In response to an alleged harassment scandal that has plagued the company this year, Uber released a report on Tuesday detailing the makeup of its workforce and in turn creating terms like “Jewbers” and “UberHUE.”
According to the report, the company is comprised of 63.9 percent men and 36.1 percent women—numbers that are slightly more gender-diverse than a recent report from Google about its workforce.
In terms of race and ethnicity, Uber is made up of a workforce that is about 49.8 percent white, 30.9 percent Asian, 8.8 percent African-American and 5.6 percent Hispanic.
The report then features a section called “See who moves Uber” in which there is a list of “employee resource groups,” which is drawing criticism on social media.
Among the titles of these sub-groups is one called “UberHUE,” which is intended “to provide a channel that promotes Black diversity, culture, and inclusion for all employees at Uber.” Additionally there is “Los Ubers” intended for Hispanic employees and “UberPRIDE” for LGBTQ employees.
One particular group called “Shalom” has some inventive lingo for the employees intended to fall under that bracket.
“Our goal is to make the world a little smaller, by connecting Uberettos and Jewbers from all backgrounds, encouraging collaboration and closeness from all corners of the globe,” the report reads.
Uber claims the resource groups are run by employees themselves.
Other companies have faced similar challenges in trying to implement diversity initiatives. McDonald’s, for instance, used a website called 365black.com in a campaign targeted toward African-Americans. And Google may have even inspired the new terms Uber employees are using as they have coined "Gayglers" and "Jewglers" in the past.
Uber, however, has been under increased scrutiny since a slew of negative stories, including sexual harassment claims from previous employees and the revelation that the app used a tool to circumvent authorities in areas where Uber was resisted or banned. The company also recently hired former attorney general Eric Holder to help lead an internal investigation into its workplace practices.
In response to an emailed question, a company source at Uber told The Daily Beast that the term "Uberetto" is used to refer to Uber employees in general because the suffix "–er" doesn't work as well as it does for Google and Facebook employees.
