While it presently dominates headlines, Uber is hardly the only company that's been accused of fostering such a bro-centric culture.
HR-software startup Zenefits attracted criticism over its "rambunctious, frat-like office culture," Business Insider's Eugene Kim reported.
After one raucous bash, employees received an email warning them not to ditch cigarettes, alcohol, or used condoms in the office's stairwell: "Yes, you read that right. Do not use the stairwells to smoke, drink, eat, or have sex," the email said, as The Wall Street Journal reported.
New York Magazine reported on alleged harassment at Thinx, an underwear and feminine-hygiene startup. A former employee filed a complaint with the City of New York Commission on Human Rights, as Business Insider reported. The employee alleged that CEO Miki Agrawal groped an employee, frequently changed clothes in the office, and conducted video conferences while naked, according to New York Magazine.
While bro culture is typically defined as being led and dominated by men, in the case of Thinx, the complaint alleged that the "only two employees who negotiated higher salaries at Thinx were men," according to The New York Times.
And it's not as if bro-ish behaviors are new to the business world. As Newsweek reported, energy and commodities company Enron threw parties with strippers and pricey champagne. Employees often celebrated with "cocktails poured over a block of ice straight into their mouths."
While it might be tempting to declare that the issue of bro culture is getting worse, this isn't a new problem. What's more, as with anything, the disasters tend to attract more ink than the companies that play by the rules. That said, when it comes to bro culture, we don't have a lot of data to look at. Most of the data on workplace harassment tends to look at harassment in general, instead of harassment that occurs within companies that could be considered bastions of "bro culture."
"Let's be honest. Stories about healthy and inclusive cultures are boring," Raleigh, North Carolina-based human-resources consultant Laurie Ruettimann tells Business Insider. "I think bro cultures are still rare. Most people go to work and suffer from working with people who are too nice for their own good and never say anything controversial or meaningful. Or they work in passive-aggressive cultures where people are nice to their faces but stab them in the back on anonymous employee-engagement surveys."