Latest news with #sabbatical
Fast Company
09-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Uber staff revolts over return-to-office mandate
Uber is facing internal staff unrest as it attempts to implement a three-day-per-week return to office (RTO) mandate and stricter sabbatical eligibility. An all-hands meeting late last month descended into acrimony as staff flooded the online meeting chat with queries about why the mandate was being enacted. 'How is five years of service not a tenured employee? Especially when burnout is rampant in the org,' read one message that was reviewed by CNBC. Following the meeting, Nikki Krishnamurthy, Uber's chief people officer, issued a memo saying staff had 'crossed an acceptable line' during the call. It's unclear if there has been any disciplinary action to date. But the dissatisfaction displayed during the call wasn't a one-off; the general demeanor of the company's 31,100-person staff has dropped in recent months, says one Uber employee who was on the contentious call. (The staffer was granted anonymity to speak freely about the organization's morale.) 'I felt it from the performance review/promo cycle,' the staffer says. 'I heard a lot of complaints about unfair evaluations. I've been a top performer since I joined, and I got a similar evaluation. So it wasn't personal to me. But I had senior and staff friends leaving.' That general malaise and unhappiness came to a head during the heated all-hands meeting last month. The return to office was discussed on the call, and received badly by Uber staff. 'The messages were flowing crazily fast,' the anonymous staffer told Fast Company. 'The general discontent was crystal clear,' they added, but the scale and speed at which comments were being typed made it difficult to keep track. 'I even tried to download the chat logs, but they are not available to download,' the employee explained. On the call, a recording of which was obtained by CNBC, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said: 'We recognize some of these changes are going to be unpopular with folks.' Krishnamurthy deemed some of the employees' responses 'unprofessional and disrespectful.'
Entrepreneur
07-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Uber Employees 'Invade' CEO With Questions on Policy Changes
Uber's recent changes include adding a day to its hybrid work policy (from two to three) and upping the sabbatical eligibility requirement. After Uber announced an extra day of RTO (beginning in June) and changes to its sabbatical structure in late-April, CNBC is reporting that CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees "it is what it is" at a recent all-hands meeting that the outlet describes as "heated." According to audio obtained by CNBC, Uber employees asked a ton of "fiesty" questions at the meeting on April 29 — to the point where Uber's Chief People Officer Nikki Krishnamurthy had to send out a post-meeting memo citing behavior that "crossed the line into unprofessional and disrespectful," according to the report. Related: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Says Only One Group Is Complaining About Returning to the Office Uber's recent changes include adding a day to its hybrid work policy (from two days a week to three), and upping the sabbatical eligibility (a month of paid leave) requirement from five years of tenure to eight. "If you're here for a sabbatical and this change causes you to change your mind, it is what it is," Khosrowshahi told employees at the meeting, per CNBC. "I'm sorry about that," he continued. "We recognize some of these changes are going to be unpopular with folks. This is a risk we decided to take." Related: Uber's CEO Says Drivers Have About 10 Years Left Before They Will Be Replaced Khosrowshahi mentioned the company's internal message board at the beginning of the meeting, which he said was "invaded by questions." Some noted the lack of desk space, an issue that has been plaguing tech companies since the return-to-office movement began. In some cases, the pushback has been so severe that competing companies—Verizon and AT&T, for example— have used remote work polices as leverage for hiring top talent. In response to CNBC, the company said in a statement that it was "hardly a surprise" employees pushed back about the changes, but "the job of leadership is to do what's in the best interest of our customers and shareholders." Working together in the office is better for the company, Uber told CNBC. Related: Uber Released Its Annual List of Things People Leave in Backseats — and It Is Wild
