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Comment by minimaxir | Hacker News Reader

Travis Kalanick's response: https://twitter.com/travisk/status/833480964315557888

> 1/ What's described here is abhorrent & against everything we believe in. Anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired.

> 2/ I've instructed our CHRO Liane to conduct an urgent investigation. There can be absolutely no place for this kind of behavior at Uber.

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HR already investigated. Putting the Chief Human Resource Officer in charge implies what the investigation will conclude: rouge employees. Because if it was institutional, the CHRO would be responsible.

Then again, it isn't a commitment to cleaning out HR beyond anyone there who says, 'Oh I think it is ok.' And the whole 'thinking' thing is a way of backing off under the cover of 'We don't want to be thought police.'

There's no taking of responsibility for what happened on his watch. No personal commitment to action. No promise of full disclosure. This is damage control and the fact that HR is in charge of investigating allegations against it suggests that the plan is cover up. The CEO sets the culture.

Looks like the CHRO was hired in November.

If the investigation was serious, chief council or the CEO would be doing it. The new hire provides more cover for the rouge employees conclusion by providing a plausible 'it did not happen on my watch'. C-level positions hit the ground running and the sort of events described in the article are bread and butter regardless of industry. After three months there's no way this was a blind side.

Only because you did it twice...

"rogue".

I shall add it to my cannon of mistakes.

It's a shame that he condones harassment until it reaches the top of hacker news.

It's also going viral on Facebook and getting picked up by media; I've had 4 Facebook friends share it in the last couple hours, and my wife (not in tech) was just reading it.

True virality was achieved when a non-techie friend shared the Jezebel write-up.

It's now on CNN, CNBC, the New York Times, and pretty much everywhere else.

Maybe that's why he hired a new CHRO.

Please note that Kalanick didn't take responsibility for this or said that the buck stops with him, but rather instructed the head of HR to investigate something that systematically took place in the organization for years: protecting high output engineers for the sake of valuations and their IPO. If that doesn't reek of rotten culture, what does?

How about independent investigation?

Exactly. Hire a credible outside investigative body to look at this. Even if the CHRO was hired after the alleged wrongdoing here, they're still biased.

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