[zoomzippity]

Zuckerberg didn't need a break and Facebook turned out fine.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165566/Mark-Zuckerb...

All the company needs is some pressure to shore up some long overdue culture debt. This is the fastest growing company in history after all. Not every aspect of the company was going to come out of the over perfectly baked when you grow that quickly. Uber isn't the first successful startup with this issue and it won't be the last.

Replacing the leader would be a terrible mistake. I'm not a religious person, but I do wish more people were familiar with the lesson taught in the parables of the Lost Son, Lost Sheep or Lost Coin. Redemption is always possible. Society as a whole would be much better off if we gave more people a chance to redeem themselves. Not considering people capable of redemption and considering people deserving of punishment without mercy is the reason we (the United States) have the disaster that is the largest incarcerated population in the World.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Prodigal_Son

[tim333]

I'm not sure the problems at Facebook were in the same league as those at Uber. See eg. "How true are Katherine Losse's allegations..." on Quora https://www.quora.com/How-true-are-Katherine-Losses-allegati...

[zoomzippity]

I don't see any reason why Charlotte Willner's account of what happened at Facebook couldn't apply just as easily to Uber. What makes you say that things are not in the same league? Katherine Losses' allegations are as salacious as anything I've heard about Uber (or many other successful early stage tech companies for that matter)

    After five months of examining the company's culture, 
    Uber's new human resources officer, Liane Hornsey 
    concluded that the firm's treatment of women was no 
    worse than what occurs at other companies.

    Uber's biggest employee problems are pay and pride, not 
    sexism, says HR boss “Wherever I have worked, I have 
    seen things that are not great for women,” Hornsey said 
    in a USA TODAY interview. “I don’t think it’s about tech, 
    or this city or this company. I think it’s about the 
    world of work, and I think that it’s something that we 
    have to take really super seriously.”

source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/06/11/reports-uber...

Liane Hornsey was formerly the VP of People Operations at Google for like 5 years I think. I'm far more inclined to believe her account of what things are like than any journalist lazily trolling for any disgruntled former employee to recount a story that will generate ad impressions.

[wideem]

Well, companies are not religious cults. And ceos are way overrated in the US. I feel like Travis is way to egocentric and that's bad for company http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/its-time-end-cult-ceo/leade...

[zoomzippity]

It's kind of ironic that that article uses Elon Musk as his example, especially in light of this first hand account of an accomplish rocket scientist explaining how impressed he was with Elon Musk learning rocket science by himself.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-elon-musk-learned-rocket-...

I generally agree with the sentiment that we should end the cult of the CEO, but that doesn't negate the fact that some CEOs might actually deserve the praise and respect they get.

Until you've actually worked directly for the Elon Musks, Mark Zuckerbergs, Travis Kalanicks and Steve Jobses of the world, you shouldn't dismiss that they might have actually earned cults they've created.

[spraak]

I think redemption is definitely important space to allow for, however it probably shouldn't mean keeping everything as it is. Or rather, Kalanick can still redeem themself not as the CEO of Uber