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How Uber might look bad on your CV

A major player at office messaging platform Slack has admitted that he would think twice about hi...
Newstalk
Newstalk

13.43 8 Mar 2017


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How Uber might look bad on you...

How Uber might look bad on your CV

Newstalk
Newstalk

13.43 8 Mar 2017


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A major player at office messaging platform Slack has admitted that he would think twice about hiring people that had excelled at Uber.

Leslie Miley, currently on leave from his position as Slack's director of engineering, told The Guardian:

"To be perfectly honest, I don't want to work with someone who did well in that environment. If you did well in that environment upholding those values, I probably don’t want to work with you."

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He said that he had withdrawn him own application for a director of engineering role at the ridesharing platform after interviewing for the position and deeming the company to be promoting aggressive behaviour to get ahead.

When he had voiced his concerns about this culture, Miley claims he was told:

"We do have an aggressive culture, we do step on people’s toes, and we think that the best way to get performance out of people.”

“If you’re telling me that you’re going to justify being an asshole because it helps people perform, I don’t want to work there," Miley concluded.

His comments come as part of a report from the newspaper that found tech recruiters are becoming increasingly wary of taking on people who have formerly thrived in that culture, suggesting that having Uber on your CV could be something of a black mark at this point.

The Guardian's Julia Carrie Wong also spoke to a former Uber employee, who denounced its work environment as a cut-throat "Hobbesian jungle".

The unidentified man claimed that:

"People are looking to get out because they're just sick of working for that company. A lot of them have told me tha they're having a hard time finding something new."

He backed up the notion that employers are concerned about the "hustle-oriented" Uber environment.

The piece will serve as yet another public blow for the San Francisco company, whose aggressive approach has helped it achieve market domination and a $70bn valuation in less than a decade.

Last week, chief executive Travis Kalanick (pictured above) has forced to apologise after video emerged of him getting into a foul-mouthed argument with one of the company's drivers over falling pay rates.

The Californian businessman admitted that he was "ashamed" of his actions and that he needed to "grow up" and get help following the publication of dashcam footage showing him angrily dismissing the driver's concerns as "bulls***".

"Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own s***," he was seen saying. "They blame everything in their life on somebody else."

Kalanick told employees on Tuesday that he is looking to hire a second-in-command – "a chief operating officer, a peer who can partner with me to write the next chapter in our journey".

Whoever joins Kalanick's side will be tasked with helping to repair the company's image after a number of other scandals in recent months, including employee allegations of sexual harassment, cut-throat management and a toxic work environment.

Kalanick also caused controversy after he accepted an invitation to be a part of a business advisory group for President Donald Trump. His involvement in the group sparked a backlash from the app's customers, with the hashtag #DeleteUber going viral on Twitter, and he stepped down soon afterwards. 


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