Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket company has been accused of fostering a “toxic” culture in which senior executives are alleged to have sexually harassed staff and in one instance “physically groping” a female employee.
An open letter, claiming to represent the views of 21 current and former Blue Origin employees, alleged that “numerous” senior executives have been known to be “consistently inappropriate with women”.
The letter, signed by Alexandra Abrams, the company’s former head of employee communications, claimed that one executive in chief executive Bob Smith’s “loyal inner circle” was reported to HR multiple times for sexual harassment.
It said another senior employee had treated female colleagues in a “condescending and demeaning” manner, calling them names such as “baby doll” and “baby girl”.
The letter said: “It appeared to many of us that he was protected by his close personal relationship with Bezos—it took him physically groping a female subordinate for him to finally be let go.”
Meanwhile, the letter, which Ms Abrams claimed had been co-written with 20 current and former staff anonymously, alleged that Blue Origin had prioritised Mr Bezos’s race against rivals to fly to space over engineers’ safety concerns.
The letter said: “Competing with other billionaires—and ‘making progress for Jeff’—seemed to take precedence over safety concerns that would have slowed down the schedule.”
Late on Thursday night, US regulator the Federal Aviation Authority said it “takes every safety allegation seriously, and the agency is reviewing the information”.
Blue Origin’s rocket, New Shepard, flew Mr Bezos and three others to the edge of space on July 20. The 11 minute flight shot him beyond the height reached by rival Sir Richard Branson on his Virgin Galactic rocket days earlier.
A spokesman for Blue Origin said Ms Abrams was sacked from the company in 2018. The spokesman added: “Blue Origin has no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind. We provide numerous avenues for employees, including a 24/7 anonymous hotline, and will promptly investigate any new claims of misconduct.”
