An Uber engineer kills himself. His widow says the workplace is to blame.

[FrodosNewPet]

An Uber engineer kills himself. His widow says the workplace is to blame.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/04/27/is-uber-culture-to-blame-for-an-employees-suicide/100938330/

Marco della Cava , USA TODAY Published 3:20 p.m. ET April 27, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO — Last April, Joseph Thomas, a 33-year-old self-taught African-American computer engineer, turned down a job at Apple in order to work for Uber. Five months later, he had killed himself, leaving a trail of questions about whether the company's fierce work culture was to blame.

~ snip ~

“Uber’s culture was different,” Zecole Thomas told USA TODAY. “Here was a man who was very good at what he did, who took care of his family. But within months, he started to tell me that he ruined our life. That he was broken.”

~ snip ~

“At Uber, when I asked to do that, Joe said, ‘No, don’t come, it’s not that kind of environment,” she says. What’s more, she says her husband felt his engineering skills were constantly called into question by superiors to the point where his self-esteem cratered.

“He would say, ‘I feel stupid, they’re all laughing at me,’ and yet this was a guy who was as hardworking, driven and focused as there ever was,” she says. “He only had one year of college, but if there was a coding language he didn’t know, he’d study hard and three months later get certificates saying he knew them. It’s all very heartbreaking.”

~ snip ~

[MrScorpio]

1. Skip the comments, they're disgusting.

[Ilsa]

2. Such a sad story.

I wish he could have seen another way out.

[FrodosNewPet]

3. Our society needs to pull back from the "victory at all costs" mentality

Uber is not the only company that does it, but it certainly is one of the best known and most egregious offenders.

[shenmue]

4. Yes

[mountain grammy]

5. I wonder if anyone who hasn't worked in a hostile work environment

can understand how demoralizing it is to go to work every day and see no way out. My heart goes out to his family. I've deleted my uber app.

[raccoon]

6. Amen to that. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

Also the trauma of having worked in a hostile work environment lingered with me for years.

[TBA]

7. I can attest to having skills questioned.

As an older female programmer, I find coworkers assume I do not have a high level of skill. If I am lucky, I get an opportunity to prove them wrong.

I was once being introduced to someone and he asked if I was a COBOL programmer (COBOL is a very old language). In reality, I have kept my skills fairly current and can code using the newer frameworks and technologies.

But in this profession, if you are not a stereotypical young, "geekie" white (or Asian/Indian) dude, you have to fight for respect. And even then you may never get it.

[TNLib]

8. Some IT environments can be really toxic if you not one of the boys

As a Hispanic female developer I almost had a nervous breakdown at one company I worked for. I ended up turning in my notice and got really sick. I was out for about a week when I came back someone had taken all of my personal developer books that I personally purchased. I told the manager and he told the guy who took them "hey give em back" and they all had a good laugh at my expense.

The odd thing is this was a major insurance company in town and has discrimination policies. But these dudes know how to break someone down without being directly discriminating.

[burnbaby]

11. I'm IT also

in the mist of early retirement. I just can't hang on for two more years as I should before I can get S.S.

I hate it that much

I worked for Cigna and the Hartford, both sucked as far as workplace attitude. Worked for BofA for 13 years and it seemed every weekend someone would have a heart attack. God I loath being on call.
Am I ranting? I think I am. good news I'm on my last contract, it ends next week. I'm taking the summer off and then going for my dream job at D. D. I am not kidding either

[TNLib]

18. It can be grueling at the insurance companies

fortunately I think I'm on a pretty decent team with nice people at my current company and the application I'm supporting is low stress, no on call, work from home 2 days a week and I'm the only web developer on the team so no other jerks to deal with.

But I know exactly what your talking about and I wish you a happy summer off.

[burnbaby]

19. thanks

glad things are working out for you

[IronLionZion]

14. Oh God the bullying in iT is ridiculous

One would think people would grow out of it eventually, but nope.

[Luciferous]

9. He should've just quit. No job is worth your life. My husband relocated our family

a few years ago for a job and after 2 months he was miserable. I told him it wasn't worth it and to start looking for another job. Two months after that he found a better job and we moved again. It sucked financially and was hard on our kids but in the end it was the best thing we could've done.

[ProfessorPlum]

10. that's terrible

for them to let that culture thrive ,and damage people like that.

[cwydro]

12. A shame he didn't look for work elsewhere.

He'd been offered a job by Apple and had previously worked at LinkedIn. Surely he could have found something else with his skills.

Very sad.

[IronLionZion]

13. Sounds like a shitty company and toxic work environment

I know the feeling. I've been shit on for many years for being too uppity and clearly need to be put in my place to teach me a lesson. My biggest regret in life is not changing companies sooner and going after the jobs I actually want. I've had an ex girlfriend feel concerned that I would off myself.

IT is a hell of a lot worse than people seem to understand. It's a thankless and stressful career option plus I have the added joy of constantly hearing how I'm stealing jobs away from Americans even though I'm American.

There are good companies out there. I work for one now. But I would not encourage people to enter the development/testing field if they don't like racism and misogyny and constantly feeling like a worthless piece of shit.

if there was a coding language he didn’t know, he’d study hard and three months later get certificates saying he knew them

This is exactly the way to do it yet a lot of very lazy shitheads will shit on someone for putting in effort on their own time in the evenings and weekends to learn new skills and better themselves when really you need to be put in your place hard. The anti-certification crowd in IT can really go F themselves with a pineapple. They just want to keep people down in garbage and stop us from having any options to find a better job with a better company. The most valuable thing my parents taught me is to educate my way out of shitty situations, yes even the ultra low cost self study options that people do to get certifications is available to anyone of any income level.

And a person of color buying a nice house in a nice neighborhood is a grievous offence to some jealous people.

[heaven05]

15. the uber environment

in the 'front office' is just like the local environment and management. Slick, lying frat boy entitled, politically RW and could care less about drivers and workers ESPECIALLY minority workers unless they are in an area of substantial minority population.

Feel sorry for the guy who killed himself because of the uber clowns. They, like their boss in the 'front office' probably laughed about it and raised a beer to the dumb n***** whom they drove to kill himself. Why would he do it though is my question. Low self-esteem? Trapped because the money was good and was spending more than he made?(trapped in our usury credit system)

Just like the american culture at large, very mean and aggressive toward all who show themselves weak in the face of their arrogant racist nature. Really mean out here with their potus showing them the way to proceed. Drivers in the general culture are mean, aggressive and rudely impatient with slow(law observant) drivers. I know I drive for one of ubers competitors and it's becoming very dangerous in the streets.

Sad for his family that he felt driven to this.

[rpannier]

16. If he was in the San Fran-Bay Area it was

likely debt or at least debt was probably a factor. I read in the San Jose Mercury news this week that in some places in the Bay Area 106K a year or under qualifies you for renters assistance

[IronLionZion]

20. There are well paid IT engineers there who are homeless

because of how expensive it is. They essentially live on the public transit systems like buses. The other option for many is to live far away and have multi-hour commutes

[Bengus81]

17. I worked for a guy and his Company right out of high school who was the biggest a-hole

I'd ever seen. Sixty hour weeks nearly every week,constant beratings and I knew I had to get away. I just got the same job with a different boss and loved it. Never looked back. If that guy was talented enough that Apple wanted him then he needed to leave and go apply there.

Me thinks this guy had many other demons in his life than just working at Uber. It's not prison,it's a job.