The European Space Agency may have a bullying problem

Ex-employees, ESA documents, and court cases point to longstanding problems.

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.

At first, things were good. Alex worked for ESA full time but wasn’t 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.

Over time, Alex soured on the experience of working at ESA. “What I was not prepared for was the prevailing culture of fear, the extremely hierarchical structure, and the dysfunctional nature of management,” she said.

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.

“My line manager consistently undermined my abilities and expertise, making derogatory comments about my work and belittling my contributions,” Alex told Ars. “I 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.”

Her ESA experience was quickly becoming a nightmare—and she wasn’t alone.

Ars Technica spoke with four other people who had also worked with Alex's manager. Their testimonies align. Another contractor, Nic, said, “I was told by many colleagues to keep my head down, be quiet, and not to upset people.” But just like Alex, Nic said he “experienced verbal aggression on multiple occasions” and “countless times of rude, dismissive, condescending, unprofessional behavior to myself and other contractors.”

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’t a problem.

Jo, who also briefly worked with the same team, confirmed that the general atmosphere was one of put-downs and bullying. "People were spoken to in disrespectful ways," Jo told Ars. "'Why are you talking, you know nothing about this, your work is embarrassing,' that type of stuff." Jo decided to leave after a few months.

"The overall situation at the center was a constant revolving door of contractors," said Sam, another former team member. "Out of our team of nine people, six either left or were fired within a half-year."

A dream vs. reality

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’s corporate environment appears to suffer from bullying, and employees find little in the way of protection.

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—ostracism, undermining employees, and threats to employment—mentioned by our sources.

“The most common example of harassment behaviors concerned the way in which contractors are treated,” one of the documents says, “and this was an issue identified by both contractors and staff members alike.”

Due to the agency’s 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.

The 18 people who shared their stories with Ars Technica have worked at four of ESA’s six main centers over the past 15 years. Many of these sources don’t know each other and have approached Ars independently. All of the sources requested anonymity, citing fear of retaliation—including 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.

Beyond the law

ESA is one of the world’s 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—it’s governed only by its 130-page Convention and a set of internal regulations.

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.

The agency is effectively a legal microcosm where only internal rules and regulations apply—although only if the ESA chooses to enforce them.

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’s diplomatic immunity, which grants them “inviolability” of all their official documents and email exchanges.

Most ESA staff members initially receive four-year contracts, which can be subsequently extended “up to the ESA retirement age of 63,” according to information on the agency’s website. According to the ESA employees we’ve spoken with, those senior ESA staff managers with permanent contracts have significant power over newer or lower-ranking employees, whose contracts are frequently temporary—and whose contract extensions are in the hands of their superiors.

In addition to its staff, ESA employs thousands of full-time workers through manpower agencies—engineers, scientists, communications specialists, and administrative workers. These contractors are even more vulnerable than junior staff members.

ESA told Ars Technica that these contractors and its temporary staff can report issues without disclosing their identity, "which 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."

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's 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.

“Bad behavior”

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’s HR department, and finally to the head of the department where she was stationed.

“There was no opportunity for mediation nor raising a complaint of harassment and bullying at that time,” 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. “I 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,” said Alex.

Alex's enthusiasm for and commitment to Europe's 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 “bad behavior.”

“It 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,” said Alex.

Limited protection

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

Mol also confirms that the ESA contractors the union represents frequently mention bullying as a concern and that the agency’s resources to handle the problem appear limited.

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't know whether any existed.

Without explanation

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’s relationship with ESA at risk. According to an email from the company, “We 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.”

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.

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.)

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

A history of problems

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.

On average, more than 30 percent of those surveyed at that time said they had experienced or witnessed harassment at the agency. "[The] figures do give sufficient cause for concern to suggest that they should be addressed promptly," the report's authors stated.

The problematic behaviors described in the surveys are similar to those detailed by our sources. “Issues 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,” 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.

They recount a number of specific events that were described by people in the focus groups. “I 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,” one worker said. “He progressively stripped her of tasks and responsibilities within her remit in favor of others.”

Another described their department head as “determined to divide his staff by talking badly about each of us to each of us… 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.”

The documents also indicate that managers are the most likely source of problems and contractors the most vulnerable group—one that often perceives the managers as untouchable. This dynamic was highlighted both by staff and contractors. The report says that there is a “lack of consequences for poor behavior” by managers and that HR suffers from a “lack of real power to respond to incidents.”

Sources said that regular surveys of ESA’s staff also show high levels of job dissatisfaction among the agency’s non-contractor employees.

In a statement, however, ESA emphasized it had “a duly established anti-harassment policy, matching the best standards,” and it strongly challenged “any unsubstantiated allegations of a so-called ‘pattern’ towards any category of personnel at ESA.”

Consistent stories

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’s. 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’s own focus groups: complaints about management behavior that were not resolved internally, and allegations of retaliation against those doing the complaining.

For example, a former contractor named Jaimie said she was let go from her role after an ESA staff manager blamed her for a "mistake" that Jaimie believed was actually the manager's doing. Jamie sought help from the center's HR team, who "appeared sympathetic" 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.

Max, who worked at yet another ESA center, said he was "pushed away from a job I liked by an ESA manager who had a very long history of bullying and an extreme turnover of contractors." 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.

"It was obvious from our conversation that they knew this behavior was consistent with [the manager's] past behavior, but it was also clear that with my word against the word of a staff member, I had zero chances," Max told Ars.

One source who worked for the agency for a significant amount of time said that they "knew 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."

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’s hierarchy. “HR didn’t want to touch it,” the source said.

Seeking accountability

Despite ESA’s 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's employment law.

But Balenzio’s victory was mixed. He had also complained about homophobic harassment he had been subject to at the agency. "It was mainly jokes, comparisons, references," Balenzio told Open Online in 2019. "One thing I will never be able to forget is that during the parties organized after the various communication events, my boss constantly told me, 'Homosexuals drink prosecco.' Repeated several times, it seemed like a personal attack to me."

The court, however, didn't agree with Balenzio's assessment of the behavior as harassment.

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's years-long—and so-far unsuccessful—battle to have the circumstances of the suicide investigated by a public court.

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's parents.

Because Kieffer was a staff member, the investigation of his suicide fell to the agency's Administrative Tribunal. According to a document on the tribunal's website, two of Kieffer's co-workers had met with the center’s head of HR and told her that Kieffer’s treatment by his manager was “tantamount to harassment.” The French newspaper Le Monde described an incident, reportedly detailed in Kieffer's journal, when his superior kicked Kieffer "out of a meeting, shouting at him, 'I don't want to see you anymore.'"

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, internal documents portray Kieffer as "a fragile personality" suffering from a "significant lack of communication" and even "autistic disorders." Kieffer’s 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.

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

The claimant believed that the pair worked together to bully her out of her job as the TEC directorate's space debris expert to make way for the wife’s 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.

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

Hoping for justice

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.

“I want something positive to emerge from the challenges we've faced within ESA,” said Alex. “We've 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've suffered, and I want our stories to help prevent such tragedies in the future.”

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