Validating all the rumors that have been swirling around his impending departure, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has announced a temporary leave of absence from the cab aggregator. The leave could be read many ways. While some say it is because of the great personal tragedy that struck the Kalanick family last month, others attribute it to professional reason.
Announcing his temporary departure, Kalanick said:
During this interim period, the leadership team, my directs, will be running the company. I will be available as needed for the most strategic decisions, but I will be empowering them to be bold and decisive in order to move the company forward swiftly. It’s hard to put a timeline on this – it may be shorter or longer than we might expect.
What’s more, even when Kalanick returns, his responsibilities would likely be reduced, The board has decided to accept all of the recommendations presented before it and among them, was one which said that Kalanick’s responsibilities should be reduced and a COO found as soon as possible.
While we do not know when Kalanick will be coming back the wording o the letter he sent out to employees does suggest that he will still be actively involved with the company — particularly the selection process for the COO.
Meanwhile, the major recommendations made by the committee to the Uber board are as follows:
- Giving out free Uber credits to employees, all of them and not just the early ones.
- Equal family time leaves for male and female employees.
- Increase the independence of Uber board from the main company.
- Create a separate ethics and culture committee or similar committees.
- To use compensation to hold senior leaders accountable.
- To change the“Let Builders Build” and “Always Be Hustlin”, mindset encouraged at the company. Why? Because there are allegations that this mindset often let the top performers get away with wrongdoing.
You can read the full report, right here.
