Uber employees are circulating a petition to ask the board to let Travis Kalanick return

Uber employees are circulating a petition asking the board to allow Travis Kalanick to stay at the company, according to an email Recode obtained.

“Nobody is perfect, but I fundamentally believe he can evolve into the leader Uber needs today and that he’s critical to its future success,” the email reads. “I want the Board to hear from Uber employees that it’s made the wrong decision in pressuring Travis to leave and that he should be reinstated in an operational role.”

In the day after Kalanick resigned due to pressure from five major shareholders, current employees have both publicly and internally expressed their discontent with the board as well as the media for painting Kalanick in a bad light.

“I’m angry, sad, flustered, confused, but mostly just heartbroken,” Margaret-Ann Seger, a product manager at Uber, wrote in a Facebook post.

Shortly after Kalanick officially stepped down from his role, Uber’s management team sent out a staff email that acknowledged the difficulty of accepting his resignation.

“First, as you'd expect, the emotions around Travis’ decision are intense,” the email to staff read. “We understand that, and we want all of you to know that he did not make this decision lightly. Stepping back now was his way of putting Uber first, as he always has. Travis gave more to this company than anyone. He had a deep and meaningful impact on countless numbers of people at Uber and around the world, and for that, we will forever be grateful.”

Still, the email staffers are passing around directs people to a link to what appears to be an internal Uber site, asking staffers to show their support for Kalanick: “My ask is simple: one click (and an optional note) to express your support for Travis’ return. The form is totally anonymous. I will deliver the results to the Board.”

It’s been a difficult year for the company and its 12,000 employees. Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s account of sexual harassment and sexism at the company set into motion a series of events that eventually led to the departure of a number of top executives including Kalanick’s deputy SVP Emil Michael.

Here’s the full email:

This is developing ...

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via