Uber CEO’s time off opens way for team to lead amid woes
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick will take a leave of absence for an unspecified period and let his leadership team run the troubled ride-hailing company while he’s gone.
Kalanick told employees of his decision Tuesday in a memo, saying he needs time off to grieve for his mother, who died in a May boating accident. He also says he’s responsible for the company’s current situation and needs to become a better leader.
The announcement comes as former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder released a list of recommendations to improve Uber’s toxic workplace culture, which condoned sexual harassment, bullying and retaliation against those who reported problems.
Holder recommended that Kalanick be relieved of some leadership responsibilities, shifting them to a chief operating officer and other senior managers. The COO, yet to be hired, would be a partner with Kalanick.
Uber should use performance reviews to hold senior managers accountable by setting metrics for improving diversity and responsiveness to employee complaints, the report says.
Holder’s firm, Covington & Burling LLP, and a second firm, Perkins Coie, conducted separate examinations of Uber’s workplace culture after a former engineer levelled charges of sexual harassment.
Susan Fowler posted a blog in February that detailed harassment during the year she spent at Uber, writing that she was propositioned by her manager on her first day with an engineering team. She reported him to human resources, but was told he would get a lecture but no further punishment because he was a “high performer,” she wrote.
Holder’s investigators conducted more than 200 interviews with current and former employees, including people who had knowledge of Fowler’s allegations, according to the law firm’s recommendations.
Liane Hornsey, Uber’s chief human resources officer, said implementing the recommendations “will improve our culture, promote fairness and accountability, and establish processes and systems to ensure the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.”
The report makes it clear that Uber was not doing enough to protect workers from sexual harassment and retaliation, noting that company policies need to state directly that such conduct is prohibited. In addition, Uber must require that managers immediately report discrimination, harassment or retaliation, and ensure that codes of conduct apply to off-site events and conferences.
Uber’s board said it would review Kalanick’s responsibilities and reassign some to others. The board will continue its search for a chief operating officer with a background in diversity and inclusion.
The board also recommended adding independent directors and replacing its chairman, co-founder Garrett Camp, with an independent chairman. The board currently has eight voting members, three from within the company. The board also called for appointment of a senior executive to oversee implementation of Holder’s recommendations.
Holder recommends that Uber make sure its workforce becomes more diverse from the top down. Uber’s diversity figures are similar to the rest of Silicon Valley, with low numbers for women and under-represented minorities. In the U.S., less than a third of the company’s workers are female.
In addition, the report says that diversity and inclusiveness should be a key value for Uber that’s included in management training.
The company’s board unanimously adopted all of the recommendations Sunday.