Royal Museums Greenwich Employee Reviews

As a Museum Assistant and Event Host, I benefited from great rates of pay, full training, good benefits and manageable workload. However, the management team was disorganised, there were several occasions in which I had shifts cancelled, been told the wrong details of a shift or the shifts were distributed unfairly. Sometimes it felt like team leaders and supervisors don't really value you, and only care about their income and the image of the museum. In addition to that, the regular shifts are very monotonous, with hours on your feet, walking around in boredom.

Pros

good pay, flexibility, cultural environment

Cons

poor organisation, monotony, disrespectful management

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Very few positives

Visitor and Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Greenwich, London - 31 March 2023

I worked at the National Maritime Museum for around 10 months. Despite being highly motivated and eager to learn, with a strong interest in history, I found the realities of the job extremely depressing,frustrating, and draining. Let me preface this by saying that it is an impressive museum in a beautiful location, with some very commendable qualities. However, working in visitor experience here is utterly dire. It's long hours on your feet (sitting down when stationed in galleries is strongly frowned upon) with essentially zero mental or physical activity allowed while on duty beyond looking at the content of galleries and walking up and down. You are expected to be interacting regularly with the public but for the most part they don't want to engage as they see you standing up/walking around and mistake you for a security guard; in my experience the public much prefer to engage with someone who is relaxed and sitting down. You're essentially just standing around from 9:30 - 17:15 every day. Breaks are short, infrequent, and unpaid. There is nowhere comfortable to relax on breaks except an extremely sterile and unwelcoming "mess room". Rules are very strict, unrealistic and impractical. For example, you are not allowed to leave your position unattended under any circumstances, even for a moment, which means you have to radio for cover if you have to use the toilet outside your break times or you feel unwell. It feels like being back in school. Most visitor experience staff are friendly but opportunities for socialising are scant as you are alone on the museum floor or in galleries -

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Insights into Royal Museums Greenwich

Based on 6 survey responses

What people like

Clear sense of purpose
Ability to meet personal goals
Fair pay for job

Areas for improvement

Supportive environment
Sense of belonging
Support from manager

Very enjoyable place

Cleaner (Former Employee) - Greenwich - 10 March 2021

I enjoyed the historic environment and the exercise and gained satisfaction and knowledge of clocks and outer space, very intresting. Colleague's and staff mostly friendly.

Pros

Early finish

Cons

Tough walk up the hill especially in the dark wind and rain.

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It is ok to work for these

Cleaner (Current Employee) - Greenwich, Greater London - 25 February 2020

Not sure it ok working at. The obeveratory where u learn how the stars and moon came about they have lots of visitor every day. And school kids every day

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Very interesting and social workplace but managerial culture of fear

Cleaning Operative (Former Employee) - In the Royal Observatory Greenwich. - 1 January 2020

The environment was tremendously interesting. The size of the territory allocated to each worker was rather over-large, and they were short staffed and this required you to work at a very fast pace and almost to speed walk. The overall managers were not very pleasant and picked on my immediate manager, for instance. The team as she managed it had the highest rating for performance in the whole museum - and yet they put her on a formal warning because she had neglected to tell us to remove small bits of limescale on the bathroom sink tapes. You could get a formal warning for not leaving your cleaning cupboard tidy, to the extent that you were advised to take a phone picture of your cupboard as you had left it. There was, therefore, over-management.

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Stressful and unpredictable workplace

Visitor and Sales Assistant (Current Employee) - Greenwich - 25 November 2019

Royal Museums Greenwich may seem like a great place to work but that is only if you are at the BOH. The Visitor Experience team never seem to receive communications about happenings at the sites and we get the stick when visitors complain or something goes wrong. HR are replacing us all with Events Hosts (Zero Hours) and Volunteers. We are not appreciated for the back-breaking labourious work that we do. Ever tried standing up for seven hours, 5 days a week?

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Productive workplace

Visitor Experience Team Volunteer (Current Employee) - Queens house , Royal Observatory and Maritime museum - 27 October 2019

I usually volunteered in shifts to cover for lunch hours so I would arrive to the museum and have a briefing with other members of staff where they would then explain what everyone's role for the day was and then I would follow what the rota said where I was needed at most. The hardest part of the job was probably not always having the answers to visitors question, naturally you want to be helpful as possible and when you dont have the answers some visitors arent very considerate about it ,making it hard for one self. The best part was probably helping out at the Queens House due to its beautiful architecture and design along with its interesting history , I also really loved helping out at the observatory as astronomy and physics is a passion of mine. Volunteering at the royal museum of Greenwhich gave me an excellent customer care experience , helped improve my people and communication skills and most importantly how to have a flexible approach to working as part of a team

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Friendly & Supportive Working Environment

Visitor & Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - London - 4 March 2019

A typical day involved meeting and greeting visitors and promoting all of Royal Museums Greenwich's sites by selling admissions tickets, gift items, and persuading visitors to sign up to annual museum membership. The role taught me about the importance of teamwork and good communication skills. It also gave me an insight into how a busy museum is run and the responsibility of health and safety in a very busy and lively work environment. The management were always very approachable and understanding. Morning meetings and briefings were held on a daily basis. The working environment was very easy-going. The whole team were very friendly and always supported one another. It was easy to settle as a new started and quickly become part of the team. Holiday seasons were the busiest and most hectic times which sometimes made the day pass quickly. However, a lack of ventilation and air conditioning particularly during the Summer made the role a little more demanding. This was also contrasted by a lack of heating during the Winter months. The most enjoyable parts of the job were being able to walk through a beautiful Royal Park at the beginning and end of each day and spending the working hours at an equally beautiful location. The staff as a whole made it a fun place to work and there were always events taking place in and around the museum.

Pros

Easy to book holidays, Free entry to other museums, museum discounts

Cons

Internal vacancies very competitive

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Awful place to work don't do it

Visitor Sales Assistant (Current Employee) - Greenwich - 10 August 2018

Managers are lovely but nobody gets paid london living wage, nobody can progress and there is no reward, ever, for a job well done. most people are employed under the guise that they will be a visitor assistant but actually work in the shop.

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Buen ambiente de trabajo

Atención al visitante y recepción (Former Employee) - Greater London - 14 May 2018

Es bastante fácil empezar como voluntario y conseguir un puesto de trabajo después de poco tiempo.

Pros

buen ambiente de trabajo y descansos muy bien respetados

Cons

los voluntarios hacen el mismo trabajo que el resto de la plantilla

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Working for the RMG

Retail Assistant (Current Employee) - Greenwich, Greater London - 31 December 2016

I have worked for Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) for almost 5 years now. First as a volunteer, then a part-time paid retail worker and progressing into full-time, then achieving to work with the design team for two six month (unpaid) work experience placements as a 3D artist on two projects for the Astronomy Department. Whilst working as a paid employee, I felt that the work life was quite enjoyable. My colleagues are friendly and welcoming and my managers are also friendly and approachable. Although I feel that the salary can be improved upon, considering that other retail jobs in other museums close by are offering between 2-3k more, the pension scheme is brilliant as the company adds 10% into the pension pot. Being an employee for 5 years I feel that I have achieved most of the challenges that the job has to offer. I have become the Telescope specialist in the astronomy shop and have successfully sold dozens of telescopes and offered my expertise to man customers who are looking to buy or just want some advice. I have also received much praise from customers and my managers on my customer service. Recently I have become a banker and key holder, my duties being to cash up the tills and bank the money at the end of the day. There doesn't seem to much more progression after that, unless I move departments or become a supervisor.

Pros

Great work life

Cons

Pay

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Nice team but bad salary and very short notice for rotas (2-3 days before)

Admissions Sales Associate (Current Employee) - London - 2 October 2016

The team is usually quite good and friendly but people changes quite quickly. The work day is usually from 9.30 am to 5.00/5.30 pm. The location in the park is quite good, but in winter time can be problematic (no lights in the park, very dark and might be dangerous walking downhill). It's very difficult to progress in the Museum, eg. office work.

Pros

10 % discount in shop and cafe' in Museum and some pubs near there.

Cons

salary (minimum wage), repetitive tasks

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Inspiring location and museums but insufficient working hours

Events Host (Current Employee) - Greenwich, ENG - 10 January 2016

- Ensure the smooth running of events in conjunction with other staff. - Adhere to the Museum’s Health and Safety, Conservation rules and Fire evacuation procedures, ensuring the visitors and client’s safety. - Provide a high level of customer care to ensure clients and their guests are satisfied with the facilities and services provided. - Set up and take down events. - Gallery Invigilation. Hardest part of the job- standing on my foot for many hours in a row. Most Enjoyable aspect- working in a venue with significant cultural importance.

Pros

Free entrance in the majority of English national museums

Cons

low salary

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Sarced Heart girls school London W6

Information Receptionist (Former Employee) - Bottom of Greenwich - 9 January 2015

Teaching, PE, History and Geography The joy of a very good school Management run by Sacred Heart nuns, very caring. Co-workers great fun long hours Putting on the school show!

Pros

Lovely kids!

Cons

Poor salary

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good mangers

Events host (Current Employee) - Greenwich, ENG - 19 May 2014

good company nice to see the historical side of grenwich nice to intract with vistors and corprate guests

Pros

zero hour

Cons

late shifts

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Productive and engaging workplace

Visitor Assistant Volunteer (Current Employee) - Greenwich - 10 April 2013

RMG is a productive organization which strives to engage the public and all of its visitors to relate to the sea and what the sea means to Britain. It is an all encompassing place for all ages to enjoy a day of learning about Britain's Maritime History.the low ratings are for reasons I cannot rate the institution for I volunteer for RMG.