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Royal Museums Greenwich

Royal Museums Greenwich Employee Review

Good pay, diverse shifts, manageable workload, disorganised, poor management, monotonous shifts

Gallery Assistant and Event Host (Former Employee) - London - 23 November 2020

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

Ratings by category

4.0 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance

4.0 out of 5 stars for Salary/Benefits

2.0 out of 5 stars for Job security/advancement

2.0 out of 5 stars for Management

3.0 out of 5 stars for Culture

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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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Same location

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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Same location

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.