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>But this is exactly how you're supposed to run a massively successful startup in its first decade. Is this sort of behavior what we'd like to condone? I mean

>But this is exactly how you're supposed to run a massively successful startup in its first decade. Is this sort of behavior what we'd like to condone? I mean you even admit that its business practices are sometimes exploitative and that's what? How we're supposed to do things? "Grey-area" is a pretty large understatement as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_protests_and_legal_actions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_protests_and_legal_action... >There was literally nothing wrong with the email 4) Do not have sex with another employee UNLESS a) you have asked that person for that privilege and they have responded with an emphatic "YES! I will have sex with you" AND b) the two (or more) of you do not work in the same chain of command. Yes, that means that Travis will be celibate on this trip. #CEOLife #FML How do you not see the problem with this? Travis is a full-grown adult, he's not even some kid fresh out of college and this is the culture he's setting? We've already seen the results of this culture through Susan Fowler and others. >Uber is a cultural phenomenon that arguably has more longevity than something like Facebook. Well first it needs to run a profit... >I just think he's been treated unfairly because of his playboy flair, but he's actually a pretty smart, ruthless business leader. Even this story tries hard to dehumanize him Travis is the worst vision of this sort of techno-utopian capitalism. He's a billionaire running a company which can't make a profit. A business which breaks the laws in almost every country it enters, which doesn't seek to even understand why the regulation it is breaking exists in the first place. He runs the company like a frat house. This company also has two viable paths to profit: 1) Become a monopoly and raise prices. 2) Automate his employees (drivers) away. You're right, Travis has been ruthless so I'm not so sure why we need to put on the kid gloves when we talk about him or his company.

samfisher83 9y ago
He is telling people not rape people and not have sex with your subordinates. It seems pretty reasonable to me. Maybe the wording could be better, but it isn't too scandalous.
- deleted 9y ago
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- frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
  But the point is that how you say things matters. In a more corporate environment there's rules about "relationships with colleagues". In Uber's case it's more like "don't have sex behind the bar (unless she says yes)". In a corporate environment there are no emails telling people not to throw a keg off a roof because it is already expected that you behave with a certain level of decorum. Travis sending an email worded that poorly tells us a lot about his thought processes and because it's directly from him to his workforce it specifically tells us how it is that he perceives the employees of Uber. Mainly that he's a "bro" and his employees are all "bros" too so go have a fun time and do whatever bro, just don't get me in trouble. That's a problem.
  - saalweachter 9y ago
    I think every good workplace tries really hard to discourage relationships between employees, even if they can't ban them outright (because people will be people). The basic problem is that, you go to work to work. If you go to a bar or a club or a party or a bookstore and someone there is coming on too strong, you can leave. It's nicer if the club or host or bar or bookstore makes them leave, but whatever, there are other bars, better bookstores. If you're at your job and a customer or a fellow employee is coming on too strong, and your employer doesn't do anything about it, you have the choice of "dealing with it" or "not having a job". And people need a job; they're there so they can pay for rent and food and (if they're lucky) change the world for the better. Even if you work at an online matchmaking company, you're going to work to find dates for customers, not for yourself. Any finer discussion of the appropriate way or time or number of times to ask your coworker in accounting out is completely missing the point: your coworker in accounting shouldn't have to put up with any number of advances, no matter how mild, when they only show up at work each day to do accounting.

samfisher83 9y ago

He is telling people not rape people and not have sex with your subordinates. It seems pretty reasonable to me. Maybe the wording could be better, but it isn't too scandalous.

deleted 9y ago
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frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
But the point is that how you say things matters. In a more corporate environment there's rules about "relationships with colleagues". In Uber's case it's more like "don't have sex behind the bar (unless she says yes)". In a corporate environment there are no emails telling people not to throw a keg off a roof because it is already expected that you behave with a certain level of decorum. Travis sending an email worded that poorly tells us a lot about his thought processes and because it's directly from him to his workforce it specifically tells us how it is that he perceives the employees of Uber. Mainly that he's a "bro" and his employees are all "bros" too so go have a fun time and do whatever bro, just don't get me in trouble. That's a problem.
- saalweachter 9y ago
  I think every good workplace tries really hard to discourage relationships between employees, even if they can't ban them outright (because people will be people). The basic problem is that, you go to work to work. If you go to a bar or a club or a party or a bookstore and someone there is coming on too strong, you can leave. It's nicer if the club or host or bar or bookstore makes them leave, but whatever, there are other bars, better bookstores. If you're at your job and a customer or a fellow employee is coming on too strong, and your employer doesn't do anything about it, you have the choice of "dealing with it" or "not having a job". And people need a job; they're there so they can pay for rent and food and (if they're lucky) change the world for the better. Even if you work at an online matchmaking company, you're going to work to find dates for customers, not for yourself. Any finer discussion of the appropriate way or time or number of times to ask your coworker in accounting out is completely missing the point: your coworker in accounting shouldn't have to put up with any number of advances, no matter how mild, when they only show up at work each day to do accounting.