A group of more than 20 current and former employees are accusing Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket ship company of being a toxic work environment and not adhering to proper safety protocols.
The workers claim in an essay that there's sexism at the Kent, Washington, company. The employees, led by former head of Blue Origin employee communications Alexandra Abrams, state that “numerous senior leaders have been known to be consistently inappropriate with women." They also claim that many company leaders were “unapproachable" and showed clear bias against women.
There were also safety concerns, with the group stating that Blue Origin seemed more focused on beating billionaires Richard Branson and Elon Musk to space rather than tackling safety issues that would have slowed down the schedule.
Bezos blasted into space on July 21 on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a date he selected for its historical significance. Bezos held fast to it, even as Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson pushed up his own flight from New Mexico and beat him to space by nine days.
The group said that last year company leaders seemed impatient with New Shepard rocket's schedule of a few flights per year, instead wanting more than 40. “Some of us felt that with the resources and staff available, leadership’s race to launch at such a breakneck speed was seriously compromising flight safety," they said.
Blue Origin said in a statement that it has no tolerance for any kind of harassment or discrimination and that it stands by its safety record. The company said it believes “New Shepard is the safest space vehicle ever designed or built."
About nine million people with student loans missed their first payment after the recent pandemic pause, according to data.
Spending this holiday season is set to significantly rise, according to an economic survey from CNBC.
Google settled an antitrust lawsuit, Tesla is reportedly raising pay, a group is suing Utah over its social media policies for kids and the founder of Nikola was sentenced to prison.
The White House is lending its support to an auto industry effort to standardize Tesla’s electric vehicle charging plugs for all EVs in the United States.
Some of America’s biggest retailers are working to increase their shipping speeds to please shoppers expecting faster and faster deliveries.
A group representing several big tech companies is suing Utah over state laws about children's social media use.
Google has agreed to pay $700 million to settle an anti-trust settlement.
Stocks were up after the closing bell as Wall Street continued to pin their hopes on rate cuts after last week's comments from the Fed.
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Google has agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store — the same issue that went to trial in another case that could result in even bigger changes.
