Update:
David Bonderman has tendered his resignation from the Uber board following outrage caused over his sexist remark. Read the full story right here.
Previously:
Amid all the hullabaloo caused at Uber due to the allegations of workplace harassment, the company has been seeing some major upheavals. This includes dozens of firings, some top executive departures and more recently, a temporary leave of absence by CEO Travis Kalanick.
Nevertheless, it seems like Uber still has a long way to go. In an audio recording of an all hands meeting organized by Uber, board member David Bonderman can be heard stating that “adding more women to the board meant more talking”.
Well, if that isn’t sexist, I don’t know what is. The audio was first recovered by Yahoo Finance, and here is a transcript of the same.
Arianna Huffington:
There’s a lot of data that shows when there’s one woman on the board, it’s much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board.
David Bonderman:
Actually, what it shows is that it’s much more likely to be more talking.
Arianna Huffington:
Oh come on, don’t worry David.
Apparently, Bonderman has sine then realized his mistake. He has even issued a statement, which has been forwarded by the company’s HR head Liane Hornsey.
I want to apologize to my fellow board member for a disrespectful comment that was directed at her during today’s discussion. It was inappropriate. I also want to apologize to all Uber employees who were offended by the remark. I deeply regret it.
Well, the apology is all well and good. However, it is really surprising that despite all the efforts the company has been making to eliminate exactly this kind of thought and behavior, it continues to persist.
In February, investors Freada and Mitch Kapor had criticized the company (a rare thing for an investors to do), going so far so as to call the workplace environment toxic. They recently issued a letter, stating that they were satisfied by the measures that had been recommended.
We also said that we were ready to help, but only if the company took a comprehensive approach to overhauling its culture, including “every aspect of its policies, practices, complaint systems, training, upward communication systems, sentiment analysis, and commitment from the top.” Our initial review of today’s report suggests that this is the approach that the board has adopted. The recommendations are both thoughtful and extensive, and we are very encouraged that they have taken this as seriously as we had hoped.
However, Bonderman’s remark (at a all hands meet against sexism no less) raise serious doubts towards the company’s intentions and weather, it will exhibit seriousness in implementing the measures that have been suggested.
Let’s hope that once — and if –the cab aggregator starts implementing the recommendations made by the committee set to investigate the matter, the environment at the firm will improve.
