Yesterday, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick talked about an all hands meet involving a few top executives of the company and board member Arianna Huffington. The members were meeting in order to decide the best way to deal with the fallout from the allegations of sexual harassment, from an ex-employee.
The all hands meet has taken place and Ariana Huffington has released an update regarding what took place at the meet. As per a post on the Uber newsroom:
I just joined Travis and Liane Hornsey, Uber’s recently hired Chief Human Resources Officer, for the company’s weekly meeting. We spent over an hour discussing women in the workplace — and talking about the review that’s underway by Eric Holder and Tammy Albarran into diversity and inclusion at Uber.
Travis spoke very honestly about the mistakes he’s made — and about how he wants to take the events of the last 48-hours to build a better Uber. It was great to see employees holding managers accountable. I also view it as my responsibility to hold the leadership team’s feet to the fire on this issue.
Change doesn’t usually happen without a catalyst. I hope that by taking the time to understand what’s gone wrong and fixing it we can not only make Uber better but also contribute to improvements for women across the industry.
Okay, so not much information, apart from the fact that there is a review taking place. But then we knew that from yesterday’s report regarding the internal memo CEO Travis Kalanick circulated among his employees. We also know that the company has formed a small detail to independently look into the allegations.
Meanwhile, Arianna’s statement regarding “holding the leadership team’s feet to the fire” are rather vague. After all, it wasn’t exactly Kalanick’s fault that this event took place. It could be a good cop, bad cop routine in order to reduce the PR mess that allegations of sexual harassment can cause at a company like Uber –a company that has already been in trouble of late. And perhaps, the top brass at the cab hailing company may just be about to take some big decisions to get rid of “high-performing” managers who indulge in unseemly activities at the workplace.
Meanwhile, we can expect to know more once Uber releases its diversity report.
