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Jeff Bezos' space company is pressuring employees to launch a tourist rocket during the pandemic:
Employees at Jeff Bezos' aerospace firm Blue Origin are outraged that senior leadership is pressuring workers to conduct a test launch of the company's New Shepard rocket — designed to take wealthy tourists into space — while the COVID-19 pandemic devastates the United States.
To conduct the flight, Blue Origin officials are considering transporting employees from the company's main headquarters in Kent, Washington — a town near Seattle where COVID-19 cases have surged — to a small town in West Texas called Van Horn. The town, which has a population of just over 2,000, is home to Blue Origin's test launch facility where the company has conducted all past flights of the New Shepard rocket.
Many employees fear that traveling to Van Horn might expose them to the novel coronavirus and inadvertently introduce COVID-19 to the residents of the rural town where there is very little infrastructure to handle an outbreak. The Verge spoke exclusively with four Blue Origin employees who all asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the company. They say they are frustrated by the company's desire to conduct a launch, as it could unnecessarily jeopardize the health of employees at Blue Origin and residents of Van Horn.
"It feels like the company is prioritizing its business goals and schedule above the safety of its employees and the community," one employee tells The Verge.
"[...] All of the employees who spoke with The Verge felt that New Shepard is not a critical vehicle that needs to launch during this time. "In my view, it's really a stretch," one employee tells The Verge. "I don't think that New Shepherd is mission essential to the United States in any way." While the rocket is sometimes used to carry research payloads, the primary focus of the vehicle is to eventually carry wealthy thrill-seekers to space where they'll experience a few minutes of weightlessness.
"What is essential about a vehicle that flies potentially billionaires to space?" one employee asks.
In a response to The Verge, Blue Origin said it would not comment on internal meetings. The company maintains that it is continuing to monitor "this rapidly evolving situation" and that there is no launch date set yet. "We hold safety as our highest value. Period," a spokesperson told The Verge in an email. "We are still operating at our West Texas Launch Site where we have been running engine tests and will continue to do so. Given our mission essential designation from Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, we've been cleared by federal, state and local officials to continue to operate, and we are doing everything we can to safeguard our workforce and communities."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Farkus888 on Monday April 06 2020, @02:39PM (8 children)
Given 2 equivalent options, many of us prefer to buy from more socially responsible companies. Some companies like Newman's Own and Tobasco have had that as part of their business for years. Others are getting their chance to show us now. Compare the responses of Hobby Lobby, who tried to defy the closure orders then fired everyone, with Dogfish Head, who was mandated by their governor to charge market rates for their hand sanitizer so they are donating the profits. I'm sure there are many other examples of companies that realize that a little creativity allows them to benefit and to help. Now we all get to find out who is who. I know I have been updating my list.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 06 2020, @02:48PM (1 child)
The talk on the radio show was hilarious on Friday. Tobasco brand hand sanitizer - not only does it sanitize your hands, but the first time you put your fingers near your eyes or nose will be the last time!
https://www.nbatitlechase.com/2020/03/14/photo-kill-the-germs-the-cajun-way-tabasco-hand-sanitizer/ [nbatitlechase.com]
I've been in the plant a few times, to deliver those dinky little bottles that the put tobasco sauce in. They are some really nice people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @12:55AM
Also helpful for those trying to stop urinating.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by meustrus on Monday April 06 2020, @03:41PM (5 children)
Unfortunately, marketers have figured out how to weaponize this preference. Pretty much any company can fund a side project and run a feel-good marketing campaign to make consumers think they're doing good stuff. Hardly anybody will do the research to compare them to real do-gooders.
Then you've got people like Hobby Lobby that weaponize people's ideology for the same purposes. Are they really Christian, or is it just a cynical marketing ploy? Most evangelicals are too dipshit to tell the difference.
Even worse, the rapid cycle of innovation in tech and startup culture makes it virtually impossible for us to know who's authentic and who's a cynic before the fad's already over with, or the market is cornered. It's just moving too fast for the truth to catch up.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Monday April 06 2020, @04:11PM (1 child)
In a Hobby Lobby I saw a wood carved "Pray without ceasing".
I wondered if anyone would notice if it were replaced with a similarly carved "Pray without cussing".
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @01:49AM
Pray without sneezing (else you're fired).
(Score: 2) by Farkus888 on Monday April 06 2020, @05:10PM (2 children)
The truth is it kind of doesn't matter. Companies can engage in activities that benefit them only at the cost of society. They can do things that at least marginally benefit them while creating a public benefit as well. Any movement towards the second option helps no matter how self centered the motivation was. Your argument falls for the same mental trap hobby lobby's managers did. You both believe that transactions ultimately must harm one party to benefit the other. Mutual benefit is real, all of human society wouldn't have come to be without it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by meustrus on Monday April 06 2020, @07:58PM (1 child)
It's a mental trap for Hobby Lobby's managers act as though "transactions ultimately must harm one party to benefit the other". I'm not trying to control a corporation though. I'm trying to predict their behavior. In that context, I haven't fallen for a mental trap so much as identified it. Ideas don't have to be true for them to affect decision making, and we often have to worry more about how our lives are negatively impacted by false ideas in the minds of others.
Incidentally, rejection of this particular mental trap is probably the #1 theme of the Bible. Further proof that Hobby Lobby's "deeply held beliefs" are just cynical marketing trash. Or that they're just bad at faith.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday April 06 2020, @08:35PM
One very strong predictor of a corporation's re/actions is the personalities, behavior, and priorities of its current CEO, and then of its CxOs. Understand that information in as fine detail as you can reasonably acquire, see how major corporate actions (relative to other companies in the same sub/sector) contrast with that, and I bet you'll have a decent first-order estimate on how that company will respond to given stimuli.
The big problem is that you can't get this info without some at least indirect personal contact with those people, or a lot of time to glean it from statements from them or their colleagues/friends. It's not something you can grab with a couple web searches.