Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has a lengthy historical past of being bizarre about copy. Maybe it’s associated to his lengthy historical past of allegedly harassing and exposing himself to girls, which a brand new report from Bloomberg says has been codified within the tradition of SpaceX — a tradition that now has the corporate dealing with lawsuits from eight ex-workers.
Bloomberg spoke with the fired workers, who declare there’s a large hole between how SpaceX says staff ought to act and the way they really do — and the way the corporate encourages immature conduct from these it employs. From Bloomberg:
At SpaceX, sexual harassment turned a joke a very long time in the past. Some years again, workers on the firm vacation celebration had been handled to a 10-minute parody video, a kind of eye-rolling workouts the place your bosses awkwardly attempt to land just a few punch strains. Consider it or not, this specific video has its moments. Astronauts whose lives are using on a SpaceX rocket won’t be thrilled with the gags concerning the firm’s engineers being younger or silly—at one level, little youngsters arrive to lecture the employees, who’re depicted attempting to unravel each engineering downside by hitting issues with hammers—however some bits land on the best facet of pop joke.
The video’s sourest notice performs a couple of minutes in, when a narrator chides a staffer who’s simply grabbed her colleague Brian Bjelde’s butt. “We’ve got a really strict sexual-harassment coverage,” the voiceover intones, “and also you’ve received to get it proper.” Minimize to the identical girl training her harassment method on Bjelde, who’s now SpaceX’s vp for human assets. Whereas he faces an workplace wall, palms over his head, she spanks him a number of extra instances, and one other girl helps her refine her kind, like a golfer. The eventual punch line is a freeze-frame of her hand on Bjelde’s bum accompanied by a chime and a inexperienced verify mark, indicating that her harassment now meets with firm approval.
I’ve labored at some HR-risk corporations in my time, however a video like that — containing folks in positions of energy on the firm, no much less — is a brand new stage of encouraging dangerous conduct. SpaceX’s response, nonetheless, is the nuclear possibility: Making an attempt to intestine the complete implementing physique, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board. SpaceX is suing to have the complete group dominated unconstitutional, in a difficult constitutional case:
13. To forestall SpaceX from present process protracted administrative proceedings earlier than an unconstitutionally structured company—after which SpaceX is unlikely to have an opportunity to safe significant retrospective reduction—the Courtroom ought to keep or enjoin the present company proceedings, declare that the NLRB’s construction violates the separation of powers underneath Article II of the Structure, and completely enjoin the NLRB and its Common Counsel from pursuing unfair labor observe fees in opposition to SpaceX earlier than company officers which can be unconstitutionally insulated from presidential oversight.
House Exploration Applied sciences Corp v. Nationwide Labor Relations Board is a wildly in-depth case, citing articles of the Structure in seemingly each sentence, however it’s one which’s geared in direction of the present Supreme Courtroom. The case focuses loads of its consideration on the President’s incapability to simply hearth NLRB staff as a constitutional situation, which is focused proper on the Courtroom’s declaration that “the President’s ‘administration of the Govt Department’ requires him to have ‘unrestricted energy to take away a very powerful of his subordinates’—such because the Legal professional Common—‘of their most necessary duties’” from the current Trump v. United States opinion. SpaceX’s retaliatory strike in opposition to its staff could also be nuclear, however it’s additionally very doable the Courtroom will like the way it’s written.
SpaceX’s tradition seems fratty, debaucherous, and altogether unprofessional — to not point out aggressive in direction of folks exterior of positions of energy. But, the lengths the corporate will go to with a purpose to defend that tradition attain the best courtroom within the land. And, if we’re all unfortunate, Musk’s defenses of sexual harassment will finish employee protections for all of us.
