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0 pointssamfisher839y ago0 comments

He is telling people not rape people and not have sex with your subordinates. It seems pretty reasonable to me. Maybe the wording could be better, but it isn't too scandalous.

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2 comments · 1 top-level

frgtpsswrdlame9y ago· 1 in thread

But the point is that how you say things matters. In a more corporate environment there's rules about "relationships with colleagues". In Uber's case it's more like "don't have sex behind the bar (unless she says yes)".

In a corporate environment there are no emails telling people not to throw a keg off a roof because it is already expected that you behave with a certain level of decorum. Travis sending an email worded that poorly tells us a lot about his thought processes and because it's directly from him to his workforce it specifically tells us how it is that he perceives the employees of Uber. Mainly that he's a "bro" and his employees are all "bros" too so go have a fun time and do whatever bro, just don't get me in trouble. That's a problem.

saalweachter9y ago

I think every good workplace tries really hard to discourage relationships between employees, even if they can't ban them outright (because people will be people).

The basic problem is that, you go to work to work. If you go to a bar or a club or a party or a bookstore and someone there is coming on too strong, you can leave. It's nicer if the club or host or bar or bookstore makes them leave, but whatever, there are other bars, better bookstores. If you're at your job and a customer or a fellow employee is coming on too strong, and your employer doesn't do anything about it, you have the choice of "dealing with it" or "not having a job".

And people need a job; they're there so they can pay for rent and food and (if they're lucky) change the world for the better. Even if you work at an online matchmaking company, you're going to work to find dates for customers, not for yourself. Any finer discussion of the appropriate way or time or number of times to ask your coworker in accounting out is completely missing the point: your coworker in accounting shouldn't have to put up with any number of advances, no matter how mild, when they only show up at work each day to do accounting.