> Fourth on the list of don’ts was: “Do not have sex with another employee UNLESS a) you have asked that person for that privilege and they have responded with an emphatic “YES! I will have sex with you” AND b) the two (or more) of you do not work in the same chain of command.
> “Yes, that means that Travis will be celibate on this trip. #CEOLife #FML [Fuck My Life].”
> Kalanick also advised that there would be a “$200 puke charge” and that Uber did “not have a budget to bail anyone out of jail”. Uber employees were also advised not to “throw large kegs off of tall buildings”.
> However, employees were told to “have a great fucking time” and that it was a celebration for launching in Uber’s 50th city and for reaching a $1bn run rate.
> The leaked memo paints an ugly picture of American frat-house culture peppered with sexism and laddish behaviour that permeates from the top down. At the time Uber had 400 employees, a similar letter was sent out by Kalanick to employees when the company had 1,800 employees. By the time it had hit 4,000 employees Rachel Whetstone, the now departed head of communications, had taken over with a more subtle and respectful tone.
I'm a bit confused here, at least with the excerpt that's being discussed/referenced. What Kalanick wrote is informal and with a tone that is arguable less mature than what would be expected from a company the size of uber when the letter was written. At the same time, from what I can see it seems to just something HR would send out to employees. "Yes means yes, nothing means no and don't sleep with your boss/direct suboordinate." I'm a bit confused at how this memo paints, "paints an ugly picture of American frat-house culture peppered with sexism..."
Yes, uber's culture seems to encourage sexism to run rampant. Yes, Travis Kalanick is not a ceo with great pr skills. That said, I think it's a bit far to call this informal hr letter written by a startup ceo as, "painting a culture of sexism."
I can see how the, "frat boy" culture that this letter came from could be something that encourages sexism and discriminatory behavior. This article isn't about that though. It's arguing that this letter and it's "guidelines" paint a picture of sexism. The subtitle:
>Guidelines about having sex with employees paints picture of sexism at under-fire company that comes directly from CEO Travis Kalanick
This article seems to just want to reiterate what's been said in a dozen previous articles, but since they didn't have any new information they decided to go for low hanging fruit in the uber trainwreck.Bashing uber just for the sake of bashing uber.