{"id":45748,"date":"2023-11-08T21:52:54","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T13:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/the-european-space-agency-may-have-a-bullying-problem\/"},"modified":"2023-11-08T21:52:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T13:52:54","slug":"the-european-space-agency-may-have-a-bullying-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/the-european-space-agency-may-have-a-bullying-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"The European Space Agency may have a bullying problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex has been passionate about space exploration since her childhood. (Pseudonyms are used, and some genders are obscured throughout this piece, as sources requested anonymity to speak freely.) She considered pursuing astronomy as a career but ended up on a different professional path, one that ultimately led to a job at the European Space Agency (ESA). Alex thought she was set for a career filled with professional fulfillment.<\/p>\n

At first, things were good. Alex worked for ESA full time but wasn\u2019t employed directly by the agency; she was hired as a contractor through a manpower company. The staff-versus-contractor divide quickly became obvious. Although colleagues employed as staff performed similar tasks, they were often invited to meetings that Alex felt were relevant to the entire team but from which contractors were excluded.<\/p>\n

Over time, Alex soured on the experience of working at ESA. \u201cWhat I was not prepared for was the prevailing culture of fear, the extremely hierarchical structure, and the dysfunctional nature of management,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

About a year after Alex started at ESA, a new manager was put in charge of the team, and problems quickly grew. Alex felt like contractors were not always given proper briefs for the tasks they were asked to complete. When they sought more information, Alex said that contractors would sometimes be put down and shouted at in meetings. At the same time, the manager obsessed with what the workers were doing, sometimes messaging them more than 10 times a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy line manager consistently undermined my abilities and expertise, making derogatory comments about my work and belittling my contributions,\u201d Alex told Ars. \u201cI witnessed my colleagues being subjected to similar mistreatment, which created a hostile and distressing atmosphere within the team. There were instances where the manager would physically intimidate and threaten employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her ESA experience was quickly becoming a nightmare\u2014and she wasn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Ars Technica spoke with four other people who had also worked with Alex\u2019s manager. Their testimonies align. Another contractor, Nic, said, \u201cI was told by many colleagues to keep my head down, be quiet, and not to upset people.\u201d But just like Alex, Nic said he \u201cexperienced verbal aggression on multiple occasions\u201d and \u201ccountless times of rude, dismissive, condescending, unprofessional behavior to myself and other contractors.\u201d<\/p>\n

These behaviors, Nic said, were driven by the manager and a small clique of supporters. When Nic tried to raise these issues directly with the manager, he was told there wasn\u2019t a problem.<\/p>\n

Jo, who also briefly worked with the same team, confirmed that the general atmosphere was one of put-downs and bullying. \u201cPeople were spoken to in disrespectful ways,\u201d Jo told Ars. \u201c\u2018Why are you talking, you know nothing about this, your work is embarrassing,\u2019 that type of stuff.\u201d Jo decided to leave after a few months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall situation at the center was a constant revolving door of contractors,\u201d said Sam, another former team member. \u201cOut of our team of nine people, six either left or were fired within a half-year.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dream vs. reality<\/h2>\n

For many European space enthusiasts, a job at ESA is a dream. But as 18 different sources who spoke to Ars Technica have described their experience, the dream often turns bad as ESA\u2019s corporate environment appears to suffer from bullying, and employees find little in the way of protection.<\/p>\n

ESA denies the problem, citing internal anti-harassment policies, but internal documents reviewed by Ars that date back to the late 2000s suggest that, depending on the ESA facility, between 30 and 50 percent of the people working there said they had witnessed harassment. These internal surveys describe the same problems\u2014ostracism, undermining employees, and threats to employment\u2014mentioned by our sources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most common example of harassment behaviors concerned the way in which contractors are treated,\u201d one of the documents says, \u201cand this was an issue identified by both contractors and staff members alike.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Due to the agency\u2019s special status as an intergovernmental organization, workers who seek legal redress frequently face additional obstacles, as the agency is outside the jurisdiction of any national legal system, and its internal documents are largely inaccessible.<\/p>\n

The 18 people who shared their stories with Ars Technica have worked at four of ESA\u2019s six main centers over the past 15 years. Many of these sources don\u2019t know each other and have approached Ars independently. All of the sources requested anonymity, citing fear of retaliation\u2014including never being able to find further work in the space sector. They describe similar patterns of harassment, including verbal insults, ostracism, public denigration, and harsh criticism.<\/p>\n

Beyond the law<\/h2>\n

ESA is one of the world\u2019s leading space exploration organizations and one of the few that is international in scope, representing 22 member states. Contrary to a common misconception, ESA is not part of the European Union and not bound by European law. In fact, ESA is not bound by any real-world law, either local or national\u2014it\u2019s governed only by its 130-page Convention and a set of internal regulations.<\/p>\n

This international status grants the ESA and its staff privileges that are far superior to those afforded to its bigger sister and role model, NASA, notably the ability to maintain any internal documents as confidential.<\/p>\n

The agency is effectively a legal microcosm where only internal rules and regulations apply\u2014although only if the ESA chooses to enforce them.<\/p>\n

With centers in the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium, ESA employs 2,200 staff from all over Europe. These employees enjoy generous salaries and other benefits, including child care allowances, abundant pension packages, and extra money for relocating to another country. Staff also enjoy the agency\u2019s diplomatic immunity, which grants them \u201cinviolability\u201d of all their official documents and email exchanges.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Most ESA staff members initially receive four-year contracts, which can be subsequently extended \u201cup to the ESA retirement age of 63,\u201d according to information on the agency\u2019s website. According to the ESA employees we\u2019ve spoken with, those senior ESA staff managers with permanent contracts have significant power over newer or lower-ranking employees, whose contracts are frequently temporary\u2014and whose contract extensions are in the hands of their superiors.<\/p>\n

In addition to its staff, ESA employs thousands of full-time workers through manpower agencies\u2014engineers, scientists, communications specialists, and administrative workers. These contractors are even more vulnerable than junior staff members.<\/p>\n

ESA told Ars Technica that these contractors and its temporary staff can report issues without disclosing their identity, \u201cwhich also aims at encouraging submission of reports without fearing possible retaliation. If a complaint is submitted, a dedicated fact-finding procedure is launched and required follow-up action is taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the agency has an Administrative Tribunal that deals with disputes that arise with its staff members through an internal court consisting of three judges appointed by the space agency\u2019s council. But few issues seem to reach the point where the tribunal becomes involved; it has only reached decisions in 50 cases since 2010. And of those, 45 were decided in favor of the ESA.<\/p>\n

\u201cBad behavior\u201d<\/h2>\n

Alex had faith in ESA and its policies against harassment. Just like Nic, she tried to talk things out with her manager. When this failed, Alex next turned to the manager at the contractor company that hired her; she then went to the ESA Welfare Officer, then to the center\u2019s HR department, and finally to the head of the department where she was stationed.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n ESA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cThere was no opportunity for mediation nor raising a complaint of harassment and bullying at that time,\u201d said Alex. Alex followed the advice she received from the Welfare Officer and tried one more time to talk things out with her manager. Instead of defusing the tension, this escalated the situation. \u201cI was then met with accusations from the Head of Department that I was being difficult in terms of arranging a meeting with the line manager,\u201d said Alex.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Alex\u2019s enthusiasm for and commitment to Europe\u2019s space endeavor was quickly withering away. Her well-being also took a hit, so Alex requested a few weeks off work. Shortly after her return, Alex was fired for alleged \u201cbad behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became clear that despite there being policies and procedures which are meant to protect the accuser, it only took some words from your line manager for your contracting agency to dismiss you,\u201d said Alex.<\/p>\n

Limited protection<\/h2>\n

Roderik Mol is an official at the Dutch union CNV, which represents contractors working for ESA\u2019s Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. He argues that ESA contractors are in a vulnerable position. \u201cIf ESA claims that they are not happy with how a contractor is performing their job, they don\u2019t need to do what they would have to do with regular employees,\u201d Mol said. \u201cIn the Netherlands, with regular labor contracts, you have to give employees the chance to improve their performance, but ESA doesn\u2019t have to do that with the loan employees.\u201d Instead, it becomes the responsibility of the manpower contractor company to either compensate the worker or find other work for them.<\/p>\n

Mol also confirms that the ESA contractors the union represents frequently mention bullying as a concern and that the agency\u2019s resources to handle the problem appear limited.<\/p>\n

A survey conducted by the union found that almost none of the contractors knew how to address conflict with ESA staffers. Of the more than 200 contractors who completed the survey, 45 percent said they believed there was no clear path to conflict resolution, while 52 percent said they didn\u2019t know whether any existed.<\/p>\n

Without explanation<\/h2>\n

After her dismissal, Alex sought an explanation from managers at her manpower company and was told that her continued employment would place the manpower agency\u2019s relationship with ESA at risk. According to an email from the company, \u201cWe were informed by the customer verbally and categorically that they would stop the contract on [date removed for confidentiality] if we did not remove you.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Alex requested documentation of the alleged investigation into the bad behavior but was told that no written records existed, as all had been done verbally.<\/p>\n

Alex filed a Subject Access Request with ESA to legally obtain the file the agency held about the supposed bad behavior and poor performance. After three months of waiting, she received an official response, which confirmed that the agency had no records of any complaints against Alex. (Ars Technica has seen this document.)<\/p>\n

The manager accused of bullying by Alex and her colleagues still works at the space agency, according to information available on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

A history of problems<\/h2>\n

Despite its systems for resolving conflicts, the ESA has had a history of alleged problematic behavior by its managers. Ars has obtained four internal reports published in 2009, based on focus group surveys conducted at four ESA centers: ESTEC, the ESA Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) near Rome; the Paris headquarters; and the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany. These revealed a level of harassment allegations against ESA managers that the firm that ran the focus groups described as concerning, while noting the actions took place across all of the surveyed centers.<\/p>\n

On average, more than 30 percent of those surveyed at that time said they had experienced or witnessed harassment at the agency. \u201c[The] figures do give sufficient cause for concern to suggest that they should be addressed promptly,\u201d the report\u2019s authors stated.<\/p>\n

The problematic behaviors described in the surveys are similar to those detailed by our sources. \u201cIssues highlighted include staff treating contractors in an arrogant manner, contractors being fired at short notice and, at times, termination of contract being used as a threat,\u201d the reports note. It goes on to describe problems such as harsh public denigration of a person and their work, micromanagement, ostracism, and shouting at meetings. Managers also failed to explain tasks properly, then criticized their employees for not knowing what to do.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

They recount a number of specific events that were described by people in the focus groups. \u201cI witnessed the ostracism of an experienced female colleague by a new male manager who overlooked her in staff meetings and did not allow her to say her part,\u201d one worker said. \u201cHe progressively stripped her of tasks and responsibilities within her remit in favor of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another described their department head as \u201cdetermined to divide his staff by talking badly about each of us to each of us\u2026 He will make it very clear that he does not want to listen to certain members of staff when they attempt to speak in meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The documents also indicate that managers are the most likely source of problems and contractors the most vulnerable group\u2014one that often perceives the managers as untouchable. This dynamic was highlighted both by staff and contractors. The report says that there is a \u201clack of consequences for poor behavior\u201d by managers and that HR suffers from a \u201clack of real power to respond to incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources said that regular surveys of ESA\u2019s staff also show high levels of job dissatisfaction among the agency\u2019s non-contractor employees.<\/p>\n

In a statement, however, ESA emphasized it had \u201ca duly established anti-harassment policy, matching the best standards,\u201d and it strongly challenged \u201cany unsubstantiated allegations of a so-called \u2018pattern\u2019 towards any category of personnel at ESA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consistent stories<\/h2>\n

In addition to Alex and her colleagues, Ars Technica has spoken with 13 contractors and staff who either still work or have worked at ESA centers over the past 15 years, all in countries other than Alex\u2019s. They all reported either witnessing the bullying of others, being victims of bullying themselves, or both. Some of the reported incidents are very recent, while others took place over the past 15 years. In all the reported incidents, patterns emerge that are highly similar to those reported by Alex and her colleagues, as well as by the ESA\u2019s own focus groups: complaints about management behavior that were not resolved internally, and allegations of retaliation against those doing the complaining.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

For example, a former contractor named Jaimie said she was let go from her role after an ESA staff manager blamed her for a \u201cmistake\u201d that Jaimie believed was actually the manager\u2019s doing. Jamie sought help from the center\u2019s HR team, who \u201cappeared sympathetic\u201d but indicated that since the manager was a proper staff member and Jamie was only a contractor, little could be done to address the grievance.<\/p>\n

Max, who worked at yet another ESA center, said he was \u201cpushed away from a job I liked by an ESA manager who had a very long history of bullying and an extreme turnover of contractors.\u201d Max, too, tried to seek help from higher management. The managers acknowledged the problem, Max said, but the message was the same as the one Jamie was given.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obvious from our conversation that they knew this behavior was consistent with [the manager\u2019s] past behavior, but it was also clear that with my word against the word of a staff member, I had zero chances,\u201d Max told Ars.<\/p>\n

One source who worked for the agency for a significant amount of time said that they \u201cknew of more than 20 cases of space professionals who had experienced harassment and had been unsuccessful in finding a resolution other than the victim being told to find another job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another witness told Ars Technica they had seen several women in their department subject to bullying by a manager who was known to be friends with people higher up ESA\u2019s hierarchy. \u201cHR didn\u2019t want to touch it,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

Seeking accountability<\/h2>\n

Despite ESA\u2019s legal status, a few allegations of harassment and bullying have made it to local court systems. In 2019, Ivan Balenzio, an Italian communications specialist employed as an ESA contractor at ESRIN, successfully sued ESA for paying him less than ESA staffers employed in equivalent roles. That, the Italian newspaper Open Online stated, is against Italy\u2019s employment law.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

But Balenzio\u2019s victory was mixed. He had also complained about homophobic harassment he had been subject to at the agency. \u201cIt was mainly jokes, comparisons, references,\u201d Balenzio told Open Online in 2019. \u201cOne thing I will never be able to forget is that during the parties organized after the various communication events, my boss constantly told me, \u2018Homosexuals drink prosecco.\u2019 Repeated several times, it seemed like a personal attack to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court, however, didn\u2019t agree with Balenzio\u2019s assessment of the behavior as harassment.<\/p>\n

A far more tragic case is in the courts in France. It involves the 2011 suicide of 38-year-old engineer Philippe Kieffer and his family\u2019s years-long\u2014and so-far unsuccessful\u2014battle to have the circumstances of the suicide investigated by a public court.<\/p>\n

Kieffer was employed as a junior staff member on a temporary contract, which he was hoping to have made permanent. He started at ESTEC, in the Netherlands, in 2002, and his career seemed to progress without major glitches until 2009. In that year, a new head of section and a new head of division were appointed, and they began finding faults in his work, according to the French Association Supporting Victims and Organizations Dealing with Suicide and Professional Depression (ASD-Pro), which supports Kieffer\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n

Because Kieffer was a staff member, the investigation of his suicide fell to the agency\u2019s Administrative Tribunal. According to a document on the tribunal\u2019s website, two of Kieffer\u2019s co-workers had met with the center\u2019s head of HR and told her that Kieffer\u2019s treatment by his manager was \u201ctantamount to harassment.\u201d The French newspaper Le Monde described an incident, reportedly detailed in Kieffer\u2019s journal, when his superior kicked Kieffer \u201cout of a meeting, shouting at him, \u2018I don\u2019t want to see you anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Kieffer was, according to the sources, pushed to the brink by constant put-downs, criticism of his work, and a threat of his contract not being renewed. The tribunal ruled his suicide a work-related accident, but it also ruled that no harassment had taken place. Instead, according to Le Monde<\/i>, internal documents portray Kieffer as \u201ca fragile personality\u201d suffering from a \u201csignificant lack of communication\u201d and even \u201cautistic disorders.\u201d Kieffer\u2019s mother, Denise, emphasized to Ars Technica that her son had never been diagnosed with autism by a psychiatrist, and she disagreed with the description of him put forward by ESA.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Another case involving alleged harassment reached ESA\u2019s Administrative Tribunal in 2021 and was also dismissed by its judges. In that case, an unnamed woman challenged an earlier decision by ESA\u2019s director general not to investigate her allegation of harassment against the then-head of the agency\u2019s directorate of Technology, Engineering, and Quality (TEC) and his wife, the head of the Clean Space Office.<\/p>\n

The claimant believed that the pair worked together to bully her out of her job as the TEC directorate\u2019s space debris expert to make way for the wife\u2019s appointment as head of the new office overseeing the space debris agenda. The behaviors the claimant described were similar to those experienced by Kieffer: sudden, unfair criticism of her work, public denigration, and subsequent removal of responsibilities. Just like Kieffer, the woman only had a temporary contract and had only been hired by the agency in 2011, while the husband-and-wife team have worked at ESA since the 1980s, according to public information.<\/p>\n

At that time, an internal ESA committee that guards against nepotism advised against the wife\u2019s appointment, according to an available document. The committee reasoned that the TEC director would be in a position to directly influence his wife\u2019s career. But then-Director General Jean Jacques Dordain decided that the wife could report directly to Dordain. The committee approved of the solution.<\/p>\n

Hoping for justice<\/h2>\n

Alex and her colleagues say they are still recovering from what they describe as a psychologically traumatizing experience working for an agency they once idolized. They hope that sharing their stories publicly might finally make ESA take the issue seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want something positive to emerge from the challenges we\u2019ve faced within ESA,\u201d said Alex. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the devastating impact of a culture of fear and an organization that thinks it [is] above the law. My heart aches for the Kieffer family and all those who\u2019ve suffered, and I want our stories to help prevent such tragedies in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tereza Pultarova is a London-based science and technology reporter. She has been covering the space sector for over 10 years and has previously served as a senior reporter at Space.com. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex has been passionate about space exploration since her childhood. (Pseudonyms are used, and some genders are obscured throughout this piece, as sources requested anonymity to speak freely.) She considered pursuing astronomy as a career but ended up on a different professional path, one that ultimately led to a job at the European Space Agency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}