Susan Fowler, who is a kickass engineer, author, and empowering woman, shared her story and experience working for the transportation company Uber as an engineer in 2015. Let me first start off by explaining that Fowler is an incredibly smart, capable, and talented human who dealt with her own fair share of sexism in the workplace. However, what is most outrageous about the whole situation is that even at a company of such breadth and status, its HR and upper level management is seriously lacking, not to mention the lack of support and punishment for this kind of situation that Fowler was thrown into.
Susan made sure to record every offense she and other women in the company reported during their time at Uber. What surprised me so much was the amount of lying and inability or unwillingness to punish someone on their “first offense” only because they were considered a “high performer”. In reality, Fowler was dealing with a multiple offender who was getting away with this sexism nonsense because they were seen as an asset to the company. It’s almost comical how absurd this whole situation was, almost something as ridiculous as a scene out of Alice in Wonderland. It left me speechless, shocked, mind-blown, and beyond fired up for my fellow ladies dealing with situations like this on a daily basis.
All in all, there seems to be some serious leadership and respect issues at Uber and probably so many other companies and I’m forever grateful for people like Susan Fowler who don’t stand for such crap in the workplace. I hope Susan’s story will inspire others who witness outrageous sexism, lack of respect, and all out unfairness both inside and out of the workplace. We need to support and stand up for each other!