Law firm recommends Uber to restrict alcohol budget, office romances

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Prohibition of romantic or intimate relationships and limiting the budget available to managers for alcohol purchases are some of the changes that lawyers Eric Holder and Tammy Albarran have recommend at Uber after an internal investigation into its current corporate culture.

Uber retained Holder and Albarran, partners at the law firm Covington, to conduct an investigation after Susan Fowler, a former engineer at Uber, published a blog detailing prevalent harassment, discrimination and retaliation during her employment.

One of the key recommendation in the 13-page document prohibits employees in a direct or indirect reporting relationship from getting romantically involved.

In 2013, before a company outing in Miami, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick sent an email to his employees which read, “Have a great f**ing time. This is a celebration! We’ve all earned it.”

The email also read "Do not have sex with another employee UNLESS a) you have asked that person for that privilege and they have responded with an emphatic 'YES! I will have sex with you' AND b) the two (or more) of you do not work in the same chain of command. "

The report recommends that it’s not necessary to draft such separate policies for offsite conferences and meeting and everyone should adhere to the existing policies and codes of conduct for the same.

The report also prompts Uber to strictly prohibit the use of control substances and alcohol during core work hours.

For work sponsored events, it recommends Uber to restrict reimbursement for after-work alcohol related events. For work-sponsored events, Uber should consider curtailing budget available to managers to procure alcohol.

“Uber should support work events in which alcohol is not a strong component to ensure that employees who do not partake in consumption of alcohol still have opportunities to engage in networking and team building activities”, the report read.

The report also suggests Uber to remove transfer barriers to prevent abuse of the internal transfer process and modify its performance review process.

“Uber should post job opening across the company so that all employees are aware of and can apply for transfer opportunities, including opportunities to transfer teams,” the report read.

To remove the impact of subjectivity and randomness when it comes to performance review, the report suggests Uber should end the practice of calibration and base the performance evaluation process on objectivity and data.

The report also suggests that Uber should adopt flexible work arrangements change the time of catered dinner so that this benefit can be utilized by a broader group of employees.