Former Uber engineer Eddy Hernandez said it started with the yes-on-prop 22 Zoom backgrounds that began appearing around the onset of the pandemic. Then employees were offered free Proposition 22 t-shirts, managers and executives talked about the proposition in meetings, and he got the sense that bonuses and promotions would go to people who worked on projects related to promoting prop. 22.
Hernandez said he felt a constant push to support the ballot initiative at work. He didnât like feeling that kind of political pressure on the job. And on top of that, Hernandez opposes the ballot initiative, and he says he did not feel comfortable having that viewpoint.
âI felt like I was stripped of my voice because if I said anything there would be a conflict of interest or it would affect the financials of the company. Thatâs a weird place to be in. Itâs something I didnât want to normalize,â he said.
Finally, in the middle of the pandemic and without another job, he decided he would quit. At the end of September, he handed in his resignation.
Hernandez, who has since written a public letter about leaving Uber and his opposition to Prop. 22, is not the first employee to speak out about this kind of pressure.
Drivers at Uber tried, unsuccessfully, to sue the company over the in-app pop-ups soliciting their support. Current Uber employee Kurt Nelson also wrote an op-ed in TechCrunch about opposing Prop. 22, and later described yes-on-prop 22 pressure at the company, similar to what Hernandez experienced.
Hernandez said he only started working in 2019 because the team that was hiring said the company was really changing its culture. He was apprehensive, but eventually took the job.
Over the last year, Hernandez said he realized the company has not changed from its past, and that there was no real interest for social good, but just economic gain for the company and those who worked there.
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 Prop. 22.
Uber spokesperson Davis White said there were only two company wide emails related to Prop. 22. White said that the second email said: âAs always, lending your voice, your vote, or your time to Prop. 22 is entirely up to you. With that being said, here are some ways to pitch in, if you choose.â
During the coronavirus, Hernandez said the pressure to support Prop. 22 grew. He saw more and more managers start putting the yes-on-prop-22 backgrounds on Zoom and the company offered to give a free âyes-on-prop-22â t-shirt to any employee who wanted one and many employees started working on yes-on-prop-22 products, like pop-ups urging drivers to vote yes.
There is an internal wiki page at Uber with company initiatives and priorities that employees look at to know what is important to talk about in performance review meetings, he said. Hernandez said he saw Prop. 22 listed there, which he felt meant that employees who did work on Prop. 22 related projects would have an easier chance of being rewarded with bonuses and promotions.
âThese materials are not what managers use as a guide for performance reviews. There is a lot displayed on the site that is not relevant to everyone,” Uber spokesperson White wrote in an email. “It is simply a general sense of what’s important to the company as a whole, which Prop. 22 obviously is.â He added, âan employeeâs position on Prop. 22 has never and in no way will factor into performance reviews.â
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