Then the hangover began.

May 18, 2019 8:23 AM

Uber rang in its IPO with champagne and mimosas. One employee handed in her resignation. A party had to be shut down. Another employee was talked out of driving home. Uber shut down a party at a satellite California office and at least one employee resigned after some celebrations marking its initial public offering last week got out of hand, according to current and former employees, a setback for the company’s efforts to change its corporate culture. Those people said that the celebrations, which kicked off with company-provided mimosas on the day of one of the largest public offerings in recent history, made them feel uncomfortable and seemed immature — especially as Uber’s stock price plunged, erasing billions of dollars of value. It also reminded some of a more toxic company culture Uber has been striving to erase, causing something of a hangover. “Old Uber hid themselves until today apparently,” said one employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to speak publicly.

Coming on the heels of the well-publicized strike, the over-indulgence and naked partying by Uber staff comes across as excessive, even to staff.

Uber’s celebrations also came two days after drivers staged widespread demonstrations in cities across the country to highlight the gap between their wages and executive compensation at the company. Some employees expressed apprehension about partying so soon after the drivers’ protests over pay, especially with so little attention given inside headquarters to the demonstrations outside.

Not to mention the fact that Wall Street doesn't seem to be buying what Uber is selling.

Still, Wall Street wasn’t sold. The stock hit a low point of $36.08 on Monday, a 20 percent drop from its IPO price, before rising to near its initial price point of $45. That prompted Khosrowshahi to email employees this week to reassure them that Uber’s volatile performance out of the gate should not be a cause for concern.

“Like all periods of transition, there are ups and downs,” he wrote, according to the letter, which was reviewed by The Washington Post...

“What are we celebrating? The loss of billions of dollars in value?”

Considering everything Uber has been doing to try and shed it's bro-culture image, this seems to not be such a good look.

posted by Homo neanderthalensis (14 comments total)

Remember to use incognito mode to read the article if you aren't a WaPo subscriber.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:24 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm very fortunate to work at a company whose values are genuinely in opposition to this sort of thing. I sincerely hope that company's culture is as difficult to change as Uber's seems to be.
posted by davejay at 8:32 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

I’m no Uber fan but that article was pretty thin on details. One person drank too much and had to be kept from driving home? There was some sort of outburst that isn’t described? Sounds quite mild, but it seems like the story is missing some bits.
posted by freecellwizard at 8:57 AM on May 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on how "new Uber"management should have handled this.

Quietly letting people take the afternoon off to go bar hopping? Telling anyone with hard liquor to put it away or get fired on the spot? Banning alcohol altogether and celebrating with ice cream sundaes and nonalcoholic cider toasts?

Not trying to be facetious. I honestly have no idea how you'd manage a bunch of arrogant, privileged soon-to-be millionaires you inherited from the previous bro regime. Letting people get plastered in the office seems like the worst option, though.
posted by smelendez at 9:00 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Just a guess that serving hard liquor in the office at 5:30 AM might be a bad idea. How else would managers expect that to end up?
posted by JackFlash at 9:06 AM on May 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

Well, it sounded like they had a champagne/mimosa toast at 5:30 (when the opening bell rang) and employees brought their own harder stuff and/or went out to bars.

I've been in pretty staid work environments where there's a quick toast to a job well done and everyone goes back to work with no further drinking.
posted by smelendez at 9:09 AM on May 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

This article made more sense once I realized I had been reading "mimosas" as "samosas" and wondering where the problem was.
posted by one for the books at 9:17 AM on May 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

I’d trade every mimosa for an unexpected hour off work. “Hey everybody, in recognition of a job well done, we’re closing early today / giving everyone Friday off. Please enjoy, we couldn’t have done it without you.”

But I guess that’s against the grain of the new office, where you’re supposed to want to spend your leisure and meal times...(yuck).
posted by sallybrown at 9:20 AM on May 18, 2019 [7 favorites]

The worst part was that accident with the riding mower.
posted by mecran01 at 9:28 AM on May 18, 2019 [11 favorites]

Having been a principal in a company and taken it public in an IPO, I can assure everyone that Uber’s vested principals aren’t really sweating the loss of billions of dollars in stock value. At least, not like those folks who bought the stock when it first shot out of the gate.

The principals are sitting on tens (or hundreds) of thousands of shares of stock each. As long as the stock price retains some significant value until the time limit for divestment is passed, they will be able to liquidate and walk away with enough money never to have to work another day in their lives.

By the time I was able to divest my shares a couple of years after I resigned, mismanagement had dropped my old company’s stock price to about $3 a share, so I’m still working today. But at a stock price of $45, Uber bros are still doing fine.
posted by darkstar at 9:33 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

"He lost his foot just when he'd got it in the door."
posted by orange swan at 9:34 AM on May 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

“What are we celebrating? The loss of billions of dollars in value?”

They are celebrating the fact that they conned new investors out of more than $8 billion which they have safely banked. That $8 billion in the bank will keep their paychecks coming for at least the next couple of years. It is new investors who have already lost over half a billion dollars of their investment as of today.

Insiders and employees are blocked from selling their option shares for 6 months after the IPO. But if they received their stock options at low prices, in some cases zero dollars, then they still stand to make millions even if the stock price is down by half in 6 months. It is mostly the new investors who are getting screwed.
posted by JackFlash at 9:35 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the article doesn't say much. I would expect drinking in the office and no work to be done if my company went public. And I would expect, of all companies, Uber to get able to get a drunk employee home safely.

Seems like they had an idea for a scathing article of excess, couldn't get the details, and ran it anyway.
posted by greermahoney at 9:39 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

It’d almost like the entire economy is some three dimensional triangle shaped plot of some sort
posted by The Whelk at 9:39 AM on May 18, 2019 [2 favorites]