Current and Former Blue Origin Employees Expose "Pervasive Gender Discrimination in Workplace Culture"

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] Current and former employees of the space exploration company Blue Origin, led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, have posted allegations claiming that the company's organizational culture is "toxic" and rife with gender discrimination.

On the 30th (local time), CNBC reported that such a post was published on the blog website 'Lyernees'.

The post was written by Alexandra Abrams, a former Blue Origin employee, and was signed by more than 20 current and former employees.

According to them, the company ignores internal employee feedback, dismisses safety concerns, and fosters a culture of gender discrimination against women.

In particular, Abrams stated in the post that "the gender-discriminatory culture within Blue Origin is very unique compared to others in the same industry," and introduced related cases.

Specifically, a sexual harassment report was filed against a company director close to Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith, but the report was quickly dismissed, and the accused director was reportedly assigned to the personnel committee.

There was also an allegation that a former director frequently used sexually humiliating terms such as "baby girl" and "baby doll" toward female employees.

Abrams further said that the company’s organizational culture is "harmful to employees' mental health," adding, "One former employee said that working at Blue Origin was the worst experience of their life."

In response to these claims, Linda Mills, head of communications at Blue Origin, stated, "We do not tolerate any form of discrimination," and added, "We ensure that employees can report (unethical behavior) through various channels."

Abrams also accused Blue Origin of ignoring safety issues, saying, "Some engineers who raised concerns about rocket safety were driven out of the company."

She claimed that Blue Origin executives demanded increasing the annual number of flights to at least 40, and that "the pressure to win against other billionaires venturing into space exploration is prioritized over safety issues."

Regarding this, CNBC reported that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently investigating whether Blue Origin violated safety regulations.