Sexism at Uber

[rubyontherocks]

This blog post has been causing a few waves

www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber

To me, the most surprising thing about her account of working at Uber is how overt the sexism was there. There's a lot written about the tech industry issues with sexism lately, but much of it seems more under-the-radar. Uber have now launched an investigation and have hired an ex-attorney general to run it.

It really feels like we are swimming upstream, so little has changed.

I read the article and the thing that stands out to me is the blatant, confident lying. Repeatedly lying to the woman's face in meetings about things she could easily disprove. It's truly shocking.

I don't have much confidence that the inquiry will do any good either.

Holy crap, that's just horrific. Another reason to boycott uber.

What is the other reason for boycotting Uber? I don't really know much about them as a company, and wouldn't use them anyway as I'd rather get a proper taxi.

It's worth finding out how many uber drivers actually make money, AB.

Phone ate my post, AB, but Uber are at the forefront of the so-called "gig economy" - they treat their drivers as "independent contractors, who are therefore paid by the trip, not for any waiting time, and because they pitch the prices to undercut licenced cab companies, this means the drivers are paid significantly less than minimum wage, but with no legal come back because they are "self employed". (Like Hermes delivery drivers and Deliveroo cyclists). They also build their business model round trying to exploit loopholes in the regulations for licenced taxis and minicabs, thus circumventing rules that are there for the safety of both drivers and passengers (hence some of the scandals in India with unvetted drivers committing sexual assaults).

That's before you get into political issues like the fact that when NY yellow cab drivers boycotted the airport the night of the start of Trump's travel ban, Uber continued to run fares out there.

In short, if you were looking for the unacceptable face of unfettered capitalism, Uber wouldn't be far off.

And this, Het:

www.uber.com/en-GB/drive/vehicle-solutions/

Why not lease a car from us whilst we treat you like a commodity?

There was also the time when Uber threatened to dig up dirt on journalists who were criticising them.

And only this week, they asked their director of engineering to resign as he hadn't disclosed that he left his previous company (Google) after sexual harassment allegations.

Then yesterday there was leaked footage of Uber's CEO getting into an argument with an Uber driver about rates.

Makes me wonder if this stuff goes on at the higher levels of all companies, just that Uber didn't hide it as well.

this world is cruel