This group also expresses concerns about the billionaire space race and the moral implications of a small group of ultrawealthy men shaping the future of humanity beyond planet Earth.Ībrams, who has chosen to put her name on the record, received a letter from Blue Origin in the week prior to the open letter’s publication that she shared with Fortune stating that she would be liable to pay back thousands of dollars in severance as well as legal fees for violating her separation agreement’s confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses. They believe the commercial space industry should have greater government oversight (the industry is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration). The 21 employees write that they nearly unanimously agree they would not fly in a Blue Origin vehicle, citing the danger of this “suppression” of opposing viewpoints and their knowledge of how teams at the company are “stretched beyond their limits.”īy writing this letter, this group of employees say they hope to see change and accountability at Blue Origin. Many of the ex-staffers have signed strict nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements in her later role as head of employee communications, Abrams says she was tasked with handling the rollout of more restrictive employee contracts including an arbitration requirement and non-disparagement clause. Its July New Shepard flight was its 17th successful launch.Ī work environment that stifles “dissent” contributes to those safety fears, the employees write-and that pattern continues after workers leave the company, they say. The company did not respond to safety concerns raised in the letter. Women were often the ones to raise those concerns, employees say, and were “demeaned” for doing so. The employees write that “making progress for Jeff” on rocket launch schedules took precedence over safety concerns that would have slowed down the process. Abrams appeared on CBS Mornings on Thursday in an on-camera interview about the open letter and its allegations. The letter was published Thursday on the website of Lioness, an online platform that often works with whistleblowers.
#Blue origin careers full#
According to the letter, the group behind the statement is composed of 21 people, most of whom are ex-employees, including both former Blue Origin engineers and former members of the company’s corporate staff ( Fortune has viewed the full list of signatories). “If this company’s culture and work environment are a template for the future Jeff Bezos envisions, we are headed in a direction that reflects the worst of the world we live in now,” says the letter.
“It was painful,” she says now.Ībrams, who was fired by Blue Origin in 2019, is one among the group of current and former Blue Origin employees who have written a public letter describing what they call a “toxic” culture at the Amazon founder’s commercial space business. “I thought I would work at Blue Origin forever.”īut when Blue Origin’s rocket New Shepard launched into space in July in the company’s first human spaceflight mission-with Bezos on board-Abrams, at home in Seattle, couldn’t bring herself to watch. “This is my mother ship,” she remembers thinking. When she joined Jeff Bezos’s commercial spaceflight company Blue Origin in public relations in 2017, Abrams felt a sense of homecoming.
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