Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Is Taking Leave Of Absence Amid Reports Of Toxic Work Enviroment

Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick announced Tuesday that he would take a leave of absence amid criticism of the workplace culture the New York Times reported. Kalanick did not specify how long he would be away from the job and said that he needs to work on himself as a leader.

Uber also released a 13-page report Tuesday on recommendations the company can take to improve its workplace environment. It was conducted by former Attorney General Eric Holder and his law firm Covington and Burling. Uber’s board voted unanimously to accept all recommendations.

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“This morning, employees were presented the recommendations from Covington & Burling that were unanimously approved by the Board on Sunday. Implementing these 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. While change does not happen overnight, we’re committed to rebuilding trust with our employees, riders and drivers,” Liane Hornsey, Chief HR Officer at Uber said in a statement.

One of the main points of the report involves decentralizing power from Kalanick and giving some responsibilities to other executives. Specifically, it recommends having an empowered chief operating officer as a check and balance as well as to create oversight positions.

Uber has been criticized for flouting local regulations and plowing ahead regardless of what government regulators wanted from the company. Corporate misbehavior and a toxic work environment have also been a part of the problem at the $70 billion company.

The poor work environment which included sexual harassment became a firestorm when a former employee wrote a blog post detailing how she was treated at Uber. Prompting others to come forward.

“It was clear that (my manager) was trying to get me to have sex with him, and it was so clearly out of line that I immediately took screenshots of these chat messages and reported him to HR,” Susan Fowler, a former engineer at the company wrote on her blog. “When I reported the situation, I was told by both HR and upper management that even though this was clearly sexual harassment and he was propositioning me, it was this man's first offense, and that they wouldn't feel comfortable giving him anything other than a warning and a stern talking-to. Upper management told me that he "was a high performer" (i.e. had stellar performance reviews from his superiors) and they wouldn't feel comfortable punishing him for what was probably just an innocent mistake on his part.”

She later detailed that she saw the number of women at the company dwindle while she was there and said that other women she spoke to had experienced similar harassment.

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“Uber should consider adopting a zero-tolerance policy for substantiated complaints of discrimination and harassment, without regard to whether an employee is a “high performer” or a long-term employee,” the recommendations stated.

Kalanick, 40, said he needed to work on his aggressive leadership style. He was caught on video in February berating one of his own drivers.