Pros
Proximity to NYC and having ASTC membership for free tickets at other museums was great.
Cons
Extremely toxic work environment. The head of HR is a well-known insane person who targets people she doesn't like, or if you request any sort of accommodation. Management overall is unwilling to work with employees who do not fit their ideal mold, but claim to be inclusive. For example, in an industry that often attracts neurodiverse workers, they are appalled at the idea of wanting lowered lights in the office, at allowing work-from-home, or accepting that others might have different ways of communicating and interacting with others. "Optional" social lunches or gatherings are thrown back at employees in their quarterly reviews if not attended, claiming that you are not invested as a team member. On a similar note, employees are not at all valued by management. Guest ambassadors are infantilized and micromanaged, with a yearly purge happening at the end of spring where ambassadors are fired over things like clocking in 2 minutes late or taking out a phone to check the time. In other departments, there is zero upward mobility and a high turnover rate-- the manager and director of STEM Education, for example, both openly admitting this and saying if they can keep people for 3-5 years, that's all they can hope for. Burnout happens incredibly fast under these circumstances. The only people who do seem to be able to stay for beyond that time are those who are a department of one, or who simply fail upward by never advocating for themselves or their teams. Overall, employees are completely overworked, and over time will have more and more responsibility heaped on them with less and less support or reward. Despite desperately needing a union for this and other reasons, employees are terrified to attempt organization because the know that when last it was even mentioned, all those employees were purged from their jobs.
