he did not disclose the nature of his departure from Google. When you're a high up enough executive you need to be trustworthy - his first action with the company proved that he isn't.
- tbrowbdidnso 10y agoHe resigned on his own terms. I know executives pull that crap all the time to avoid getting "fired" but the fact is he quit voluntarily
- lbatx 10y ago
- shard972 10y agoHas there been a tech company that has been this highly called out on their culture before this?
- dredmorbius 10y agoWell, there was that Ellen Pao suit a year or so back. And a bunch of others: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sexual+harassment+silicon+valley&t=ftas&ia=news https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sexual+harassment+silicon+valley&t...
- voidhorse 10y agoThis stinks of scapegoating, of cover up, of distraction. I'm sure Uber hopes this is a best/least impact course of action for them to begin to erase last week's terrible publicity from everyone's minds. They a. Fire someone who has only been there a month -- so don't lose too hard employee investment wise. b. Happened to find someone to fire who fits extremely well into a narrative that makes it appear as though they are toughening up and tackling the root of these recent sexual harassment accusations when in reality the good old boys will be sticking around. Capitalism may improve greatly once we have robot overlord higher-ups that are optimized for economic success only and not power drunk once they don a suit, prove they are a little more cunning and opportunistic than most people that still have fully operating empathetic brain parts, and are, quite frankly often the most idiotic but belligerent (read infantile) people in the room--though of course if some current top-dogs design/get a stake in the business logic of our future corporate AIs I'm sure our mechanized leaders will be just as ruthless and scummy. I suspect there's a host of tie wearing, sycophantic, despicable wretches out there for every corporate leader to whom one could actually ascribe any virtue or nobility--to one whom you can call leader without having the taste of vomit well up in your mouth. I'm not sure if that's a problem caused by capitalism or merely exacerbated by it. Chicken/egg sort of thing. Of course I can only draw upon my limited experience, but I've met very few people in high stakes positions at major companies that I actually liked or even considered intelligent and deserving of the benefits they receive--then again ours is often a system of reward based on raw time spent and bribes offered rather than actual merit. Furthermore, it's an unfortunate fact that valuable qualities are often uncoupled; the person of great intellect may well be a piss poor leader nine times out of ten. Granted, anyone in a higher-up position at a major company has a hell of a lot of stress, responsibility, and pressure on them, but that does not legitimate disgusting behavior as an acceptable outlet, nor does it legitimate chest buffing since effective leadership at major corporation scale often relies on the minor leadership and autonomy of subordinates anyway. Hierarchies are foolish.
- test1235 10y agoKalanick probably has an ordered list of employees he's ready to fire until this thing goes away. I wouldn't even put it beyond him to hire someone just so he can fire them after a month or two.
- freyr 10y agoI remember when Singhal's hiring was discussed here on HN last month. People wondered what would attract Singhal to Uber. Now we know: the company culture.
- mc32 10y agoIf history offers any clues, Ellison might be taking a look at mr Singhal right about now.
- pen2l 10y agoIt can't be that Singhal's life has just ended. Everyone is more than their worst moments. Everyone deserves a second chance. The guy did a complete rewrite of Google's search engine... he made Google what it is today. The guy deserves to use his talents somewhere. I hope he gets the help he needs and moves on with his life peacefully.
- pacaro 10y agoNah, I disagree. It's time for housecleaning in this industry. If it is true that he jumped before he was pushed at Google, then they must have had some serious evidence against him. Should Hans Reiser be given a second chance because he's good at file systems? Turn it around, if an engineer does amazing work all their career, and behaves within societal norms, do they at some point accumulate enough credit to allow them a "get out of jail free" pass?
- mc32 10y agoNot sure I'd give Singhal a pass --depending on evidence provided, that said, I'd probably give someone who develops a cure for even one of the cancers a pass. It's probably not the PC thing to say, but if someone could have such a positive on their side of the scale, I think I could give them a pass. Your example has some false equivalence, Hans is a convicted murderer, Singhal is an accused sexual harasser. Those are not equivalent. In a purely procedural society such a hypothetical person does not get a pass --in a more relative society he gats a pass. Kind of how we look the other way regarding historical figures of importance and their flaws when what they achieved transcends those flaws.
- oh_sigh 10y agoI have no idea what the allegations made against Singhal are, or whether there is any veracity to them, but I do know that if we treat allegations as a guilty verdict, then allegations, whether honest or not, become an extremely powerful, career ending strike against someone. I understand why Uber would drop him, even if just for PR purposes, but I'm curious why a forum which is so concerned with upholding of classic American values(as discussed during the recent Trump EO banning certain people from certain states) would be willing to dismiss another American virtue: innocent until proven guilty.
- jordanlev 10y agoHe resigned. So for whatever reason, he agreed to leave of his own volition. Whether that's because he is actually guilty of the accusations and knows it, or the CEO forced him to for publicity reasons (or both)... who knows. But nobody has been branded officially "guilty" of a crime in terms of the American legal system.
- bitmapbrother 10y agoHe resigned before being dismissed by Google according to the article.
- oh_sigh 10y agoMost people on the McCarthy era hollywood blacklist were not found guilty of anything - only accusations, and I don't recall a lot of people defending that episode.
- epistasis 10y ago>but I do know that if we treat allegations as a guilty verdict Your comment is extremely off base. In additions to an allegation we have: 1) An investigation that found the allegations "credible." 2) A resignation that appears to be because of these allegations, in an attempt to avoid the allegations and investigation coming to light. 3) A failure to disclose these circumstances to a new employer. While that might be fine for somebody not in a leadership position, for somebody at the SVP level, come on.
- KKKKkkkk1 10y agoWhy did Google let an executive who had credible complaints against him resign on his own, and even threw a goodbye party for him? I can only imagine how the victim felt when he or she heard about that party.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- argonaut 10y agoAccording to Kara Swisher (journalist), Google (the corporation) did not throw him a party: https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/836456506102947840 https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/836456506102947840
- bitmapbrother 10y ago>Google was prepared to dismiss Mr. Singhal because of the claim, Recode said, but ultimately he resigned on his own in February 2016. Seems like he resigned before being dismissed. As for the party, it was organized by his friends at Google.
- shaqbert 10y agoIf credible illegal behaviour has happened, why did Google not forward the information to law enforcement? If Amit did do something bad, allowing him to resign makes Google complicit in letting him off the hook scot free. In that case how would the poor victim feel? If Amit did not do something bad, how can he ever clean his name from the allegation? Really poorly handled by Google. And now made even worse by leaking stuff to the press. Stuff like that belong in a court of law, not in some HR department.
- Symmetry 10y agoNot all bad actions are illegal. It's generally legal to ask people to have sex with you, even if they're working for you. But it would be a poor company which tolerated that from its managers.
- 10y ago
- runesoerensen 10y agoAlso discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13747177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13747177
- nullnilvoid 10y agoGlad to see Uber has taken actions to fire Singhal. He well deserves this. Sexual harassment should not be tolerated anywhere anytime. Singhal is such a hypocrite. He says “Harassment is unacceptable in any setting” while he did it himself at Google(Of course he denies it but Google's internal investigations found it credible). He said he wanted to focus on philanthropy while he joined Uber less than a year after he left Google.
- rodgerd 10y ago> Everyone is more than their worst moments. I'm sure Goebbels loved his kids. Hitler liked dogs. Stalin enjoyed Shostakovich. Obviously they all needed second chances.
- dang 10y agoWould you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or uncivil comments to Hacker News? We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13751469 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13751469 and marked it off-topic.
- rodgerd 10y agoFunny how suggesting that, say, Twitter is run by a cabal of hard leftists isn't "uncivil", but noting a pretty obvious error in absolutist statements is.
- jameskegel 10y agoFolks, look.. I'd love to hop on the Uber hate wagon, but they didn't take liberties with my personal info in a malicious way, change the level of their service or drastically change the terms of the agreement. That and they provided a service that I still find useful and commensurate for what I pay. I could not care less what social struggles take place internally, and my once a month fare doesn't do much to further any ill wills being schemed in a dark room somewhere at Uber HQ. Don't construe this as me endorsing any bad actors; I'm simply wondering how much of this outrage among HN posters is really translating to Lyft and Taxi conversions, and how much of it is just internet outrage and virtue signaling puffery.
- izacus 10y agoCould you explain more the point of your post? Because to me it seems like you're saying that Ubers behaviour is acceptable as long as they make money. Did I misunderstand?
- sebleon 10y agoI think (s)he is saying that most angry commenters will display outrage online, and then unthinkingly call an Uber within the next 24hrs to go eat a burrito.
- jameskegel 10y agoThis is exactly what I was saying.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- tasty_freeze 10y agoUsing "virtue signaling" is in vogue, and I don't like it. Yes, the idea is real, but it has become an easy way of dismissing the legitimacy of the person it is invoked against, without doing any work to actually support the accusation. It is also telling that it is used exclusively to undercut progressive stances -- things like feminism, liberal immigration policies, fair pay, etc. It is never used to undermine the position of someone who who has made a typically conservative stance. Let me demonstrate. Statement 1: "I wouldn't want to work there because they have a reputation as having a sexist work environment." Rejoinder 1: "Your obvious virtue signaling is a joke. I don't care what you think." Statement 2: "I believe in the constitution and believe guns are a significant foundation to the freedoms we enjoy." Rejoinder 2: "You are just virtue signaling. Ooh, look at me, I'm such a patriot. Ha ha." Why is it we only see type 1 rejoinders and not type 2?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- patmcguire 10y agoAs we all know, Amit's real friends called him Mike #2.
- weekay 10y agoMike#2 has been in the company for longer than a month !
- dredmorbius 10y agoCharacter smears which are clearly at odds with the facts (as another reply to this comment notes) are exceedingly toxic. Even if everything else fits, this doesn't. And you're messing with someone's life. (I'm not defending Amit. I don't know him. The claims here strike me as plausible, though I don't know either way. There's a reason such matters are referred to legal systems, ultimately, if necessary. Not a perfect system either, but rather better than unsubstantiated, or worse, glibly false, claims in online media.)
- patmcguire 10y agoIt was meant to be preposterously false, signifying that I thought this was a scapegoat for a larger problem, but from the reaction it's clear I did not communicate that.
- jorblumesea 10y agoI wonder if the timing was intentional at Google. Top level technical talent leaves, Google throws a party for him, then suddenly it comes out after the Uber scandal that he's involved in similar proceedings? Someone at Google was angry about the departure.
- partycoder 10y agoThe problem is HR ignoring sexual harassment reports. Fire whoever needs to be fired in HR, and implement a real HR policy. Leaking cherry-picked names to the press and scapegoating will not calm things down.
- known 10y agoHow did Uber hire him without background check? I think Uber HR Head should also resign.
- darkslave 10y agoIt must feel like hell to be working at Uber and wake up everyday to this news. On the other side some people crave the drama, this is surely up to the standards. What's next? Travis is supporting Trump?
- digi_owl 10y agoI am "impressed" by how much weight an harassment claim carries in certain circles these days. Its almost as if the suits treat it like social leprosy.
- coryfklein 10y agoRegardless of whether Amit is a scapegoat, we clearly need to applaud Uber for encouraging this resignation. Another high level executive with sexual harassment history is not needed, and I hope this signals a change of direction for Uber that is followed up by further cleaning of house.