Brendan McDermid/Reuters
It was an intense day at Uber headquarters on Tuesday as employees finally learned the results of a four-month investigation by former Attorney General Eric Holder into Uber's workplace culture.There was much cheering as various board members spoke to the employees in an all-hands meeting to discuss changes they will make at the company, according to live tweets of the meeting by New York Times reporter Mike Isaac. Isaac was somehow listening in on the meeting, not there in person, he explained.
The meeting even included a highly unusual moment when the company's HR chief Liane Hornsey asked everyone in the room "to stand up and give each other a hug," Issac tweeted.
Even in the Valley, where startups have a reputation for developing tight-knit employee relationships, it's pretty rare for a company's HR person to recommend everyone hug each other during a company meeting.
That might even go double when the company is also reeling under accusations of sexual harassment. At Uber, such allegations led to an investigation by a separate law firm that resulted in the firing of more than 20 Uber employees after the firm received 215 claims of sexual harassment and other bad behaviors at the company.
So Issac's tweet set off a stream of Twitter jokes.
Here's a reference to the fact that Uber is changing the name of its conference room from the War Room to the Peace Room as part of its culture make-over.
Uber could not be immediately reached for comment.
"three, two, one, okay please stop hugging now"
- Jimmy Thomson (@jwsthomson) June 13, 2017"It was Liane Hornsey in the Peace Room with a hug" 💀
- Ana Milicevic (@aexm) June 13, 2017Funny, that would normally fall under "things HR tells you specifically not to do."
- Thomas Newman (@ThomasNewman) June 13, 2017Kinda like -- I want Something just like this? pic.twitter.com/93WJT0EkgW
- Sanket Shah (@SourceX_4447) June 13, 2017Next up.. firewalking.
- Tanzi Gill (@TanziGill) June 13, 2017