Delete Uber Movement Revived After Former Employee Details Sexual Harassment Claims

Uber is under fire after a former employee detailed allegations in a blog post about sexual and workplace harassment at the company, reigniting the #DeleteUber movement. The blog post was widely shared, and Uber has promised an urgent investigation into the claims and culture described in the post.

The post was written by Susan Fowler, a former SRE engineer who joined Uber in November 2015 and left just more than a year later in December 2016.

Fowler claims that on her first official day rotating on a team at Uber, her manager sent her inappropriate messages, which she immediately reported to HR but was told that it was the manager's first offense and he would get a "stern talking-to." She says she was given a choice to either stay on the team — but it was likely she would get a poor performance review — or she could move to a different team. Fowler said she changed teams and began meeting more women at Uber who had had similar experiences as her, and some had even reported the same manager as her.

Fowler describes having a frustrating experience with HR that did not do anything to address the concerns she and the other women at Uber brought forward, and HR allegedly attempted to paint Fowler as the problem. Adding to the sexism at the organization, Fowler claims internal politics eroded any organization at the company. She wrote that even though she met all the standards to transfer to a different team, her transfer was apparently blocked because having a woman on the team made her manager look good.

Read Fowler's blog post in full here.

"What's described here is abhorrent & against everything we believe in. Anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired," Uber CEO Travis Kalanik tweeted shortly after the post was published.

In a follow-up tweet, Kalanik wrote that he had instructed the company's chief human resources officer to conduct an urgent investigation.

"There can be absolutely no place for this kind of behavior at Uber," he said.

People had strong reactions to Fowler's post, lending their support to her for speaking out while calling on the company to explain the claims she details.

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