Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick, embroiled in accusations and investigations into whether his company has a hostile environment toward women, has taken to the office’s lactation room in order to clear his mind.
Amid a week of controversy where it was reported by the New York Times that Uber has needed to fire 20 employees over “harassment, discrimination and inappropriate behavior,” the ride sharing service’s CEO has turned to meditation to assist him in moving forward.
In an interview at iCONIC conference on Wednesday night, Arianna Huffington, an Uber board member who has come to the CEO’s aid amid the controversy, said, “Literally, it was an amazing moment last week when we were in the office and [Kalanick] said, ‘I really need to go meditate in order to be in a place to make good decisions right now, and literally [he] went into a lactation room that happened to be open.”
CNBC reported Huffington’s comments.
While meditation has been shown to have some benefits for mindfulness, it will likely take more than sun salutations to correct a workplace that, according to former Uber engineer Susan Fowler on her personal blog, allegedly lies about the sexual harassment history of employees, resists disciplining employees accused by multiple women of sexual harassment, and has seen an exodus of women from the organization Fowler was a part of.
And more directly, Kalanick’s occupation of the office’s lactation room for the sake of mindfulness may not be the best step in demonstrating Uber’s reinvigorated commitment to treating their female employees better. (RELATED: Uber Hires Two Female Executives Amid Sexism And Sexual Harassment Allegations)