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Culture June 9, 2017
BRB, downloading Lyft.
Eric Alexander — a top Uber executive who handled the investigation of a woman who had been raped during a 2014 ride in India — has been fired.
The firing of Alexander is just one decision Uber has made since an investigation began around allegations of sexism and sexual harassment at the company.
Twenty employees have already been fired as part of this investigation for reasons including sexual harassment, unprofessional behavior and retaliation. Around 100 employees have received warnings or have been sentenced to mandatory trainings while others are still being investigated.
In the wake of Uber’s imminent implosion, we thought it would be interesting to compile our own Uber horror stories from around the ENTITY office.
FRANKIE: “It was 2 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, and I was quite tired so I ordered an Uber to take me home instead of my boyfriend driving me. [My driver] seemed to be a nice guy with a nice car. I got in the backseat and he asked me ‘Do you want to go to a bar with me?’”
“I explained that I was underage, and that my parents were expecting me home and tracking me by Find My Friends. He didn’t care and decided that we were going to go to a club in Hollywood anyway. At a stop on Pico, I got out of the car and called my dad to come pick me up. The Uber waited for like five minutes and then drove off when he saw my dad pull up.”
KAYLA: “My friend and I got stuck in an Uber Pool our first time ever using it. We were going from Downtown LA to West Hollywood. I thought that we would just pick someone up along the way or go in the same direction. The first person was on our route, but then our Uber driver went back downtown and just kept picking people up all over the place. We kept asking if we were getting dropped off anytime soon. Finally, we decided to get out, and she said ‘If you get out, your meter will keep going, and I don’t know if it’ll ever stop.’”
KENDALL: “I was alone in an Uber after 2 a.m. I was headed back from a club in West Hollywood to Venice, so the ride was about 40 minutes long. All of the sudden, my driver pulls into an alley and pees in front of the car. I was horrified and terrified at the same time. However, I stuck it out for the rest of the ride and made him drop me off down the street from my home because I didn’t want him to know which apartment I lived in.”
ASHLEY: “Basically, my Uber driver was trying to ask me out during the whole trip. He texted the number connected to the Uber account saying that I was cute and he’d like to get to know me—but it was my dad’s Uber account. So, the Uber driver texted my dad.”
ERIN: “My Uber driver arrived to the destination. When I tried to get out of the car, he locked the doors from the front and said ‘no, no, no.’ He claimed he wanted to get out of the car and let me out like a gentleman, but I was like that’s not the point of Uber.”
KAYLA: “It was late, and my friend and I were getting a ride home from Echoplex. Any time the driver stopped at a light or at a stop sign he would start hunching over. A couple of times we heard him snoring and we’d have to fake cough to get his attention. This guy was definitely asleep. Luckily, at that point we were really close, and we just got out. I am not typically one to give a bad review, but he was endangering our lives.”
ANNABEL: “I was taking an Uber from Midtown Manhattan to Downtown Manhattan, and all of the sudden, we were in Brooklyn. I wasn’t sure what was going on, and I was freaking out because I was alone. He wouldn’t stop. I told him to take me back to Manhattan, but he told me he couldn’t. The Uber was supposed to be around $6 but it ended up being $40. I got out of the Uber at a red light in Brooklyn, and then I had to take another $40 cab back to Manhattan. I was two hours late to my dinner.”
Thankfully, everyone here at ENTITY made it through these Uber horror stories and eventually got home safely. As for Uber… their fate is yet to be determined.
Until then, ENTITY recommends trading Uber for this car-sharing app. It’s better for the environment anyway.
