Uber’s pressure on his engineer to support Proposition 22, causes him to resign from his position
Former Uber engineer Eddy Hernandez said that employees were offered free Proposition 22 t-shirts, managers and executives talked about the proposal in meetings, and he had a feeling the bonuses and promotions would go to people. who were working on projects related to promoting the proposal.
Hernández said he felt a constant urge to support the electoral initiative. He didn’t like feeling that kind of political pressure at work.
But, Hernández opposes the electoral initiative and was not comfortable with that point of view.
“I felt that my voice had been stripped from me because if I said something there would be a conflict of interest or it would affect the finances of the company. It is a strange place to be. It is something that I did not want to normalize ”.
Finally, in the middle of the pandemic and without another job, he decided to resign. At the end of September he submitted his resignation.
Hernandez, who has since written a public letter about why he left Uber and his opposition to Proposition 22, is not the first employee to speak out about this kind of pressure.
Uber drivers unsuccessfully tried to sue the company for the pop-ups in the app requesting their support.
Current Uber employee Kurt Nelson also wrote an op-ed on TechCrunch about opposing Proposition 22, and then described the pressure to vote yes on Proposition 22 at the company, similar to what Hernandez experienced.
Hernández said he only started working in 2019 because the team he was hiring said the company was really changing its culture. He was worried, but finally took the job.
During the last year, Hernández said that he realized that the company has not changed from its past and that there was no real interest in the social good, only an economic gain for the company.
Hernandez said he was alarmed by an email he said he received from Uber asking him to tell his family and friends why he supported Proposition 22.
Uber spokesman Davis White said there were only two company-wide emails related to Prop. 22. White said the second email read:
“As always, lending your voice, your vote, or your time to Prop. 22 is entirely up to you. With that said, here are some ways to collaborate, if you like. “
During the coronavirus, Hernández said the pressure to support Proposition 22 grew.
He saw more and more managers start to fund, and the company offered to give away a free “yes-on-prop-22” t-shirt to any employee they wanted.
There is an internal wiki page at Uber with company initiatives and priorities that employees look at to find out what is important to talk about in performance review meetings, Hernandez said.
He saw Proposition 22 listed there, which, in his opinion, meant that employees working on Prop 22-related projects would have a better chance of being rewarded with bonuses and promotions.
“These materials are not what managers use as a guide for performance evaluations. There are many things displayed on the site that are not relevant to everyone, ”wrote the Uber White spokesperson in an email.
“It’s just a general idea of what is important to the company as a whole, which obviously Prop. 22 is.”
Uber Driver Caravan in Orange Against Proposition 22
Uber’s pressure on his engineer to support Proposition 22, causes him to resign from his position
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