The ESA sounds like it has some world-class assholes in its ranks, but everyone associated with the article is playing word-games. On one side, assholes. On the other, dishonest rhetoric.

Let's start with the title:

> The European Space Agency may have a bullying problem

May have a bullying problem? Does it, or does it not? You have all these brave victims coming forward with stories of harrowing abuse. It sounds like you don't fully believe them, Ars.

If they're telling the truth, then the ESA has a bullying problem. If they're not, this is just a bunch of underperforming ex-employees being vindictive and there's no story here. But the ESA will forever be tarred with the implication.

> 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.

We don't invite contractors to meetings either. We don't trust them not to leak sensitive information discussed in such meetings, to the media or to competitors. Short term employment + sensitive access = asking for it.

Given that the contractors went straight to the media when they felt aggrieved, score one for ESA in correctly tagging these fools for the troublemakers they ended up being. Imagine how much damage they could have done if they also had IP or material information about anything of substance?

> 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.”

The last "hostile workplace" case I worked involved claims similar to these. The messaging "more than 10 times a day" ended up being frustrated attempts to reach an underperforming employee that was never at her desk and generally AWOL.

To outsiders looking in, getting a string of 10 messages sure looks a lot like harassment. The woman had abandoned her job and deftly reframed her irritated boss as a harasser to HR-- the context under which the investigation started. She also made the "physically intimidated and threatened me" claim too, which was veiled sexism on her part because he was a man and she was a domestic violence victim. This should not be taken at face value.

> “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.”

Score one for the kids. Stupid boss. Learn how to be passive-aggressive if you want to compete with kids on their level. Emotional outbursts open you up to vague accusations like this.

Yelling at us is something our Dad used to do, until we cancelled him using the iPhone he bought us.

> "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."

Is the European Space Agency really an abusive workplace?

Or did 6 out of 9 European contractors just really suck at their job?

Try working in a customer-facing role. That'll teach you the definition of abuse.