Houston office - Avoid at all costs - Anonymous employee Asia Society Employee Review

Great team and good hours

None, everyone was welcoming and team was supportive

The best part of this organization is the incredibly smart, talented, and supportive team members who hold each other up despite the chaotic environment. There are great individuals here who genuinely care about their work, but unfortunately, they are overworked, underpaid, and undervalued.

The executive leadership lacks backbone and will do anything if someone "high profile" enough asks them to, leading to reckless financial decisions that make no sense for long-term stability. Programming is completely unfocused and exhausting for both staff and audiences. Leadership decisions are often based on emotions rather than logic, with little understanding of the actual day-to-day work required to keep things running. Staff are constantly being asked to do more with less, and it’s hard to see any path forward when layoffs feel constant. And to add salt to the wound instead of acknowledging high staff turnover, both layoffs (which leadership will only refer to as “restructuring” and not call it what it is) and staff resignations, the executive team either villainizes those who leave or refuses to discuss it entirely, fostering a toxic atmosphere that discourages open communication and trust. This history of “restructuring” (layoffs) leaves already underpaid and overworked employees with even more responsibilities and constant anxiety about job security. Compensation is a major issue. I wonder daily how any of my colleagues are surviving day to day on the meager salaries we earn while being in the office 50+ hours a week. The pay discrepancy between executives and the rest of the staff is staggering: leadership makes hundreds of thousands of dollars while the majority struggle to make ends meet. HR is virtually nonexistent and does nothing to advocate for employees or maintain basic workplace standards—unless you count organizing in-building happy hours and lunches during the busiest periods, which require staff resources. Leadership hires talented individuals, particularly young professionals, only to ignore them entirely. Employees technically have a professional development stipend, but there’s no real guidance on how to use it, and most don’t have the time to figure it out. Meanwhile, senior staff who have been here for years are often unprofessional, set in their ways, and resistant to solutions. Their unwillingness to adapt creates more work for everyone else and leads to poor organizational outcomes. They need professional development training or more hands-on discipline from the leadership team to address these issues. The building itself is literally falling apart, which feels like an accurate reflection of the organization as a whole.