Categories | Lawsuits & Litigation Article

Uber Faces Allegations of Sexual Harassment

February 21st, 2017 • Lawsuits & Litigation • 2 minute read
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Author Sara E. Teller

Uber Faces Allegations of Sexual Harassment

Nothing is kept quiet for long in the age of social media.  Information spreads around the world like wildfire in the matter of seconds.  All it takes is a media-worthy topic and a few keystrokes.  A company’s shady misdeeds typically qualifies as worthy of such attention, and a business’s reputation can be ruined very quickly as it faces the consequences in the Internet age.Susan Fowler, former Uber engineer, decided to take a matter regarding her year long employment at the riding sharing company public.  Fowler published a blog post on her social media Sunday alleging sexual harassment from a superior, and calling the company “sexist”.  Fowler claimed her boss made a gesture toward her, and the company did little about it.  Fowler was instead forced to resign and seek out employment elsewhere.

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The problem Uber faces is so prevalent, actually, that one survey found three in five women in the Silicon Valley area have been sexually harassed by their male colleagues, with most of the advances being made by superiors.  The survey, cleverly titled “Elephant in the Valley”, polled 200 women in the tech industry. According to Fowler’s post, the woman had allegedly documented the incidents, reported her concerns to Human Resources and to other members of management, but received little solace for her efforts.  With nothing concrete being done to curtail the issue, she was eventually forced to give up and leave.  Uber faces a lot of heat as of late with users of the shared driving company citing they were not happy about CEO Travis Kalanick’s connection with president Trump.  Kalanick was on Trump’s business advisory council until just recently.  The connection between Uber’s alleged views of women and the president’s was not lost on social media users.Kalanick issued a statement confirming the company’s intent to launch an investigation. Arianna Huffington, a woman who joined Uber’s board of directors in April 2016, agreed to aid in these efforts.  She asked that anyone with information or concerns email her directly.

Sources:

Uber allegations a stark reminder of sexism in techUber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee
Sara E. Teller

About Sara E. Teller

Sara is a credited freelance writer, editor, contributor, and essayist, as well as a novelist and poet with nearly twenty years of experience. A seasoned publishing professional, she's worked for newspapers, magazines and book publishers in content digitization, editorial, acquisitions and intellectual property. Sara has been an invited speaker at a Careers in Publishing & Authorship event at Michigan State University and a Reading and Writing Instructor at Sylvan Learning Center. She has an MBA degree with a concentration in Marketing and an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, graduating with a 4.2/4.0 GPA. She is also a member of Chi Sigma Iota and a 2020 recipient of the Donald D. Davis scholarship recognizing social responsibility. Sara is certified in children's book writing, HTML coding and social media marketing. Her fifth book, PTSD: Healing from the Inside Out, was released in September 2019 and is available on Amazon. You can find her others books there, too, including Narcissistic Abuse: A Survival Guide, released in December 2017.

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