Lagging behind SpaceX despite the recent success of the first flight of its New Shepard launcher, Blue Origin suffers another setback. In an essay about company culture, about 20 current and former employees cite safety concerns, sexist attitudes and a lack of company commitment to the future of the planet.
We can't say that the atmosphere is looking good at Blue Origin. Already despised by many aerospace enthusiasts for its petty attitude towards competition, while suffering a significant delay in its various ongoing projects, the company also seems to be targeted by its own camp. According to a former communications manager at Blue Origin, supported by around twenty other current and former employees, the company founded by Jeff Bezos is plagued by sexism, intolerant of its own people and particularly lax on security issues.
These claims were made in an essay published Thursday on the Lioness website.
“In our experience, Blue Origin's culture is built on a foundation that ignores the plight of our planet, overlooks sexism, is not listens enough to security issues and silences those who seek to right wrongs” , write the authors of the essay. “This is not the world we should be creating here on Earth, and certainly not as our stepping stone to a better one” .
Also according to this essay, some employees have also had "experiences that they can only describe as dehumanizing" , and would be "terrified by the potential consequences of speaking out against the richest man on the planet" .
Regarding the security issues cited, the employee group refers to the company's efforts to increase the theft rate of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle. "In the opinion of an engineer who signed this essay, Blue Origin was lucky that nothing has happened so far “, can we read. Many of the authors of this essay also stressed that they would never take the risk of flying in this vehicle.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reacted quickly following the publication of this test. When asked by SpaceNews, the agency said it takes "very seriously each of these allegations. An investigation will be opened soon.
After the essay was published, Ars Technica spoke with several Blue Origin employees to learn more about these allegations. All of these sources agreed that this essay incorporated elements of truth, citing in particular the virulent criticism of Jeff Bezos himself, but also of his general manager Bob Smith.
“Professional dissent at Blue Origin is actively suppressed. Smith personally told one of us not to allow employees to easily ask questions at company town halls, one of the only forums available for open, live discussion. .
Another example of management cited in the essay is Jeff Bezos' decision, after the Supreme Court ruling in the Epic Systems arbitration case, to force employees to waive their right to resolve labor disputes in court.
“In 2019, Blue Origin management required all employees to sign new contracts with a non-disparagement clause requiring them and their heirs to to never say anything that would "harm the goodwill of the company" , write in particular the authors of the essay. In addition, "some departing employees' contracts now require them to pay the company's legal fees if the company chooses to sue them for breach of contract" .
This trial is obviously likely to further harm Blue Origin. Granted, the company had its biggest achievement yet in July, with the successful first manned flight of its New Shepard vehicle some 100 miles above the ground, but this launch shouldn't overshadow the rest. P>
Over the past few years, and especially in the past few months, Blue Origin has indeed gotten bogged down in several of its projects.
In the spring, the company failed to land a NASA contract to build a lander to bring astronauts back to the surface of the Moon. The company then appealed the decision to the Federal Government Accountability Office, before losing that appeal. She is now suing NASA in the US Federal Court of Claims, much to the chagrin of the US agency, its competitor SpaceX and all space enthusiasts.
A few months ago, the loss of a lucrative contract with the Pentagon also forced the company to push back the inaugural launch of its new New Glenn launcher again to 2022. company had indeed become involved in the Air Force's new National Security Launch Program which guaranteed two American companies multi-billion dollar contracts and a share of all Pentagon launches between 2022 and 2027. The Air Force had finally set its sights on SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.
