Museum of Science FAQ

Pros

good people among the educators and front line workers

Cons

education departments are heavily fragmented and thus encouraged to compete against one another for resources and space. Management does not value education despite the museum's mission statement. this is evident in their hiring decisions and those laid off during the pandemic.

Advice to Management

take a pay cut. Less managers and directors. Less VPs. invest in the actual function of the museum and its ability to be a public facing institution.

Pros

Great place to work and fun

Cons

Long hours sometimes and hard time off

Pros

They have Great benefits and free parking.

Cons

Lots of turnover due to poor management

Pros

As far as seasonal work or part time while in school or something this is good place to work for the perks but once you get more ingrained an inundated by those at the top of the organization it's not the place you want to be. There are a lot of truly great and passionate people who work here and want to make the museum a welcoming and inclusive place....unfortunately that passion is taken advantage of and leadership won't allow any of the necessary change to truly happen, though they will certainly try to pretend it's happening.

Cons

The museum has become and increasingly toxic work environment with multiple bullies in the executive leadership. It's very clear that leadership does not actually care about the culture or wellbeing of the staff but simply wants to present the illusion that they do. The institution is very performative and loves to present itself in a way that looks and sounds great but leadership has no desire to actually do the work do actually BE the institution they pretend we are. A few years back an independent consultant came to evaluate core systemic issues within the museum and the results were very critical of leadership and HR. Since then the museum has begun staff training days to address these issues but really they are just passing it off to the lower level staff in a "personal responsibility" kind of way instead of addressing the issues among the leadership team. They present this idea of "leading from any chair" which is simply a ploy to try an appease staff, all of which becomes painfully evident anytime someone non-director level or up tries to initiate any meaningful conversation. Leadership will preach "trust" and use the term "museum family" (always a red flag) but they don't trust anyone not in the E8 group and they frequently abuse any trust and engage in shady business dealings. Lastly, you won't be rewarded for being good at what you do and working hard. Leadership likes people who can talk the talk but don't actually do anything, they want "yes" people. The only way to get promoted or get a raise is to change departments entirely or leave the museum and come back later. Once you leave, they'll hire someone new for significantly more money then they were offering you because they know they were never paying you what you were worth and they never will until they have no other choice.

Advice to Management

I think many hoped the new president would bring about the kind of cultural change the institution needed but yet things have only gotten significantly worse. Stop taking short cuts when hiring leadership positions. Stop lying to your employees and feeding them phony canned remarks. Truthfully the E8 leadership team needs to be scrapped and completely rebuilt.

Pros

MOS has an inspiring and ambitious vision to stay relevant into the future. Staff are dedicated, passionate and mission-driven.

Cons

The Museum has yet to take action on bringing staff compensation in line with the market and commensurate with job duties.