Could Uber Be In Trouble?

Uber’s president of ridesharing, Jeff Jones is leaving the company after less than a year on the job. Jones departure is not a direct result of the company’s search for a new COO, one that could’ve outranked him, but because Uber was “not the situation he signed on for”.

Since the beginning of the year, Uber has been hit with a blistering few weeks of bad press. In January, over 200,000 customers deleted Uber in one weekend as part of the #DeleteUber movement. Since then, the company has had to launch an internal investigation into its workplace culture after a former engineer published a tell-all blog post about the gender bias and sexual harassment she allegedly endured at the company.

Uber has also been sued by its investor, Google, for allegedly using stolen technology and had details of a program designed to deceive government authorities published in the last two weeks.

According to Recode, Jones departure is “directly” related to the number of scandals at the company. In a statement sent to Recode, Jones said he was leaving because “the beliefs and approach to leadership that have guided his career are inconsistent with what he saw and experienced at Uber.”

Jones’ role as president meant he was in charge of all of Uber’s operations, marketing, and customer support around the globe a position that unseated Uber’s first CEO Ryan Graves. 

Yet, Jones had a rough few months on the job, including a disastrous Q&A with drivers that did little more than stoke the flames of ire directed toward the company. 

His departure is the latest in a string of high profile leadership departures. Uber’s head of AI, Gary Marcus recently left, former Twitter engineer Raffi Krikorian stepped down as a senior director of engineer at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center in late February. Another key member of Uber’s self-driving team, Charlie Miller also decided to leave

Uber’s also had two executives resign as the company investigates sexual harassment and gender bias in its workplace. Amit Singhal was asked to resign as SVP of engineering after it was revealed he didn’t inform Uber about previous allegations of sexual assault. Uber’s VP of Product and Growth Ed Baker also resigned under mysterious circumstances.

So what do you think is the company in turmoil or do you think it can make a recovery?