Uber CEO Orders Company Investigation Over Sexual Harassment, Gender Bias Claims By Ex-Programmer

On Sunday, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick issued a comment about matters regarding claims by a former company employee who claimed that she experienced sexual harassment and gender bias multiple times while working at the company.

In a series of tweets, Kalanick expressed outrage and declared that heads will roll should anyone be found out doing or exhibiting these kind of behaviors at Uber. He wrote, "I have just read Susan Fowler's blog. What she describes is abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and believes in. It's the first time this has come to my attention so I have instructed Liane Hornsey our new Chief Human Resources Officer to conduct an urgent investigation into these allegations. We seek to make Uber a just workplace and there can be absolutely no place for this kind of behavior at Uber — and anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired."

Fowler, who documented her claims in a blog post, said the human resources team at Uber denied her multiple reports of sexual harassment and gender bias during the year she worked at the company. One of the claims were Fowler’s manager who propositioned her for sex, and HR dismissing the claims in order to discourage the rising career of the said manager. The damning part was that Fowler escalated it to the executive level, but nothing was reportedly done. Vanity Fair said the escalation would have made Uber CTO Thuan Pham aware of the claims.

Even early investors have chimed in, including Chriss Sacca and Uber board member Ariana Huffington. But Financial Times said Fowler’s complaints may do more harm than good, given the history of women crying foul over workplace harassment and bias. Quoting a hiring executive, it is most likely that Fowler’s career in the Silicon Valley might as well be gone.