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Engineer at Uber describes her encounters with sexism

Amber Thomas
Interesting, but rather sad account of life at Uber for a female engineer. Susan Fowler describes her experiences with sexism and the consequences it had on her career. Shocking to see how unhelpful the HR team were throughout her time with the company and depressing to think that things were not handled better than this in the 21st century! The whole article is worth reading, but a couple of things mentioned were particularly jarring to see...
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"The HR rep began the meeting by asking me if I had noticed that *I* was the common theme in all of the reports I had been making, and that if I had ever considered that I might be the problem. I pointed out that everything I had reported came with extensive documentation and I clearly wasn't the instigator (or even a main character) in the majority of them - she countered by saying that there was absolutely no record in HR of any of the incidents I was claiming I had reported (which, of course, was a lie, and I reminded her I had email and chat records to prove it was a lie)....When I pointed out how few women were in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), she [the HR representative!] recounted with a story about how sometimes certain people of certain genders and ethnic backgrounds were better suited for some jobs than others, so I shouldn't be surprised by the gender ratios in engineering. Our meeting ended with her berating me about keeping email records of things, and told me it was unprofessional to report things [such as screen shots of the team manager propositioning me for sex] via email to HR."

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"Performance review season came around, and I received a great review with no complaints whatsoever about my performance. I waited a couple of months, and then attempted to transfer again. When I attempted to transfer, I was told that my performance review and score had been changed after the official reviews had been calibrated, and so I was no longer eligible for transfer. When I asked management why my review had been changed after the fact (and why hadn't they let me know that they'd changed it?), they said that I didn't show any signs of an upward career trajectory. I pointed out that I was publishing a book with O'Reilly, speaking at major tech conferences, and doing all of the things that you're supposed to do to have an "upward career trajectory", but they said it didn't matter and I needed to prove myself as an engineer. I was stuck where I was. 


I asked them to change my performance review back. My manager said that the new negative review I was given had no real-world consequences, so I shouldn't worry about it. But I went home and cried that day, because even aside from impacts to my salary and bonuses, it did have real-world consequences - significant consequences that my management chain was very well aware of. I was enrolled in a Stanford CS graduate program, sponsored by Uber, and Uber only sponsored employees who had high performance scores. Under both of my official performance reviews and scores, I qualified for the program, but after this sneaky new negative score I was no longer eligible. It turned out that keeping me on the team made my manager look good, and I overheard him boasting to the rest of the team that even though the rest of the teams were losing their women engineers left and right, he still had some on his team."


Read the full blog here: https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber


Although sexism is (sadly) all too often a common occurrence in many workplaces, I would hope that HR teams would be more supportive and proactive in tackling these issues. Has anyone encountered similar issues with feeling unsupported by HR or management when encountering similar experiences?

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    Specifically regarding HR being unhelpful (actually downright hostile), as a union rep one fo the the things that I find very frustrating is people not understanding the role of HR.  People think HR is there to support them and protect their rights, unfortunately this is not true, some individual HR people might do that but it's not the job of HR.  Once you get past the basic transactional stuff (payroll, on boarding, exit processing &c) HR have one job and one job only, to make sure that the organisation doesn't get sued for employment issues.  That means that they set up policies and procedures for managers to follow that will keep them just the right side of legal so if they break the law the organisation can say, "They didn't follow procedure" and be covered; they run 'Equalities' and 'Sensitivity' training (or these days provide eLearning packages) so when an employee or manager goes against those things the organisation can say, "They had been trained in this but chose to not follow their training" and be covered; they set up Employee Assistrance Programmes so distressed employees can be sign posted to CBT or Mindfullness coaching so when an employee makes a complaint or commits suicide (in construction, for example, more workers now die from suicide than from accidents) the organisation can say, "We do everything we can to support our staff, including with issues in their personal life, but they hadn't accessed the services" and be covered; when an employee makes a complaints, they turn the complaint back on the complainer and support management in removing that person;  if the complainer cannot be removed then they support senior management in identifying a scapegoat;  if there is no scapegoat then, as a last resort, they draw up a confidential 'Settlement Agreement' and get the complainer to leave in return for some cash and a good reference.


    Individuals in HR can be helpful and supportive, but it's not the job of HR to be so.  Often the best you can hope for is some cash and a good reference so you can find somewhere better to work and hope enough good people will leave your old employer that they go under.
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  • 0
    Specifically regarding HR being unhelpful (actually downright hostile), as a union rep one fo the the things that I find very frustrating is people not understanding the role of HR.  People think HR is there to support them and protect their rights, unfortunately this is not true, some individual HR people might do that but it's not the job of HR.  Once you get past the basic transactional stuff (payroll, on boarding, exit processing &c) HR have one job and one job only, to make sure that the organisation doesn't get sued for employment issues.  That means that they set up policies and procedures for managers to follow that will keep them just the right side of legal so if they break the law the organisation can say, "They didn't follow procedure" and be covered; they run 'Equalities' and 'Sensitivity' training (or these days provide eLearning packages) so when an employee or manager goes against those things the organisation can say, "They had been trained in this but chose to not follow their training" and be covered; they set up Employee Assistrance Programmes so distressed employees can be sign posted to CBT or Mindfullness coaching so when an employee makes a complaint or commits suicide (in construction, for example, more workers now die from suicide than from accidents) the organisation can say, "We do everything we can to support our staff, including with issues in their personal life, but they hadn't accessed the services" and be covered; when an employee makes a complaints, they turn the complaint back on the complainer and support management in removing that person;  if the complainer cannot be removed then they support senior management in identifying a scapegoat;  if there is no scapegoat then, as a last resort, they draw up a confidential 'Settlement Agreement' and get the complainer to leave in return for some cash and a good reference.


    Individuals in HR can be helpful and supportive, but it's not the job of HR to be so.  Often the best you can hope for is some cash and a good reference so you can find somewhere better to work and hope enough good people will leave your old employer that they go under.
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