Esplanade Reviews

During my tenure at Esplanade for an extensive period, the prevailing sentiment among employees, including myself, was dissatisfaction, leading to my decision to depart. Evaluating a job often involves three crucial aspects: 1. **Financial Compensation:** The challenging landscape of the arts industry in recent years has resulted in remuneration issues. Even senior positions at Esplanade offer salaries inferior to entry-level positions in other sectors. This, however, is a systemic challenge within the arts and shouldn't be solely attributed to Esplanade. 2. **Work-Life Balance:** Regrettably, Esplanade struggled with work-life balance. The schedules—5.5 days for those on shifts and 6 days for full-time technicians—impacted the overall well-being of employees, a sentiment echoed in other reviews. 3. **Passion for the Arts:** Working in the arts often entails accepting lower pay in exchange for passion. Esplanade, as the national arts center, aims to cater to a wider audience. Yet, in this pursuit, the essence of art, its freedom, attitude, and depth, seemed to diminish. The relentless focus on audience metrics seemed to eclipse the intrinsic value of artworks, neglecting the core principles that drive the artistic spirit. To foster an environment where the public can find solace and inspiration, prioritizing employee contentment becomes pivotal. The passion for art among employees shouldn't be overshadowed by an overemphasis on audience numbers. While aiming to become a 'people's center,' Esplanade inadvertently distanced itself from nurturing the true essence of art, inadvertently turning into a showcase rather than a sanctuary for artistic expression.

For perspective, this is the 10th consecutive negative review for Esplanade on Glassdoor. There are three thousand programmes a year = everyone is overworked and underpaid. Bureaucratic and mundane, but pretends to be creative. A lot of workflows, policies and practices just don’t make sense. They are outdated and messy. People are resistant to change and lack the capacity to address them. No guidance, it’s a “figure it out on your own” environment. A lot of pushback when you try to implement something different. CEO cried in front of the entire organisation when employee engagement survey requested for 2 days of WFH (they only gave 1). CEO also makes a lot of tone deaf comments such as we have to work for “passion, not money”. She is very out of touch with basic facets of people’s roles and lacks the ability to follow through with her own suggestions to improve workflows. Exploitative, no time off for working overtime if you don’t hit the hours. People are perpetually exhausted. Low base, increments are minimal. Environment is hierarchal and ageist, offering little or no progression. They reward the ones who have been around longer rather than who is competent. Endless piles of urgent work create an anxious environment. People lack professionalism when communicating. Workplace bullying is a norm. Many in need of serious anger management. High attrition rate, low morale. Nobody even dares to reveal their job function when posting these reviews because so many employees monitor this page and gossip about it.