SpaceX Intern Claims Sexual Harassment Complaint Ruined Her Job Prospects

An intern at Elon Musk’s SpaceX is suing the company, alleging that her chances of turning a three-year internship into a job were ruined after she complained internally about gender and sexual harassment by a superior.

Julia CrowleyFarenga worked as an intern at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, during the summers of 2015, 2016 and 2017, in the propulsion department, while completing her studies.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court last Friday, states that during her third summer at SpaceX, CrowleyFarenga was subjected to gender and sexual harassment from a line manager. CrowleyFarenga alleges that her complaints to SpaceX HR and her department vice president about the harassment were the “motivating factors” for why SpaceX did not hire her.

CrowleyFarenga, who has since forged a successful career at NASA, is filing for a trial by jury to determine damages. The former intern claims she suffered damages that include lost wages and benefits, and continues to suffer “emotional injuries,” including “nervousness, humiliation, depression and anxiety,” following her time at SpaceX.

‘Possessive and Jealous’

During the final year of her internship in 2017, CrowleyFarenga told human resources that her line manager had made what is described in the complaint as “several unwelcome advances.” The line manager allegedly told CrowleyFarenga that she “talks to men too much” and is a “social butterfly” who was “never at [her] desk.”

The intern alleges that the line manager, who left SpaceX after ten years in 2018 to start his own company, was “possessive and jealous” and wanted her to “refrain from talking to men at the company as much as possible.”

On one occasion, after seeing the intern talk to a male colleague, the SpaceX line manager allegedly asked, “Was that your boyfriend?” He then said, “Be careful who you are seen talking to,” warning her that “people may get the wrong impression about why you are here.”

According to the complaint, the intern told SpaceX HR that the line manager had said, “You are unique; I could spend the rest of my life trying to figure you out,” and that meetings scheduled for 30 minutes often lasted up to two hours. During one meeting, the manager allegedly said, “Wouldn’t this [meeting] be better if we were at Harry Potter World?”

Following the complaint made to SpaceX’s HR department, CrowleyFarenga met with Will Heltsley, the vice president of SpaceX’s propulsion team. Presented with the “gender and sexual harassment” allegations, Heltsley is said to have acknowledged “some problematic behavior happening” and offered to transfer CrowleyFarenga to a different team, which she accepted. According to the complaint, Heltsley also sought out the line manager’s “male intern” to determine who was to blame.

However, having moved teams within the propulsion department at SpaceX, CrowleyFarenga received a negative review in August 2017 for the first time, despite claiming that she had frequently asked for feedback during the term of her internship and had been told that she was doing well. In January 2018, nearing the end of her third summer internship, propulsion department vice president Heltsley allegedly told CrowleyFarenga that she was not getting a job offer due to her “low performance,” but added that she was still eligible for rehire at a later date.

At a later job interview at SpaceX for a role in the customer operations department, CrowleyFarenga claims that she was on course to be offered the job, and, according to a senior colleague, was “very well liked” by those who interviewed her. However, CrowleyFarenga was not extended an offer for the position and was told that SpaceX wanted someone with more experience. The complaint alleges that CrowleyFarenga “later learned that Heltsley had stopped her from being hired.”

SpaceX has not yet responded to the allegations.