Seven former employees of Elon Musk's SpaceX claim company executives discriminated against women, joked about sexual harassment and fired employees when they complained

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A group of seven former employees of Elon Musk's SpaceX say the rocket and satellite company discriminated against women, joking about sexual harassment and even firing those who complained, a new civil rights complaint alleges.

According to the complaint, first reported by Bloomberg the employees were fired by the company in 2022 after a letter critical of Musk circulated through SpaceX.

The employees allege that during their time at the company they faced inappropriate behavior and sexual jokes from managers, who often quoted Musk.

“Basically, anything that would make a freshman laugh was fair game in large parts of the company,” said one of the fired employees, Tom Moline.

The group says SpaceX violated California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, which protects workers who are critical of their management and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.

The California Civil Rights Department first contacted SpaceX about the allegations in January

The SpaceX logo is displayed on a building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on May 26, 2020

The California Civil Rights Department first contacted SpaceX about the allegations in January.

In October, SpaceX was sued by a female former employee who alleged the company pays and promotes women and minorities less than white men.

Engineer Paige Holland-Thielen, one of the plaintiffs in the new civil rights lawsuit, told Bloomberg that from the moment she was hired by SpaceX in 2018, she felt discriminated against because she was considered a “level 1” employee, despite being had more experience than men who were given higher roles.

Even after being promoted, Holland-Thielen claims she was left out of meetings and decisions because of her gender.

When she complained that a male colleague was taking credit for her work, Holland-Thielen said she was subjected to a performance review in which she was told she was “too emotional” and that she needed to be “more humble.”

She claims she once tried to complain to a manager about a co-worker's inappropriate behavior, but the manager made a sexual joke when they saw downward-pointing data on her computer and reportedly said, “How can we take it higher, get higher, get higher? '

Paige Holland-Thielen (above) is among the complainants who say she was regularly discriminated against at SpaceX because of her gender

“Basically, anything that would make a freshman laugh was fair game in large parts of the company,” said one of the fired employees, Tom Moline.

The civil rights complaint also states that Musk posted content to Twitter that workers considered inappropriate, and that they could not easily avoid it because he also used the platform to make important company announcements.

The complainants say the situation reached a boiling point for them when Musk was accused of sexually harassing a SpaceX flight attendant in 2022. The lawsuit alleges that the company denies the claims and that an HR director said something like, “I have never been sexually harassed.” [sic]”I must not be warm enough.”

Disappointed with the way the company handled the accusation, the employees decided to write an open letter that they said led to their dismissal. The letter said Musk's behavior was “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment.”

Moline claims he was one of several employees who was subsequently called into a meeting and fired.

“They informed me that my employment was being terminated because they determined that I was responsible for conceiving, writing and distributing the open letter,” Molina said in the complaint.

In October, former SpaceX engineer Ashley Foltz filed a proposed class action in the state of California last year, saying the company paid her $92,000 a year, while men with similar duties and qualifications were paid up to $115,000.

California law prohibits employers from paying employees less than co-workers who perform “substantially similar work” based on their gender, race or ethnicity.

Foltz said she discovered the discrepancy when SpaceX posted job openings for engineering positions with a salary range of $95,000 to $115,000.

This year, a pay transparency law went into effect in California, requiring employers to include salary ranges in job postings.

Last November, the ex-employees took the complaints to the National Labor Law Office and the agency ruled that SpaceX had indeed violated federal labor law by firing the workers, who are mostly engineers.

SpaceX subsequently sued the agency, arguing that the ruling would damage its reputation and ability to recruit talent.

Copy of SpaceX executives' scathing open letter

An open letter to SpaceX executives,

In light of the recent allegations against our CEO and his public disregard for the situation, we would like to provide feedback on how these events are impacting our company's reputation and, in turn, our mission. Employees across the spectrum of gender, ethnicity, seniority and technical roles contributed to this letter. We believe it is imperative to maintain an honest and open dialogue with each other to effectively achieve our company's primary goals together: making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone, and making humans a multiplanetary species .

As SpaceX employees, we are expected to challenge established processes, innovate quickly to solve complex problems as a team, and use failures as learning opportunities. The commitment to these ideals is fundamental to our identity and at the heart of how we have redefined our industry. But despite all our technical achievements, SpaceX is failing to apply these principles to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion as an equal priority across the company, resulting in a workplace culture that remains firmly rooted in the status quo.

Individuals and groups of employees at SpaceX have made significant efforts beyond their technical scope to make the company a more inclusive space through conference recruiting, open forums, feedback to leadership, outreach and more. However, we feel an uneven burden to carry these efforts as the company has not applied the appropriate urgency and resources to the problem in a manner consistent with our approach to critical path engineering projects. To be clear, recent events are not isolated incidents; they are emblematic of a broader culture that fails many of the people who make SpaceX's extraordinary achievements possible. As industry leaders, we have a unique responsibility to address this.

Elon's behavior in the public sphere is often a source of distraction and embarrassment for us, especially in recent weeks. As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is considered the face of SpaceX: every tweet Elon sends is a de facto public statement from the company. It is critical to make it clear to our teams and our potential talent pool that his message does not reflect our work, our mission or our values.

SpaceX's current systems and culture do not meet its stated values, as many employees continue to experience uneven enforcement of our oft-repeated 'No Asshole' and 'Zero Tolerance' policies. This must change. As a starting point, we propose the following categories of action points, the details of which we would like to discuss personally with the management team within a month:

Publicly address and condemn Elon's harmful Twitter behavior. SpaceX must quickly and explicitly separate itself from Elon's personal brand.

Hold all leaders equally accountable for making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone. Be critical of issues that prevent employees from fully performing their work and reaching their potential, by taking specific and sustainable actions that are adequately resourced, transparent and treated with the same rigor and urgency as identifying reasons for escape after a hardware abnormality.

Define and respond uniformly to all forms of unacceptable behavior. Clearly define what exactly is meant by SpaceX's “no asshole” and “zero tolerance” policies and enforce them consistently. SpaceX must create secure avenues for reporting and maintain clear repercussions for any unacceptable behavior, whether from the CEO or an employee starting on day one.

We attach great importance to SpaceX's mission to make humanity multiplanetary. But more importantly: we care about each other. The collaboration we need to make life multiplanetary is incompatible with a culture that treats workers as consumable resources. Our unique position requires that we consider how our actions today will shape the experiences of individuals beyond our planet. Is the culture we foster now the culture we want to bring to Mars and beyond?

We have taken steps in that direction, but there is still so much more to achieve.