[barleyworth]

> There was literally nothing wrong with the email

There were at least two things wrong with the email, from my perspective as a guy who's been around plenty of benign bro culture.

1. Explicitly mentioning "sex" as opposed to "relationship" or "dating", and talking about it so casually, sets a very aggressive tone. 20-something guys with lots of hormones will definitely hear that tone and push hard for sex during the trip (the implication is that there will be lots of it, and nobody wants to be left out). Females reading this surely know that they'll receive lots of attention and advances during the trip, whether they want it or not – even if you assume that the guys will be asking for consent, it's still uncomfortable for those who want to be professional and avoid work relationships.

2. "Yes, that means that Travis will be celibate on this trip. #CEOLife #FML." Implication there is that there are many people on the team that the Travis wants to sleep with. If you're a female subordinate of the CEO whom he speaks with somewhat flirtily, you can infer that he's thinking "FML, I wish I could sleep with her".

[rogerdonaldson]

barleyworth, I believe the email was written in a humorous way. If it was a serious email, with that sex point in it, then I agree it would have been weird, and wrong.

But the whole email right from the first word to the last was written in a jovial manner with plenty of jokes in it. So I dont feel it was that bad.

I can understand that Travis was trying to create a party atmosphere after all of them worked really hard to get to where they are. Imagine, if you and your colleagues worked day and night for years and then finally you reached a milestone -- you might want to celebrate and have some fun! I think Travis was just trying to setup the jovial atmosphere so that people do not just have a standard corporate event.

[dvt]

> ... mentioning "sex" as opposed to "relationship" or "dating" ...

Sex is a natural human activity. People fuck all the time. People especially fuck at parties where there's alcohol involved.

> ... even if you assume that the guys will be asking for consent ...

Uh, what? The entire point was to ask for consent. I can't speak to your other hypothesizing about tone, or what 20-something guys might or might not do.

> ... there are many people on the team that the Travis wants to sleep with ...

Not sure where you're getting "many." Regardless, Travis probably wants to sleep with some of his employees, but he's leading by example and not pursuing. Again, I can't speak to your mental gymnastics as to what an employee might infer or not.

I can only read what's in the email.

[sidlls]

That something can occur has only superficial relation to whether it ought to be to be discussed in a given setting.

Your comment reads as if you have little understanding of how women are treated in our culture.

[dvt]

> That something can occur has only superficial relation to whether it ought to be to be discussed in a given setting.

Given the setting (an alcohol-filled after-work work party), I fundamentally disagree.

> Your comment reads as if you have little understanding of how women are treated in our culture.

My comment didn't mention women, men, or anything in between, because, hey, men sometimes have sex with men! You'll notice that Travis' email didn't mention women either.

Since I love channeling my inner Scalia, I'm just going to say that, in general, you're doing yourself a disservice by not being a textualist. With that said, I'm not going to be baited into defending a straw man, many years of philosophy trained me well :)

[Diggie1225]

The way women are treated is not a straw man here, it is directly related to why Uber and Kalanick in particular have been under as much scrutiny as they have. I believe what is trying to be explained is that unless you know what it is like for your job to hinge on your decisions regarding sex, and anything sex adjacent (ie. what you wear to work, whether you are flirtatious or not, whether you keep up with 'the boys' after work etc) it would be hard to understand why it is very important that sex and work be kept separate, and why professionalism is important. Many women are threatened by men in the workplace in various way, not the least of which using sex as a hiring/firing decision. When that is the general culture for women in the workplace, this email really reads more as 'if you aren't interested in sex (or being asked for sex by your colleagues), this probably isn't the party for you'. Except missing parties can also mean missing key networking opportunities and thus losing traction in the corporate world.

[negativ0]

lol, next time read the philosophy books better

[sidlls]

"inner Scalia"? "Straw man?"

You're being dismissive and aggressive to what purpose?

[dvt]

"Inner Scalia" was a joke because you're reading too much into what I said and Scalia was, famously, a staunch textualist.

And your straw man is this: "Your comment reads as if you have little understanding of how women are treated in our culture."