A confidential internal document from Uber shows that the ride-sharing company's own investigators, who were responsible for keeping Uber safe for their riding customers, were “overworked, underpaid and at times emotionally traumatized as they struggled under the burden of nearly 1,200 cases every week.”
From the CNN report:
The 26-page memo, prepared by an outside risk management consultant, says that as recently as May last year, Uber's Special Investigations Unit was handling hundreds of cases every week.
The team — which was made up of 60 investigators and 15 team leaders at the time — was tasked with handling the most severe incidents reported to the company in North America, including verbal threats, physical and sexual assault, rape, theft and serious traffic accidents.
Uber commissioned the memo as part of its "broader efforts to stand up a best-in-class, specialized investigations team," a company spokesperson told CNN.
Although the memo notes that the team members loved "being associated with a 'hot' brand" and its younger employee base, it also said conditions were so bad within the unit that the memo warned of mental health risks to the investigators — even the potential of suicide.
"A single suicide by an Uber investigator who posts that they could not 'take' the job demands any longer will be fodder for the national if not international news media," the memo said.
Uber sent lengthy responses to CNN detailing the action they say the company has taken since the memo was completed. "We have been putting safety at the heart of everything we do," Uber's head of safety communications Brooke Anderson said in a statement. "Uber will continue to focus on safety in 2019, including through the release of an accurate transparency report."
Stressed out and at risk: Inside Uber's special investigations unit
By Sara Ashley O'Brien, Nelli Black and Drew Griffin, CNN
