Uber's senior VP of engineering has officially vacated his post after failing to disclose sexual harassment claims during his previous job as Google's senior VP of search. Amit Singhal failed to inform Uber about these allegations, leading Travis Kalanick, the company's CEO, to ask him to resign Monday morning.
Uber Asks Top Executive To Resign
Uber sources said that the company performed deep background checks of Singhal and it did not find any instances of the claims that lead to his Google exit. Singhal denied the allegations at the time.
In a statement given to Recode, Singhal denied the allegations again, although he didn't deny that there were indeed allegations. It was also thanks to Recode's reporting that Uber got hold of the chain of events between Singhal and Google.
"Harassment is unacceptable in any setting. I certainly want everyone to know that I do not condone and have not committed such behavior," Singhal wrote. "In my 20-year career, I've never been accused of anything like this before and the decision to leave Google was my own."
Uber's Sexual Harassment Controversy Isn't Getting Any Better
The resignation further ails Uber's presently running controversy of sexist workplace abuse, spearheaded by a whistleblower who published a scathing tell-all about instances of ignored, downplayed, and most crucial of all trivialized sexism inside the company's workplace. Susan Fowler, the author of the blog post, was a former engineer at Uber.
#DeleteUber Campaign
The experiences she detailed caused an outrage over social media last week, prompting users to rekindle the "#DeleteUber" campaign, after it was first used to retaliate Uber's alleged exploitation of Trump's immigration ban for business gains.
The sexual harassment claims also painted a very bleak picture of Uber's dysfunctional HR department, especially the way it treats — or doesn't treat — sexual harassment cases.
Singhal oversaw Google's search engine for years, and according to Business Insider's report was considered one of the most powerful executives in the company. A female employee reportedly filed a sexual harassment complaint against him in 2015 at Google. The company later let Singhal go before it could take further action, according to Recode. As the allegations mounted, Singhal apparently stated that there were two sides to every story.
Sources said that the female employee who filed the claim didn't directly work for Singhal, but was working closely with the search team. She apparently opted not to go public with the charges, which presumably is why Google allowed Singhal to resign without much maelstrom.
His departure, however, caused reporters to become suspect, because it came at a time when he had just finished reorganizing his critical division. Sources said that when Singhal left, Google settled major outstanding grants he had. His farewell letter did made no mention of the claims. It said that his exit was due to philanthropic endeavors moving forward.
"It has always been a priority for me to give back to people who are less fortunate ... I simply want to give and do more," Singhal said. "Now is a good time to make this important life change."
Within a year, however, Singhal had started a job at Uber.
