With the internal environment already boiling due to Susan Fowler’s allegations, the company had to take stern decisions to avoid further blow-ups
After recently taking heaps of criticism from the world, over negligence on matters involving sexual harassment at the workplace, Uber is now being extremely cautious of such incidences. To prevent any future mishaps, apparently Uber Technologies Inc. has recently asked a senior executive to leave the company for failing to disclose a sexual harassment allegation stemming from his previous organisation.
Uber is already investigating allegations of sexual harassment internally, after Susan Fowler, former Uber employee said in a widely-read blog post that senior executives and human resources officers at the company had not punished her manager after she reported his unwanted sexual advances. She mentioned that they even threatened her with a poor performance review. The allegations, by Susan Fowler, highlighted the long-standing problem of gender discrimination in the technology industry.
With the internal environment already boiling up due to the Fowler case, the company had to take stern decisions to avoid further blow-ups. Hence, CEO Travis Kalanick, reportedly on Monday asked senior vice president of engineering, Amit Singhal, to resign after a technology media platform informed Uber of the previous sexual harassment allegation.
Singhal was hired in January this year and he apparently did not disclose the allegations when Uber hired him, nor were they revealed by the reference checks. At Google, Singhal led the search division and stayed there for 15 years before he left last year, saying he planned to focus on philanthropy. However, in January he revealed his plan to join Uber, saying he would work closely with Kalanick on the company’s self-driving car programme.
On the other hand, Uber last week hired former US attorney general, Eric Holder, to conduct a review of the claims by Fowler. Chief executive, Travis Kalanick had called the allegations by Fowler “abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and believes in”.
