Steve Hirschfeld and Dan Handman Quoted in New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle Regarding Internal Shifts at Uber
Steve Hirschfeld and Dan Handman were quoted in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle regarding the release of the results of several internal investigation reports at the ride sharing company Uber.
On June 11, Hirschfeld was quoted in the New York Times article titled, “Uber Weighs Leave of Absence for Chief Executive.” At this time, the results of a workplace review led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had not yet been released. Hirschfeld commented:
Any response without complete buy-in from the top is a complete waste of time. It can have an even worse impact on company morale if people already know it’s a total joke.
To read the full article, please click here.
Hirschfeld also commented to the Los Angeles Times in its article, “Uber’s board meets to discuss CEO Travis Kalanick’s future.” He added:
It’s clear that they have a significant employee relations and morale problem. They need to send the message that this is not going to be business as usual.
To read the full article, please click here.
On June 13, after the release of the Holder report and with news that Uber founder Travis Kalanick was taking a leave of absence, Handman was quoted in the Los Angeles Times article titled, “Uber CEO pays a price for breaking the rules.”
Handman commented:
In some ways, it’s surprising that those recommendations had to be made. And in some ways, just given the way Uber grew to be this behemoth overnight, it’s not surprising they hadn’t thought through these things.
Handman added that its not unusual for start-ups to fail to implement basic workplace policies, but that it is for a company of Uber’s size, with more than 12,000 employees and more than $13 billion in venture capital funding.
As a board of directors, you don’t want to disrupt the creative process. The problem here is after a while, the warts began to show, and as these problems became more prominent, [the board] had to exercise the discretion which they hadn’t in the past. That’s what this [Holder] report is.
To read the full article, please click here.
Hirschfeld was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle article titled, “Uber CEO Kalanick takes leave as harsh workplace report lands.” He commented on both Kalanick’s plans for a leave of absence and news that the company was bringing on a chief operating officer:
It makes sense to give a guy leave after a personal family tragedy and tack on some extra time for him to get a deep breath and perspective. You want him to come back saying, ‘I get it; these are good fixes; I want to be part of it….’ Brilliant visionary founders are not always best-equipped to manage large sophisticated operations.
To read the full article, please click here.