Uber CEO Kalanick to take leave of absence

Many of Uber’s executive seats are now vacant after a number of high profile exits, including Kalanick’s controversial right-hand man, Emil Michael, who departed on Monday. Bernard Coleman, the company’s head of diversity, should report directly to the CEO or chief operating officer, the report says.

Kalanick’s fate at the company is integral to one that the board hasn’t publicly answered: What kind of company does Uber want to be now?

Earlier this year, Kalanick had stated that he would reform himself after a video of him arguing with an Uber driver went viral but the scandals emanating out of the company continued unabated.

Uber has taken several recent steps to address its sexual harassment and overall corporate culture problem. The legal fight’s outcome could have serious ramifications for Uber’s long-term business model. One possibility is Rachel Holt, who heads Uber’s business in the USA and Canada.

Cases like Uber and Fox News show that sexual harassment isn’t lessening, especially with tech companies, said Tom Spiggle, founder of a law firm that focuses on workplace issues.

Kalanick’s and Michael’s departure aren’t the only shakeups to Uber’s corporate structure recently, in addition to the decision to fire 20 employees as part of the ongoing internal harrassment investigation. More than 20 people have been fired as a result of that inquiry. “It may be shorter or longer than we might expect”. “Our task now is to learn, rebuild, and move forward together to write Uber’s next chapter”.

The first line of the report, compiled by Holder’s firm Covington & Burling, cites former engineer Susan Fowler’s explosive February blog post as the catalyst for the introspective turn at Uber. Newly minted human resources chief Liane Hornsey told USA TODAY she suffers “cognitive dissonance every day” when she compares the Kalanick she knows with his portrayal as a highly aggressive CEO. Women and minorities who are hired must be included and supported.

I signed on with the company nearly four years ago and it has truly been the experience of a lifetime helping Uber become the fastest growing company of all-time – spanning 75 countries with over 14,000 employees.

Uber has lost a number of top executives this year, including its president Jeff Jones, its head of finance Gautam Gupta, its senior vice president of engineering, the head of its AI labs, and Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer it brought on to leads its self-driving auto efforts.

Lyft grew 2 percent in the same time period, according to data from Certify Inc., an expense report management software. No new dismissals are expected Tuesday, but the other probe by Perkins Coie is ongoing.

A culture change at Uber may be more hard than Holder envisions. For example, a conference room known as the War Room will be renamed the Peace Room.

The firm said Uber needs to change its written cultural values to promote positive behavior, inclusion and collaboration. And for him to react by, via proxies, deflecting blame and questioning the wisdom of Uber’s remaining leadership suggests a toxic hostility, a self-importance and a failure of introspection-all the things that got Uber into this mess in the first place.

Work to change its party culture, including limiting alcohol at work events and in the office. “It’s not gonna take but a couple large companies to make a statement and it could quickly spiral”. The company’s non-discrimination policies sound good, but we may be forgiven for not having much trust in Uber’s ability and willingness to change course without outside pressure, such as from a state or federal agency charged with enforcing anti-discrimination laws.

According to Recode, Kalanick was still deciding whether or not to take this leave of absence as late as Tuesday morning.

Uber has a long road ahead. He also helped craft the values that the company now plans to excise.