I don't have much time, but I an surprised that my search for 'Uber', 'Travis Kalanick', and 'Emil Michael' came up with nothing.
Uber is the smart phone app and service that let's call for a ride, and have it appear faster than a cab. But the upper management are total jerks.
This is just to point out a story that should be written by someone with more time than I have right now.
The C.E.O. Travis Kalanick said the company should be called 'Boob-er' because of all the tail he has gotten since he started the company.
Arrogance in Uber's top ranks hurting company: Who's the boober now?
Then a senior vice-president Emil Michael said that Uber should spend a million bucks to hire investigators to dig up dirt on journalist specifically naming Pando's Sarah Lacy.
Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists
Then Uber investor Ashton Kutcher goes on twitter to limit his career by defending doxxing journalist.
Ashton Kutcher, Uber investor, wanders into the dumbest fight of his life
Read Sarah Lacy's reply here
The moment I learned just how far Uber will go to silence journalists and attack women
Back in 2012, Paul Carr first raised serious concerns about the company’s view that both riders and drivers are disposable commodities in an all-out Randian battle to maximize profits. He uninstalled the app when he wrote that piece, and he started a drumbeat of press around these concerns.
Then, in 2014, Carmel DeAmicis exposed that an Uber driver accused of assault had a criminal record that should have been uncovered by the background checks Uber claimed to do. She further documented a “blame the passenger” culture at the company when such complaints came up.
It started to snowball: An investigation at The Verge exposed cut throat competitive tactics that the company has taken against its primary competitor Lyft.
Then, a few weeks ago, I wrote a story about the outrageous sexism woven deeply into the culture of the company. We’ve seen it in the company’s PR team discrediting female passengers who accuse drivers of attacking them by whispering that they were “drunk” or “dressed provocatively.”
We’ve seen it in CEO Travis Kalanick’s comments that he calls the company “boober” because of all the tail he gets since running it.
And on October 22, we saw it again with an offensive campaign in Lyon that encouraged riders to get picked up by hot female drivers, essentially a scary invitation to objectify (or worse) any woman working for the company. That ad was taken down once exposed by Buzzfeed, but sources tell us no one was fired for taking that kind of “initiative.” We also heard that Kalanick’s misogyny is such a problem that recently hired political operative David Plouffe had made it a priority to work on the CEO’s behavior. As if that kind of misogyny– and encouragement of it in a corporate culture– is something that careful media training can repair rather than simply disguise.
Forgive me if this has already been diaried - but if not, someone needs to write about Uber and their insane misogynous management.