Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Takes Leave Of Absence Amid Company’s Turmoil

Things are starting to come to a head at Uber.

Company CEO Travis Kalanick announced Tuesday that he’s taking an indefinite leave of absence, USA TODAY reports. His announcement comes amid a staggering run of turmoil for Uber, and on the same day the recommendations of an international investigation into the company’s culture were made available to employees.

Although he’s now officially taking a leave from Uber, Kalanick reportedly hasn’t been at the company’s San Francisco headquarters since his mother was killed in a boating accident in May.

“For the last eight years my life has always been about Uber,” Kalanick said in a statment, via USA TODAY. “Recent events have brought home for me that people are more important than work, and that I need to take some time off of the day-to-day to grieve my mother, whom I buried on Friday, to reflect, to work on myself, and to focus on building out a world-class leadership team.”

The findings of the investigation, which was conducted by former United States Attorney General Eric Holder, painted a bleak image of leadership not just at Uber, but in the technology industry as a whole.

“We have watched as senior, visible people in the larger tech ecosystem excuse the reprehensible behavior of some individuals, and we have observed the pattern of passing around bad actors from company to company,” the report said, via USA TODAY.

Holding reportedly made nearly 50 recommendations in the report, and Kalanick isn’t the only point of emphasis.

Uber’s workplace culture has been hit especially hard in the past week.

On June 6, an ongoing investigation into sexual harassment reportedly led the company to fire 20 employees, and two days later a leaked email revealed Kalanick once wrote sex rules for a company party in 2013.

While the report makes specific reference to Kalanick’s role within the company, it also says senior leadership needs to enforce a cultural shift, recommends the forming of a board oversight committee and says Uber should prioritize diversity and inclusion, according to USA TODAY.

Thumbnail photo via Flickr/TechCrunch