Uber boss Travis Kalanick takes leave of absence and director quits after sexist joke

Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick, has confirmed that he will take an indefinite leave of absence as the taxi-hailing company adopted recommendations from a review of its workplace practices following a series of scandals.

David Bonderman also resigned from Uber’s board of directors after making a sexist comment at a meeting about the recommendations of the review yesterday.

Bonderman interrupted fellow board member, Arianna Huffington, at the meeting while she was telling staff that research showed boards with one female director were more likely to appoint a second. He said: “Actually what it shows is that it’s much more likely to be more talking.”

Bonderman later emailed Uber employees to apologise before announcing he was leaving the board.

The company’s board on Sunday voted unanimously of the recommendations of a review led by former US Attorney General, Eric Holder, which was instigated by sexual harassment claims.

The report’s recommendations include training human resource personnel on the effective handling of complains, training senior management and executives in leadership and the introduction of policy banning romantic relationships between employees and their managers.

Kalanick grieves mother 

Kalanick said he was taking time off to grieve after his mother died in a boating accident last month, before he returns to work on an update to the cab-ordering app, called Uber 2.0. A funeral for his mother was held on Friday.

“I need to take some time off of the day-to-day to grieve my mother, whom I buried on Friday, to reflect, to work on myself, and to focus on building out a world-class leadership team,” he said.

“If we are going to work on Uber 2.0, I also need to work on Travis 2.0 to become the leader that this company needs and that you deserve.”

Sexual harassment and bullying claims against Uber…

His leave of absence comes after Uber fired more than 20 people last week following a probe into issues, including 215 complaints of sexual harassment and bullying.

Kalanick came under fire earlier this year after being caught on video berating an Uber driver. He later apologised, saying “I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up.”

The Holder review was launched after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler made claims of sexual harassment against her manager.

In the wake of a series of allegations against Uber, the company has seen a number of high-profile resignations. 

Uber’s finance chief, Gautam Gupta, last week announced he was stepping down while New York general manager, Josh Mohrer, has also left.

Other notable bosses who have taken leave….

Kalanick is not the only prominent boss to take a break when the going gets tough.

Lloyds Banking Group pcl (LON:LLOY) chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio took three months off in late 2011 for stress leave barely eight months after taking the top job.

At the time he was tackling claims over mis-sold payment protection insurance and trying to revive bank following its government bailout during the financial crisis.

The rest proved to be helpful as Horta-Osorio came back to lead a successful turnaround, which saw the bank return to private hands last month.

Former Barclays (LON:BARC) chief executive John Varley was also feeling exhausted when he took one year of absence in 1994. He said he was “feeling quite worn out” and “needed to do something different”. Varley went to work for  Odey Asset Management, run by his sister-in -law’s husband, before returning to Barclays.

JD Wetherspoon plc (LON:JDW) founder Tim Martin took a six-month sabbatical in 2003 following a profits warning that sent shares tumbling. He returned to the pub chain in April 2004 as non-executive chairman.

More recently, Saatchi & Saatchi chairman, Kevin Roberts, was placed on leave last year following remarks he made on gender diversity in the advertising industry.

Roberts had said that the debate over gender diversity was over and he that he didn’t spend “any time” on the issue at the ad agency. He also criticised advertising consultant Cindy Gallop, who campaigns for women’s rights in the media and advertising industries, saying “she’s got problems that are of her own making” and believes she was “making up a lot of the stuff to create a profile”.

Following his remarks, Publicis Groupe, Saatchi & Saatchi’s holding company, asked Roberts to take leave. Publicis Worldwide chief executive, Arthur Sadoun, said he found the comments “offensive” and that the behaviour was “unacceptable”.

Story by ProactiveInvestors