A day after news broke that Travis Kalanick has stepped down as CEO of Uber, around 1,000 employees have expressed their support for the embattled co-founder of the popular ride-sharing service. In fact, the said Uber workers have already signed and circulated a petition asking the board to let TK stay at Uber.
The petition, which is being sent out through email, is requesting the board to listen to Uber employees' wishes for Kalanick to be reinstated. The email also said that nobody is perfect and that Kalanick can still "evolve into the leader Uber needs today." The petition also stated that Kalanick is "critical to its future success."
Kalanick was forced to step down by five of the company's major shareholders. Some employees are not happy with how Kalanick was treated by the board. In fact, some of these Uber workers publicly voiced their discontent with the board. They also called out the media for how they negatively portrayed the former Uber boss.
After Kalanick's resignation, the management team of Uber sent out the said email to the staff which expressed how difficult it is to accept the situation. The email recognized that emotions are high and intense right now and also mentioned that Kalanick resigned despite his reluctance because he was "putting Uber first." The staff email then showed an appreciation for the many things Kalanick did for the company, its employees, and people around the world. Recode got a copy of the email which asks at the end to click on an embedded link "to express [your] support for Travis' return."
The email also asks the recipients to forward it in hopes that it may reach more Uber employees which are estimated to be somewhere in the 15,000 range, according to The Verge. The person responsible for the petition believes that Kalanick "was one of the best leaders [I] have ever seen" and that Uber would not be what it is today if he didn't work day and night."
