Uber’s investigation into claims of sexual harassment by former engineer Susan Fowler have started yielding fruit, albeit biter ones for many. The company’s investigation which began after Miss Fowler took to Medium with her complaints, have led to investigations into the conduct of at least 215 employees.
As per a report from Bloomberg, at least 20 employees have been found at fault in these investigations and have been shown the door. While 100 employees were initially caught in the net, the publication said that 57 employees are still being investigated, 31 are in some type of counseling or training for their actions. 7 have received a stern, written warning and 20 have been terminated altogether.
Susan Fowler also tweeted on the topic, sarcastically commenting on Uber board members claims that she was an isolated case.
Arianna and Liane to press: there is no systemic sexual harassment, just Susan.
External lawyers: there are 215 cases of sexual harassment.
This was in response to Board member Ariana Huffington, who was investigating the matter and had said:
Yes, there were some bad apples, unquestionably. But this is not a systemic problem
Meanwhile, a problem of this scale certainly raises questions as to the culture of the company. Uber has also been blamed for having a seriously handicapped management structure wherein 3,000 of its 12,000 employees were in management position with many of them having no prior experience.
The company has been attempting to take corrective measures. Apart from these probes, it has also hired Francis Frei, an academic from Harvard Business School, who is a strong proponent of gender issues as its SVP of leadership and strategy. This appointment in particular seems to denote that the company is very serious about what has been happening and now wants to take corrective measures.
Meanwhile, we will know more when the company releases an official statement next week.
