年FT年度人物:蘇珊.福勒

The former Uber soFTware engineer and sexual harassment whistleblower became a symbol of everything that is wrong with Silicon Valley — and emboldened a movement that could permanently improve the way women are treated at work./p>優步(Uber)的前軟件工程師和性騷擾揭發者成了硅谷一切錯誤的象徵——並激發了一場可能永久地改善女性在工作中待遇的運動。

When Susan Fowler joined Uber in late 2015, the company looked like an unstoppable juggernaut. It was expanding rapidly around the world and becoming the most valuable start-up of all time. For software engineers like Ms Fowler, there was exciting work to be done on the app that was changing transportation. Employees at San Francisco’s hottest company proudly wore their Uber sweatshirts around town.

蘇珊?福勒(Susan Fowler)在2015年底加入優步，那時優步的發展似乎勢不可擋。它迅速在全球擴張併成爲有史以來最有價值的初創企業。對於像福勒這樣的軟件工程師來說，爲這款正在改變人們出行方式的應用工作大有可爲。在舊金山最炙手可熱的企業工作，員工們很自豪地在街上穿着印有優步logo的運動衫。

But two years later, those sweatshirts are no longer visible and Uber is in crisis. Beset by one major setback after another, the company has become a symbol of everything that is wrong with the hard-driving tech world. In large part, that shift is due to Ms Fowler.

但兩年過後，街上再看不見那些運動衫，優步也陷入了危機。一系列重挫接踵而至，優步已經成爲這個銳意進取的技術王國一切錯誤的象徵。在很大程度上，這一轉變歸因於福勒。

In February she published a blog about her time at Uber that lifted the lid on a company that was out of control. Ms Fowler described the sexual harassment she experienced, including her boss propositioning her for sex on the first day she joined his team. The human resources department turned a blind eye to her complaints, saying he was a “high performer”. When she wrote about this and other incidents, her post quickly went viral. Ms Fowler had pulled on a thread that would lead to a great unravelling.

今年2月，福勒發表了一篇博客文章，講述了她在優步的工作經歷，揭露了一家失控的公司。福勒描述了她所經歷的性騷擾，包括她的上司在她加入其團隊的第一天就向她提出露骨的性暗示。人力資源部門對她的投訴視而不見，稱她的上司“業務水平高”。當福勒將這件事和其他事件寫出來後，她的博文很快就火了。福勒拉動了一根引線，一場巨大的崩潰即將發生。

In the process, the 26-year-old from rural Arizona who had to teach herself at the local library to get into university, found herself at the centre of three of the most important trends of the year. Her description of the reality of working at Uber generated a crisis that has raised questions about the very viability of the company. They also formed an early part of the growing backlash against the power and influence of the Big Tech companies.

今年26歲的福勒來自亞利桑那州鄉下，她曾不得不在當地圖書館自學考入大學，隨着這一事件的發酵，福勒發現自己置身於今年最重要的三大潮流的中心。她對自己在優步工作經歷的描述導致了一場危機，這場危機引發了人們關於優步能否存活下去的疑問。這些疑問還使人們對科技巨頭權力與影響日益增長的反感情緒初具規模。

Most of all, her intervention was one of the most important testimonies in what — as the year comes to a close — has become an avalanche of allegations about sexual harassment and assault that have brought down some of the most important men in media, entertainment and business, and which hold the potential to permanently improve the way women are treated at work.

最重要的是，隨着2017年接近尾聲，有關性騷擾及侵犯的指控呈雪崩之勢，而福勒的發聲成爲其中最重要的證詞之一，這些指控已將媒體、娛樂和商業領域中一些大人物拉下馬，並有可能永久地改善女性在工作中的待遇。

“Women have been speaking up for many, many years, but were very rarely believed, and there were almost never any real consequences for offenders,” Ms Fowler told the FT. “This year, that completely changed.”

“許多年來，女性一直在大聲疾呼，但很少有人相信她們說的，而冒犯者卻幾乎從未承擔過任何實質性的後果，”福勒告訴英國《金融時報》。“今年，情況完全不同了。”

Inside of Uber, her story immediately struck a nerve. The account was so damning because it detailed the complicity of Uber’s HR department and top executives who protected the harasser. A few days after the post came out, employees wept at the company-wide meeting that was held to discuss it. Uber’s board launched several investigations and adopted far-reaching corporate governance reforms. The company set up a hotline for harassment complaints, drawing tips that resulted in more than 20 employees being fired.

在優步內部，福勒的故事立即引起觸動。她的記述是那麼確鑿，因爲其中仔細說明了優步的人力資源部門與那些保護騷擾者的頂級高管們如何串通一氣。在福勒發出博文的幾天後，在優步舉辦的針對這一事件的討論會上，有員工哭了。優步的董事會發起了幾項調查，並採取了影響深遠的公司治理改革。公司設立了一個騷擾投訴熱線，20多名員工因受到投訴而被解僱。

Outside of Uber, the reaction was just as dramatic. Investors started to question whether Travis Kalanick, the controversial chief executive (who used to refer to the company as “Boob-er” because it helped him meet women) had created a company whose culture had become poisonous. Low morale inside Uber contributed to a series of damaging leaks, including revelations about the mishandling of a rape victim’s medical records and the existence of Greyball, a technology used to mislead regulators. Mr Kalanick vowed to change, but by June investors demanded that he step down.

在優步之外，反應也同樣激烈。投資者開始質疑優步備受爭議的時任首席執行官特拉維斯?卡蘭尼克(Travis Kalanick)創立的這家公司的文化是否已經敗壞，卡蘭尼克曾將優步稱爲“妞布”(Boob-er)，因爲優步有助他結交女性。優步內部士氣低落導致該公司出現了一系列打擊性爆料，包括被爆出對強姦受害者醫療記錄處理不當，以及使用一種叫做“灰球”(Greyball)的技術誤導監管者。卡蘭尼克立誓要做出改變，但今年6月投資者要求他辭職。

“Susan Fowler’s letter was the tipping point for us,” says one Uber investor, Freada Kapor Klein, a partner at Kapor Capital. “We had been trying to get the company to address this behind the scenes. But with Susan’s blog post, it was — that is enough, it has so crossed the line, it is time for drastic action.”

“對於我們來說，蘇珊?福勒的信是一個轉折點，”優步投資者、卡普爾資本(Kapor Capital)合夥人芙瑞達?卡普爾?克萊因(Freada Kapor Klein)說。“我們曾試圖讓這家公司在幕後解決這個問題。但蘇珊的博文一發布，我們的反應是，夠了，這過線了，是時候下猛藥了。”

Uber could not have found a more unlikely nemesis than the petite Ms Fowler. She grew up in what she describes as poverty as one of seven children in a small rural Arizona town with just 600 people. Her father was a preacher, prison chaplain and at one stage a high school Fowler never graduated high school, instead working as a babysitter and ranch hand, and teaching herself in the local library. Lacking a formal education but determined to go to university, she submitted a list of books she had read as part of her college application.

優步不可能找到比柔弱的福勒更不像復仇者的人。據她描述，她在一個只有600人的亞利桑那州農村小鎮長大，家裏很窮，一共有七個孩子。她父親是一位牧師，也做監獄牧師，還當過一段時間的高中老師。福勒高中沒畢業，而是去做保姆還有在牧場上幫工，並在當地的圖書館自學。福勒沒有正規的教育背景，但下定決心要上大學，她在申請大學時，還曾附上一張她讀過的書單。

After winning a place at Arizona State University to study philosophy, she then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, earning a degree in physics. In her final year at Penn, she wrote a blog titled “If Susan can learn physics, so can you,” explaining how she caught up despite having no secondary maths education. By the time she reached Uber at age 24, she was a physicist and computer scientist, and wrote her first book about software architecture while working at the company.

她成功進入亞利桑那州立大學(Arizona State University)學習哲學，之後又轉到賓夕法尼亞大學(University of Pennsylvania)拿到了物理學學位。在賓夕法尼亞大學就讀的最後一年，她寫了一篇題爲《如果蘇珊可以學習物理，那麼你也可以》(If Susan can learn physics, so can you)的博文，解釋她是如何在甚至不具備中學數學基礎的情況下學完了物理專業。到她24歲進入優步時，她已經精通物理學和計算機科學，並且在優步工作期間寫了她關於軟件架構的第一本書。