Jeff Bezos’CNBC reports that Blue Origin’s turnover is high. The space company lost talent due to pressure from Bob Smith, CEO, to go back to work.

CNBC was told by a spokesperson for Blue Origin that attrition has never exceeded 12.7% on an annualized basis, which is used to measure personnel loss over 12 months.

While that’s notably above the company’s typical attrition of 8% to 9% a year, multiple people familiar with the situation told CNBC that, measuring from the start of the calendar year, attrition has already exceeded 20% for 2021 – noting that Blue Origin’s lower rate includes months of data before the recent surge of employees leaving.

Blue Origin spokesperson stated that they are witnessing attrition rates similar to other companies in the context of “The Great Resignation”, which many have called.

Blue Origin is home to nearly 4,000 workers, so these departures could represent hundreds of people this year. CNBC was informed by a spokesperson for Blue Origin that Blue Origin has seen its total workforce increase just slightly from last year’s 3,503 to 3,957 employees as of August.

Blue Origin has experienced a loss of talent that causes delays in its programs. New hires can be up-to-speed within six to one year.

Blue Origin’s Talent Exodus which CNBC reported in AugustThis page features all employees in the company’s hierarchy from top to bottom, such as:

• New Shepard SVP Steve Bennett
• Jeff Ashby, chief of mission assurance
• Crystal Freund is the senior director for recruiting
• Scott Jacobs, National Security Sales Director
• Jim Centore, Bob Ess and Tod byquist are the senior directors at New Glenn
• Bill Scammell is the senior finance manager for New Glenn

Multiple people told CNBC that the departures are a direct reflection on the leadership of Smith – in sharp contrast to the praise they gave for the passion and creativity of their peers within the company. CNBC spoke with the people on condition that they remain anonymous to avoid retribution and loss of employment opportunities.

CNBC spoke with people who had similar experiences to those interviewed. Their views on the management of the company were in many cases the same as the experience of the interviewees. 21 current and former employees who published an essay about Blue Origin on ThursdayA “toxic” workplace culture was claimed by a number of employees. Smith responded internally to the essay in a company-wide emailCNBC received the document to “reassure” CNBC and reiterate that CNBC does not tolerate discrimination or harassment.

Smith is the founder of Bezos’ company. He hired Smith from Honeywell back in 2017. CNBC learns that Blue Origin’s founder, Bezos, leaves many of its employees reluctantly. He loves the technology’s potential, and he believes in Bezos vision.

Blue Origin is very concerned about the possibility of exodus, since the market for space has become highly competitive. The company has its headquarters in Kent, Washington. This means that engineers who are skilled in engineering can also find jobs in other industries. Freund left September, making it harder to hire the right people.

One person stated that some business units suffered more losses than others. The New Shepard Program has seen people leaving in large numbers. Blue Origin’s finance department has suffered steady staff losses. One source described budgeting at Blue Origin as an absolute nightmare. CNBC spoke of the budgeting problems in Blue Origin’s Jacklyn ship. Blue Origin purchased it from Swedish shipping firm Stena Line for use as a landing pad for New Glenn rocket boosters. Jacklyn has had number of setbacks during retrofitting, one person said, and the project is 21% over budget, according to another – who noted that delays were related to the Covid pandemic.

According to two sources, Lisa Graham will soon be the vice president of finance for the company.

Blue Origin used to have exit interviews with its human resource team for employees who were leaving the company. Two people claimed that HR personnel have stopped performing exit interviews for most people leaving the company.

Blue Origin has seen a rapid increase in its headcount since Smith joined the company, which was just over 1000 employees back when he started. Smith has seen Blue Origin struggle to fulfill multiple important programs in his time. highlighted by Blue Origin’s chief operating officer leaving late last year

This year’s most significant win was the crewed New Shepard rocket launch. It was an easy success. Blue Origin previously claimed that New Shepard would have people on board by 2017, but the achievement of the suborbital launch was a long time coming.

New Glenn is the reusable, next-generation rocket that Blue Origin is developing for orbital launches, a marketplace dominated by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. The launch was initially scheduled for 2020. However, the rocket’s inaugural flight was postponed until now. at least the fourth quarter of 2022.According to a person who has been familiar with rocket development, the goal of New Glenn’s first launch is very optimistic. It will take place in 2024.

Blue Origin’s flagship rocket engine, BE-4 was expected to be available by 2017. However, a number of technical issues have prevented the delivery of the first engines that are flight ready. The BE-4 program has a significant impact on the entire company. ULA signed on to use the engines to power its Vulcan rocketsBlue Origin should be your first choice Aerojet Rocketdyne as its supplier – with ULA long-serving as a trusted launch provider for the Pentagon’s valuable and classified spacecraft.

A person who was familiar with ULA’s contract stated that Blue Origin would deliver its first two BE-4 engine-ready BE-4 engines to CNBC by April 2020. However, the engines team of Blue Origin presented Smith an update in January 2019. This person stated that every part of the BE-4 engine was experiencing technical issues. ULA still hasn’t received its BE-4 engines flight-ready.

Blue Origin is also secured a fierce court battle, after having lost NASA’s award of a multi-billion dollar lunar lander contract to SpaceX.

Some people view Smith’s leadership style, which is gruff and heavy-handed because of the pressure from contract delays or losses. But one person close to the CEO emphasized a disparity between Smith and the expectations of the largely Washington-based workforce – who are often very competitive, and don’t need to move to find similarly technical, well-paying jobs.

The person also pointed out disjointedness within the Smith team. According to two sources with knowledge, Smith said at one meeting that there was nothing Smith could teach his team.

CNBC heard from another source that Smith’s relationship with his CEO was so bad that Blue Origin brought in a leader consultant to assess the situation. The consultant started their presentation with Smith after hours of interviews one-on-one with Smith’s senior leaders.

Smith answered simply by saying, “You don’t think that I know something you are telling me?” According to Smith, who was in the meeting with two others and another person who learned about the comments later on, he is proud of his accomplishments and has no plans to change them.

Blue Origin spokeswoman Denise Levy denied making those remarks, and stated in a statement that the company had checked with its entire leadership team as well as the consultant who provided the information. “We can 100% prove that such statements have never been made.

The details surrounding Blue Origin’s turnover were not previously disclosed, but the general distaste for Smith was. Glassdoor’s survey shows only 19% of Smith’s employees support his leadership. It’s a stark contrast to the approval of other executives in space, where 91% SpaceX employees agree with CEO. Elon Musk77% of United Launch Alliance agree with CEO Tory Bruno.

Blue Origin is being funded by billionaire Bezos AmazonSmith is still making stock sales but hasn’t shown that he doesn’t like Smith.

His part is: Bezos has begun to spend more time with his space companyCNBC reported Monday that the news was true. Two sources familiar with the matter said that Bezos was technically savvy, and had a thorough understanding of both spacecrafts and rocketry. The people mentioned that Bezos is unlikely to take over Blue Origin as his full-time job.