When Susan J. Fowler, a former engineer at Uber who had worked there for at least a year, published a scathing tell-all detailing the repeated instances in which sexist workplace abuse at the company was often — if not always — downplayed, given insufficient regard, ignored, and at times even used as a threat to the complainant's tenure, furious eyes darted Uber's way.
Even the #DeleteUber campaign was rekindled because of Fowler's whistle-blowing, having calmed down from its potency. The campaign originated from Uber's supposed exploitation of Trump's controversial and now-blocked Immigration ban for business purposes. Sexist allegations paved the way for more stories to come out of the woodwork, illustrating similar experiences to those of Fowler's. Once strewn, all of them painted a startlingly bleak image of the female experience inside Uber.
All the reports strained the company — but it responded quickly, opening up an independent investigation that looked into Fowler's reported instances, along with the stories of other former employees published online. This also prompted Uber to promise that it would release its first-ever diversity report.
Uber has finally released the report, and the results are not surprising. Just like many major tech companies, and by extension, numerous U.S. companies at large, Uber is composed of mostly white, mostly male employees.
Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, recently promised to do better at fostering a "diverse and inclusive" company. But if the main points of Uber's diversity report is any indication of that aim for diversity, Kalanick still has a ways to go.
Uber's First Diversity Report Breakdown
Inside Uber, 64 percent of all employees are male, with the men most concentrated in technical and leadership seats, as is often the case in tech companies, Quartz notes. Males make up 84.6 percent of Uber's tech workers, take up 78 percent of leadership positions, and have 88.7 percent of tech leadership jobs.
There's increased parity in terms of non-tech positions, with women making up of 44.4 percent of that category. In Uber's customer support, women make up 49.7 percent of the workforce.
When it comes to ethnicity, Uber is predominantly white, with 49.8 percent of its employees being white, and 30.9 percent are Asian. Black employees make up 8.8 percent; Hispanics make up 5.6 percent. Uber's tech workforce is either white or Asian, with both races making up 94 percent of the category. Just 1 percent is black, and 2.1 Hispanic.
In addition to publishing its diversity report, Uber says that it will parse $3 million over the next three years to back organizations aiming to help female employees and minorities land roles in tech companies. Like Google, Uber also plans to increase its recruitment efforts to include Historically Black Colleges and Universities as well as Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
It's worth noting that Uber isn't the only company facing diversity problems. Apple, Google, and Facebook are all receiving criticism for it, although Uber's track record is comparably worse than the rest of these companies. The company didn't seem that interested in coming up with a diversity report in the first place until Fowler's tell-all.
Uber's String Of Scandals
Its diversity report is one of the many steps Uber has to take if it hopes to repair its public image, which has recently been tainted by a string of controversies. There's of course the sexist workplace allegations, which have already hammered Uber greatly.
On top of that, there's also a gestating battle with Google's Waymo unit that could look ugly in the long run for Uber's self-driving aims. Not to be left out are complaints about Kalanick's supposed "bro-dude" peculiarities; his behavior is often questionable when topics of leadership competence rises to the fore. Just recently, a video was published showing Kalanick arguing heatedly with an Uber driver. It didn't end well, but the CEO did apologize.
Kalanick is currently searching for a chief operating officer after admitting he needed leadership help.
