In 2017, Uber found itself in the midst of a swirling series of bad news that seemed to continue endlessly for months. We’d wake up every week and wonder what would come out next about the company. Uber became the example of a toxic workplace for the rest of the world, and as employees we were judged for continuing to work there. Most of us knew that those were bad events and bad people, and that most of the company were good people doing good things. Our little team of designers and writers started a campaign to bring some positivity back and boost morale to pre-2017 levels.
Scout Kit
Employees globally got excited about what we were doing, and we soon realized there were a lot of good people doing good things. So many, in fact, that GPGT established “brand ambassadors” in cities and countries all over the world. We called them Scouts, bribed them with cool swag, and relied on their help to create events and experiences outside our HQ offices in San Francisco.
Postcard Pop-up
After an unexpectedly awful year, we wanted to start 2018 on a different note. We created the postcard pop-up for employees to send new year cheer to their peers in other parts of the world. They wrote down their well wishes, words of wisdom, or favorite thing about a fresh start and we sent it to a fellow Uber do-gooder.
Poster Series
We started as a rogue newspaper full of posters to spread good around. After a couple editions of the newspaper, our library continued to grow from there. We plastered them all over our HQ offices, while our Scouts did the same in their locations.
These are the posters I designed.
And here are some others from my friends.
Hot off the press
Even though the goal was to boost morale internally, the media, who had previously been harsh, got wind of what we were doing. We knew we had started something important.
GPGT is myself, Erin Schwarzbach, Mason Field, Tomoko Fushimi, Chad Balanza, Kevin Funkhouser, James Bamford, Arianna Pilram, and Sasha Riddle.