A mock up of the Crew Dragon spacecraft is displayed during a media tour of SpaceX headquarters and rocket factory on August 13, 2018, in Hawthorne, California.
1. A former SpaceX intern has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company.
2. In her complaint, Julia CrowleyFarenga says reporting sexual harassment by a manager was met with retaliation.
3. Eventually, it cost her the opportunity for a full-time job, the lawsuit say.
4. SpaceX has not yet responded to the lawsuit and did not respond to a request for comment.
A former SpaceX
intern has accused the company of retaliating against her for reporting a
manager's inappropriate comments, eventually costing her the opportunity for a
full-time job with the company.
In a lawsuit filed
Friday, August 21, Julia CrowleyFarenga alleges her male manager in SpaceX's
propulsion department would routinely bring up non-work-related things, like
musing that their meeting would be better at The Wizarding World of Harry
Potter and commenting on her interactions with other male colleagues.
"I could spend
the rest of my life trying to figure you out," the manager, who appears to
no longer be affiliated with SpaceX, said in one instance, according to the
complaint. She said she told HR that she was "very uncomfortable with her
manager making such a comment without any indication from her that it may be
invited."
Neither SpaceX nor
the named managers in the complaint responded to a request for comment. SpaceX
has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court.
Eventually,
CrowleyFarenga said she met with SpaceX's vice president of propulsion, Will
Heltsley. According to the complaint, he agreed that there was "'some
problematic behavior happening' and that he was going to talk to [the
manager's] male intern to find out if 'this is happening because Erik is Erik
or because you are you.'"
That's when things
got worse, according to the lawsuit.
After five stellar
performance reviews, the lawsuit claims, CrowleyFarenga's sixth performance
review after three summers at the company was negative, despite frequently
asking for performance feedback and being told that "she was doing fine."
When she applied for
a full-time role, she was told the position was given to someone with more
experience. However, "she later learned that Heltsley had stopped her from
being hired," the lawsuit alleges.
She's now seeking a
jury trial for damages to cover "emotional injuries, including
nervousness, humiliation, depression, anguish, embarrassment, fright, shock,
pain, discomfort, fatigue, and anxiety" from the experience at SpaceX.
It is the first time that the Elon
Musk-owned space research organization is being popular for the wrong reasons.
Elon Musk however, has been silent on the issue so far. Might possible that the
employee maybe fired. But, it can’t be said certainly what would be the fate of
the employee who has been alleged.
Will the Employee get fired?
Will he sustain and be proved innocent?
Will SpaceX have to pay for this?
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