Widow of Uber Engineer blames Uber Work Culture for his Suicide

[Courtesy of Uber / uber.com]

The widow of Uber engineer, Joseph Thomas, who shot and killed himself opens up about what happened and she blamed her husband's suicide on Uber's aggressive work culture.

When Thomas left his previous job at LinkedIn and landed at $170,000 job at Uber in San Francisco last April, everybody thought his life was set for success. Thomas even turned down Apple's offer to go to Uber because he thought he could learn and grow more at a startup than at a stabilized company that has been established for a long time. Also, He liked the stock option that Uber offered. The job allowed him to buy a perfect house for their family in Pittsburg to raise their two young boys. Everything about Thomas' life seemed perfect.

However, only four months after taking the job, Zecole Thomas found her husband dead in their garage. He was transferred to a nearby hospital but succumbed to the self-inflicted gunshot wound two days later. He was only a week shy of his 34th birthday.

Before he took his own life, Thomas expressed numerous times that he had been under pressure since he started working at Uber. He had to work longer hours and he constantly felt like he could lose his job from competition. He even sought professional help to ease his anxiety. None of it helped.

Thomas' widow and father filed worker's compensation claim to hold Uber accountable for his death. Thomas' death and his family's legal suit against Uber unearthed the company's previous complaints against its aggressive work culture.

Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com

Widow of Uber Engineer blames Uber Work Culture for his Suicide

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