Report: Blue Origin has Stagnant, “Authoritarian Bro Culture”
The Washington Post has a story examining the dysfunction at Jeff Bozos’ Blue Origin space company. It’s not a pretty portrait of the company under CEO Bob Smith.
The new management’s “authoritarian bro culture,” as one former employee put it, affected how decisions were made and permeated the institution, translating into condescending, sometimes humiliating, comments and harassment toward some women and a stagnant top-down hierarchy that frustrated many employees.
As it quickly grew from a small start-up to a large corporation with nearly 4,000 employees, Blue Origin grappled with how to improve its culture. In 2019, the company fired its head of recruiting after employees complained of sexism. A consultant retained by Blue Origin conducted a review of the company’s leadership, finding that the primary challenge was Smith’s ineffective, micromanaging leadership style, said two former employees, including a top executive.
The interviews and documents obtained by The Post reveal wide-ranging employee concerns about Smith’s leadership style, a bureaucracy that hampered innovation, and a lack of intervention from Bezos, who employees said was not giving the company enough attention during a crucial period….
Not everyone says the company culture has grown toxic. One employee who works outside the main headquarters said she has found the culture and leadership welcoming and respectful. Blue Origin’s human resources team took immediate action when she reported a claim of “highly inappropriate behavior” from another employee earlier this year, she said.
The company started investigating right away, and the other employee was terminated, further confirming her confidence in the company. “I’ve never felt like I couldn’t go to our leadership for support,” she said. “I’ve never felt like I couldn’t go to HR with a problem.”
The story appears to confirm many of the claims made in an open letter published by Blue Origin’s former head of employee communications Alexandra Abrams and 20 former and present company employees.
10 responses to “Report: Blue Origin has Stagnant, “Authoritarian Bro Culture””
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
its clear the organization is simply incapable of progress…its mired in organizational quicksand
No surprise. You put a manager from the NASA culture in charge of your company, you get an organization that works at the speed of NASA. And like NASA believes bureaucrat paperwork equals safety. I am amazed that Blue Origin has done as much as it has.
I guess I am actually sensing more then that as an issue.
to try and mimic WSC. not in the course of recent human space history have so many labored so long over almost nothing accomplished
Bezos had more success with his yacht
I butted heads with Bob Smith at Honeywell, where he perfected his condescending arrogant intimidation and abuse of employees. He was protected at Honeywell by another culture of old boys network.
He probably learned it when working at United Space Alliance on the Space Shuttle upgrades program. His NASA biography also indicates he was the Aerospace Corporation’s representative to NASA before going to United Space Alliance. Having someone long associated with the Space Shuttle program and NASA as CEO of Blue Origin explains a lot about its slow pace of innovation.
other then the obvioius things…what would you say is his weakest trait
Sounds like a pretty bias story, especially given the throw away line about how an employee that actually had a problem had it quickly and properly resolved. As for micromanagement, that is fairly common for privately funded tech startups and is not necessarily bad, just look at how Elon Musk micromanages SpaceX.
There might be a difference in how Musk and Smith micromanages at their respective companies though..
We know Musk micromanages by diving into the nuts-and-bolts engineering details with his teams to implement possible solutions to problems to keep a project moving quickly.
So the question is just what the heck is Bob Smith micromanaging at BO? He doesn’t sound like the type to deep-dive into engineering problems with the troops on the shop floor like Elon does. Maybe he micromanages the infographics and legal departments at BO? 😀
I’ve some experience with people trying to micromanage things they think they understand but don’t. Very often leads to detailed instruction on doing the job wrong and a deaf ear to why it’s wrong. Schedule and QC problems often follow as well as being a lousy place to work. I don’t know enough about this company, just my experiences in construction. Very noticeable when problems are fixed with jackhammers instead of backspace keys.
Yes, Elon Musk focuses on the technology and making it happen, both of which he understands. By contrast Bob Smith spent years working with the Space Shuttle, so he is most likely trying to create the same bureaucratic NASA style structure at Blue Origin.