You know, in the 90s, Microsoft was considered to be a deeply unethical company. Would anyone now consider Microsoft on someone's resume to be a black mark?
Uber, on the other hand, has lots of claims of workplace harassment, sexism, general dysfunction, etc. etc. So an employee that tolerated working at Microsoft in the 90s could legitimately be looked at differently than someone who works at Uber today.
FTR, I'm not convinced it's right to judge employees in either scenario negatively. I'm just not sure they're the same scenario.
People (and companies) forget quickly, especially if the person they're interviewing is pleasant and competent.
Their reputation was more around 3E's (Embrace, Extend, Extinguish), they didn't play well with others (intentionally).
The key thing to remember is most people at uber and microsoft are decent people.
That doesn't stop the 2010s to 1990s comparison, relatively speaking, from also being true.
What's interesting to me is that people seem so surprised with the level of toxicity in the software environment for women. Uber didn't happen in a vacuum. That behavior accumulates over time via interactions with hundreds of different companies. And thousands of HR reports that have been ignored. All of which have brought us to this point.
HR hasn't cared enough to stop it ever. At any company I've worked at. Brutal assessment, but spoken from a place of real experience.