Elon Musk accused in new lawsuit of rampant sexual harassment at SpaceX

Shocking details of Elon Musk’s alleged behavior are revealed in a new lawsuit filed by eight former SpaceX employees. They claim that the “Animal House” environment fostered by the eccentric CEO and his leadership team created a toxic work environment unworthy of the company whose futuristic mission includes colonizing other planets.

The allegations include near-constant sexual comments and actions by Musk himself – both public and private – that were immediately repeated and imitated by other employees at the company. This fraternity culture became pervasive at SpaceX, the former employees claim. A number of engineers developed products with crude names, including an “upskirt camera” for the Falcon rocket, the “Fun Tunnel” (a euphemism for anal sex) and “B-plugs” for the Dragon vehicle, and there were teams of employees who called themselves “Chodes” and “Schlongs.”

“It’s reminiscent of the kind of charges that were brought on Wall Street in the 1990s,” Anne Shaver, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, told The Daily Beast. “It’s really shocking that something like this is happening in California in the 2020s.”

Claire Mallon, Tom Moline, André Nadeau, Deborah Lawrence, Rebekah Clark, Scott Beck, Yaman Abdulhak and Paige Holland-Thielen all worked for SpaceX between June 2014 and August 2022, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday. They all claim they were fired after raising concerns about the work environment at the company.

The eight are represented by Anne Shaver and Laurie Burgess of Lieff Cabraser Hiemann and Bernstein and are seeking damages for “lost wages, earnings and other employee benefits, as well as emotional distress.” The exact amount is unclear.

The lawsuit also attacks Musk’s smug image as a forward-thinking visionary – someone who “wants to be the leader of a brave new world of space travel but runs his company in the Dark Ages – who treats women like sex objects judged by their bra size, who bombards the workplace with offensive sexual comments, and who offers anyone who resists the ‘Animal House’ environment the opportunity to find another job if they don’t like it.”

SpaceX did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.

Accordingly The guardhas denied the allegations and refuted the claims, saying the firing of the employees was lawful. SpaceX does not often respond to media inquiries.

The lawsuit called Musk’s alleged constant sexual jokes, his open bigotry toward the LGBTQ+ community, and his sexual advances toward employees “childish” and “grotesque” – which often places a double burden on workers by encouraging others to imitate his behavior.

When former SpaceX employee Ashley Kosak first raised the issue of sexual harassment at the company in December 2021, she claimed that SpaceX conducted an internal audit that “found no problems.” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell even publicly discredited Kosak’s complaints in company meetings, the lawsuit says.

Following the May 2022 revelation alleging that Musk offered a flight attendant a horse in exchange for sexual favors, the lawsuit alleges Shotwell sent a “company-wide email in support of Musk” while Musk joked about the allegations on Twitter.

Holland-Thielen further alleged in the lawsuit that she was denied promotions while her male colleagues were promoted and that her ideas were regularly rejected by her male colleagues.

Holland-Thielen claimed that during the SpaceX Women’s Forum in December 2021, following Kosak’s allegations, SpaceX’s human resources director Lindsay Chapman denied her allegations and joked to the crowd, “I’ve never been sexually harassed; I don’t have to be hot enough.” When asked about the yardstick by which allegations of sexual harassment are reviewed, Lindsay further replied, “It’s hard to come up with (one). Things aren’t black and white, they’re fifty shades of gray.”

Disregard for alleged workplace harassment at SpaceX prompted Holland-Thielen to start a group chat in May 2022 with colleagues who shared her concerns.

Abdulhak confirmed many of Holland-Thielen’s allegations in the lawsuit, adding that when he raised concerns about Musk’s behavior with Michael Saqr, the head of a diversity group at SpaceX, the company’s CEO allegedly told him they were powerless to do anything.

When Abdulhak raised the issue with human resources director Jamin Gallman, no action was taken, the lawsuit says.

Claire Mallon, who worked at SpaceX from August 2017 to June 16, 2022, similarly reported a sexist, discriminatory and harassing workplace. Mallon was allegedly forced by her boss, David Forinash, to work more than her male colleagues in order to get a promotion.

Clark, Moline, Beck, Lawrence and Nadeau all told similar stories: they had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment or other forms of inappropriate behavior that were not consistent with the company’s values, and when they raised their complaints with management, they were ignored.

All seven joined Holland-Thielen’s group chat and began compiling a 31-page document with all of their documented complaints and their expectations of the company. The open letter was then distributed to the entire company on June 15 and signed by 400 other employees.

It wasn’t long before the company allegedly retaliated by interrogating all suspected employees responsible for writing the letter and firing them shortly thereafter.

“Musk personally ordered the plaintiff’s terminations,” the lawsuit states.

All of them reported that they suffered emotional stress after their termination.

The group filed a separate lawsuit with the NLRB on May 1, alleging wrongful termination. Musk initially tried to block the lawsuit by challenging the NLRB’s constitutionality.