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01 "Father and Daughter Love"
The experiences of four of these women have been known to the outside world.
In 2017, Musk personally contacted an engineering expert who had interned at SpaceX to explore the possibility of her taking a senior position on the company's senior management team. The graduate told friends she was about to take a problem-solver position at the prestigious rocket company, a coveted opportunity for a young talent like her.
Her acquaintance with Musk dates back to her internship a few years ago, when she was still in college. During that time, she provided Musk with unique ideas for improving SpaceX. She told friends that these efforts not only led to a date with Musk, but also established a close personal connection between the two. Documents disclosed by
show that the year after the internship ended, Musk invited the newly graduated college student to spend time at a resort in Sicily. However, the two ended their relationship soon after.
Although Musk is more than 20 years older than the woman, he tried to rekindle an old relationship in 2017, but was declined by the other party. As she struggled to adapt to her new job, the two still maintained frequent contact. Musk texted her frequently and invited her to his Los Angeles mansion multiple times. Although she has sometimes accepted invitations, she has confided to friends that Musk's behavior has put some extra pressure on her work.
According to her friends and people familiar with her work at SpaceX, she eventually chose to leave Musk's management team and left SpaceX in 2019. Her lawyers provided two confidentiality agreements signed by her, confirming many details of the relationship, including the fact that she had been romantically involved with Musk.
She confided to her friends that she felt frustrated and powerless during her time at SpaceX. She found that it was difficult for her voice to be valued by senior management. She even revealed that sometimes she would hide alone in the spacex bathroom to reflect. In a confidentiality agreement, she revealed what it was like to work at SpaceX: "This has nothing to do with any romantic or personal interactions with Musk. As a new member of the company, my role faces many challenges."
According to people familiar with the matter and friends , despite her efforts to establish herself within the company, she was repeatedly invited to Musk's home. In an email provided by her lawyer, she said Musk's cold treatment of her exacerbated her work woes and made her deep background expertise ineffective.
She mentioned in a deposition that she and Musk were in regular contact via text messages because of her willingness to support him when he encountered difficulties, whether it was Tesla's plight or his relationship with actress Daru Talulah riley's marital problems.
She revealed that during several visits to Musk's home, they watched animations, chatted, and had in-depth discussions on the production increase of Tesla Model 3 and "the future direction of human technology." She has told friends that her work is not going well because of her delicate relationship with Musk. Eventually, she had to move from an executive position to one reporting to another engineer. In 2019, she made the decision to leave SpaceX.
She emphasized that there was no "romantic relationship" between her and Musk during the time she worked at SpaceX from 2017 to 2019. After breaking up with Musk, the two still maintained a friendly relationship.
02 Ambiguous relationships with many female subordinates
In SpaceX, this intern is just one of many female employees. They all reported to friends, family or companies that Musk showed unusual attention to them and even tried to pursue them.
In 2022, some media reported that a flight attendant complained to SpaceX, saying that Musk exposed his body in front of her and made love to her. According to people familiar with the matter, the flight attendant was a contract employee of SpaceX. She claimed in company mediation in 2018 that when she gave Musk a massage, Musk offered to give her a horse in return for his advances. After she refused, SpaceX cut her shifts. Ultimately, the company agreed to pay her $250,000 to settle.
However, Musk denied all of the stewardess’s accusations, insisting that they were “completely untrue.” However, according to the LinkedIn profiles of former SpaceX employees and former flight attendants, Musk did have interactions with flight attendants in the past, including in 2016, the year the flight attendant claimed the incident occurred.
Subsequently, SpaceX’s second-in-command, President Gwynne Shotwell, defended Musk in a company-wide email and refuted the flight attendant’s accusations. She wrote: "I personally believe that these accusations are false. I work for him not for nothing, but because I have never seen or heard similar accusations in my 20 years of working with him."
Another woman who left SpaceX in 2013 revealed to human resources and legal directors during exit negotiations that Musk had repeatedly asked her to have children. Musk, the father of at least ten children, believes that the world is facing a crisis of underpopulation and emphasizes that people with high IQs should increase their fertility.
Musk has repeatedly encouraged SpaceX employees to have children and emphasized that colonizing Mars is a necessary means to protect human civilization when the earth encounters a disaster. Sending humans to the red planet has been his long-standing dream and the driving force behind SpaceX's work. In an interview in 2021, Musk claimed: "If people don't have more children, civilization will collapse. Mark my words."
However, the female executive refused Musk's request, but she still He chose to continue working for Musk at SpaceX, but the relationship between the two took a turn for the worse. In addition to the maternity controversy, Musk has refused to give her a raise and raised questions about her job performance, according to people familiar with the matter. In the end, the woman received more than $1 million in cash and stock as severance compensation in negotiations with SpaceX.
In 2014, a fourth female employee reported directly to Musk and maintained a relationship with Musk for a month. The two people's office areas are visible to each other, and they often communicate frequently about work matters. In addition to handling her main responsibilities at SpaceX, she also needs to work up to 17 hours a day to keep up with Musk's ultra-fast pace of work and life, and assist with Tesla-related affairs and Musk's personal life chores. However, the relationship ended on a sour note, leading to her leaving the company and Musk exchanging accusations via text messages and emails, and entering into an agreement prohibiting her from publicly discussing matters related to working under Musk.
03 Is sexism and harassment a culture prevalent in spacex?
Spacex’s former executives and fired employees who filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board in 2022 said the failure of the top group around Musk to apply the company’s rules and regulations to the CEO without discrimination created a perception within the company. A culture of sexism and harassment.
They pointed out that Musk's status as a charismatic leader, admired by many fans and even hailed as a genius, allows him to be impunity for certain actions. After some employees who criticized Musk and asked SpaceX to take greater responsibility were fired, one former engineer recalled: "Musk is SpaceX, SpaceX is Musk."
Faced with these accusations, Shotwell said, "Wall Street The Daily News report failed to truly reflect the culture of SpaceX.She emphasized: "The lies and misdescriptions in your email are all misleading of the facts. Even in the face of all the forces that oppose us, I am still amazed by the extraordinary achievements our team achieves every day. Musk is the best person I know." One of the best."
But Shotwell promised that SpaceX would investigate all harassment complaints thoroughly and take appropriate action.
