[debatem1]

I had a similar experience at a previous company I worked at, and a similar reaction. When people heaped criticism on them for sexism I essentially said "no way, I've never seen any of that, this is outrageous, you're slandering the good guys".

Well, as it turns out, they weren't. A female engineer I knew in passing wound up writing an essay similar to this one describing her horrible treatment at the hands of one of her coworkers and HR. I was shocked, but I also knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't make up something like that. She shared that story as her goodbye email from the company.

Even now, I'm baffled and angry about the response the company made. I don't know why it was handled that way, and I don't know why her coworker acted so wretchedly. It boils my blood, and mixed in with that and the bewilderment is a certain sense of shame that I had misplaced my trust so badly.

Anyways, I guess all of that is just a long way of saying that I hear where you're coming from and hope your experience ends better than mine did.

[uberengineer123]

Thanks, this is pretty much exactly what I'm going through, especially because I personally know Susan. It is outrageous to hear what has happened to her, and has affected me quite personally.

[grandalf]

It's great to hear that Susan's experience is not the case on every team.

Uber clearly does a lot of things very well, and although I posted in a different comment that perhaps Travis should go I think that the best outcome would be that the company can learn from these events and become better as a result.

[erikpukinskis]

> It's great to hear that Susan's experience is not the case on every team.

What? No it's not. If it was like that on every team, you would basically be describing hell. "Better than absolute hell" is nothing to celebrate.

[grandalf]

> "Better than absolute hell" is nothing to celebrate.

Well I think that it's useful in the midst of stories like this to realize that yes, most people are nice, kind, etc. Perhaps most Uber employees are like that. It should give hope to anyone who is working somewhere that should be better who is inclined simply to quit vs trying to make it better.

[erikpukinskis]

It's useful for people who are not under assault, for whom the worst aspect of this situation is that their egos are being threatened.

For people dealing directly with harassment it's a pointless distraction. Of course there are good people. Anyone who is dealing with harassment knows their are good people, because shitty people are harassing them. The difference is not an academic one for them, it's a material one.

For you, the scariest thing about this thread is apparently that someone might think everyone on earth is bad? No that can't be. Your priority is ensuring we all remember not all Uber employees are bad? You're worried about the reputations of non-harassing Uber employees?

Sorry, I'm struggling here. What's useful about reminding people amidst a harassment crisis that not everyone ja bad?

[qcon_fan_woman]

Thank you Eric for replying here. I agree that 'better than hell' is not a reason to celebrate. This is my first time creating an account on hacker news and posting because i felt compelled to agree with you. Too many people are still sound complacent about the state of things. Why does everyone's bloo d not boil reading this and Susan's account? Why is everyone not prompted to take one step to make the workplace better for women in tech no matter how small.