[whatever_dude]

Unfortunately managers also tend to be a product of their environment. I've seen female managers/leads take extremely male-centric sexist positions on issues just because it's the way they've learned. In other words, they had become "one of the boys" and were expecting other women under them to do the same. I've come to assume it's especially true of Women on their 40s or so who have been in the tech industry for a while; a generational problem if you will.

[endymi0n]

This. If you look how Uber HR "handled" all these problems by completely ignoring them, it's a large part of the problem.

[apercu]

HR only exists to keep the company free from liability.

[MBCook]

Part of keeping the company free from liability is not enabling massive sexual harassment problems that end up causing multi-million (or billion) dollar (possibly class-action) lawsuits.

Even an ultra-strict "HR only does what's good for the company" should lead to them preventing sexual harassment issues due to legal landscape.

[btilly]

HR has to operate within the constraints of the larger organization.

Under normal circumstances, HR tries to get the organization to behave reasonably, and employees to not get too upset about it, during or after their period of employment. The actions of both are actually out of their control, but they push both ways. It is a classic case of responsibility without authority.

If the organization refuses to take HR concerns seriously, then you get the result you see at Uber. The only thing that HR can do is try to get employees to toe the company line. Good HR people will leave. But there is always someone left to do the job. (It is just like death marches in software development. Which also seems to be a problem at Uber.)

[lafar6502]

so this time they failed - is throwing mud on the Internet the only way of settling this? Or just most convenient and with best chance of payout? Something smells fishy here - many many people see the big pile of money at Uber and get some ideas

[arcticbull]

What money? They've got a -140% profit margin. Any money is already pre-committed to be paid out to the people using the system.

[watwut]

That does not excuse them just as it would not excuse males. It is important to hold women to the same standard even in this area. Moreover, some women are abusive even without males teaching them that.

Out of curiosity, what did you meant by male centric position?

[whatever_dude]

I meant a sexist position that benefits men. Like someone being told that "girl, I never had any respect from men in my career, so don't expect any either" (this was not said from a manager to me, it was part of a conversation a woman I know had with her boss).