Embattled President Resigns After Short Time On Job, String Of Controversies


With less than a year on the job, Uber Technologies, Inc. President Jeff Jones resigned from the job. News that the Uber president resigned comes on the heels of mounting negative publicity emanating from the ride-hailing transportation company.

Jones’ sudden resignation is supposedly directly related to the pileup of scandals plaguing Uber — from the company’s founder and within the ranks of the organization. Jones, employed for only six months, was chief marketing officer before taking on the new role. To him, it was a demotion, not a move up in the enterprise. He previously worked at Target before joining Uber.

A secret insider said Jones avoided any semblance of conflict and decided to resign as Uber president once he realized the incidents weighing down the company were arriving in rapid succession. Jones provided a statement to recode about his abrupt quitting as president, according to Huffington Post.

“It is now clear, however, that the beliefs and approach to leadership that have guided my career are inconsistent with what I saw and experienced at Uber.”

Travis Kalanick, the chief executive officer, and an Uber founder, sent and email to employees confirming Jones severance from his role and tenure. “We want to thank Jeff for his six months at the company and wish him all the best,” the letter read in part.

As the Inquisitr previously wrote, after a string of scandals, Uber needs some form of intervention before it risks taking substantial hits in profit or worse. Recently, a video emerged of CEO Travis Kalanick, a passenger at the time, with a driver, Fawzi Kamel, who expressed his concerns over a number of issues: the “company, Travis’ mercurial behavior, and the frequent change in strategy, wages and pricing.”

Former Uber engineer, Susan Fowler, penned a blog post about the alleged pervasiveness — and tolerance — of sexual harassment. Fowler shared a story about her personal experience with unwanted advances by a member of management.

She outlined how she followed protocol and lodged a formal complaint after a manager reportedly pressured her about having sexual relations. Despite showing alleged evidence (online screenshots of the manager’s propositions) of ongoing harassment, Uber officials downplayed the complaint, saying it was his first offense and he was a “stellar” employee.

“Following the viral post by Fowler and Kalanick’s seeming acceptance and willingness-to-work-with President Donald Trump, a burgeoning trend accelerated as #DeleteUber saw upwards to 200,000 users deleting their accounts. Because of Fowler’s writing, Uber claimed it was ‘deeply hurting after reading Susan Fowler’s blog post’ and ‘what she describes is abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and believes in.’ Travis promised the company would ‘do better’ going forward, and a few days later, Kalanick was grilled by more than 100 female engineers regarding issues of sexism at Uber. ‘I want to root out the injustice. I want to get at the people who are making this place a bad place. And you have my commitment to make that happen, and I know it doesn’t end there,’ he proclaimed to those in attendance, voice lowered, slightly cracking.”

After the embarrassing video and blog post emerged, it compelled shareholders to complain about the company’s “destructive” culture. Moreover, Kalanick felt obligated to evolve on his current trajectory; he’s often been viewed as a visionary with a one-sided video of operations.

Faced with a deluge of criticism about his mercurial business model, strikes and hundreds of thousands of account deletions from disgruntled clients, the troubled CEO humbled himself and penned an internal memo to employees and shareholders.

He acknowledged many missteps in his company and his terse management style. However, he pledged to seek leadership modeling and professional consultation to deliver a service based on customer (internal and external) feedback.

It’s unclear what direction the agency goes from here now that the Uber president resigned.

[Featured Image by Jeramey Lende/Shutterstock]

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