Museum closures, shifting safety protocols, an attack on admissions staff at a major New York museum, changing structures and expectations, a nationwide spotlight on issues of diversity and equity in museums: the extreme circumstances of the last two years have made it clear that it is important to hear from those museum workers most directly affected on the frontlines. In NEMA’s recent survey, these voices offer up their collective wisdom for future decision making. We are grateful to the 50 museum workers who responded to our survey to share their stories and views on what is currently happening in their roles behind admission desks and on exhibit floors.

Massachusetts respondents dominated (48%), with a full 20% of respondents also coming from out of region (including DC, CA and NY, among others). Connecticut was next highest within the region (16%), with 8% of respondents from New Hampshire and 4% each for Vermont and Rhode Island. Unfortunately there were no respondents from Maine. We have included the out of region answers along with those from within New England as so many of the issues covered in this survey have been not just regional or national but global in scale.

Respondents reported that they were employed in a wide range of museum sizes and disciplines. Some museums were listed as more than one discipline, so the percentages add to more than 100%. History museums (and related historic sites and houses) made up 48% of respondents, and the subgenre of Transportation museums (including air and maritime museums) made up 8%. Art museums were 30% of respondents’ employers, with children’s museums next at 26%.  Science and technology museums were 22% of respondents, with natural history museums (including botanic gardens) specifically at 18%. There were also 3 respondents from libraries and archives, making 6% of the final survey population.

Frontline staff of smaller museums made up the majority of the survey respondents; 10% at organizations with 10 or fewer employees, and 49% at organizations with 11-50 employees. The rest of the respondents worked in approximately even proportions at organizations of 51-100 employees (20%) and 101-300 employees (18%). Only 2% of respondents worked at organizations who employ over 300 people. This is particularly relevant when considering some of the themes that arose from this survey; when there is a question about lines of communication or who is in the room when decisions are made, most of the respondents are not talking about larger operations, but the opposite. Even in small organizations, frontline workers are feeling shut out of important discussions that impact them directly.

Who are the Frontliners?

For the purposes of this survey, NEMA defined “frontline staff” to include public-facing positions such as visitor services, security, concessions and gift shop, and program staff/educators, as well as volunteers in those roles. No volunteers chose to participate in this survey, so 54% of respondents reported that they were full-time staff, and the remaining 46% were part-time. Most identified as either a variation on a visitor services role (43%) or an education role (39%), with 8% in retail and 4% in front-facing library or archive roles. In addition, across visitor services, education, and retail, 45% of respondents had a title which suggested they were in a management or supervisory role, though when asked specifically, 36% of respondents identified themselves as at an intermediate level, 32% as a mid-level employee, and only 6% as a senior level employee. The remaining 24% identified as entry-level.

Frontline staff tend to be either younger or newer than in other museum roles: 40% of survey respondents have worked in the museum field less than 5 years. Another 26% each are distributed between 5-10 and 11-20 years, with only 8% of respondents having over 20 years’ experience in the museum field. 27% of respondents are 29 or younger, and 38% are between 30-39, and the next largest group is 60 or older, at 17%, likely reflecting many of those frontliners who choose museum work as a second or third career. Forty to fifty-nine year olds make up just 15% of total respondents.

Of the 35 respondents who chose to answer the optional demographic questions, 74% identify as white, 9% as Black or African American, 6% as Hispanic, 6% as multi-racial, and 3% as Asian. Of the 41 who answered the question on gender identity, 73% respondents identify as female, 12% as male, 10% as nonbinary or genderqueer, and 5% as trans. 29% of total survey respondents indicated they consider themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community, and 16% identify as a person with a disability. While the survey pool is too small to be truly representative, it does support evidence from elsewhere in the field that frontline roles often support the most diverse population of museum workers. This is also in line statistically with other data we have from the field, such as the 2020 NEMA Salary Survey, in which 76% of Visitor Services Managers were identified as female.

The Good News: What Museums Are Doing Well

Most of the questions in this survey were open-ended, to avoid built-in survey bias and to allow for surprise and creativity in the responses. Therefore, NEMA staff analyzed the results by looking for predominant themes using similar language, and collecting a picture of the frontline experience through these common threads rather than specific statistics. 

Unsurprisingly given the current events of the last two years, the most frequent theme mentioned had to do with the pandemic. 15 respondents mentioned that they felt their organization had done well identifying and executing COVID safety protocols, above and beyond simply requiring masks (a separate 11 mentions). These protocols included everything from signage to staff training and support, from cleaning to time off to get vaccinated.

Hearteningly, the second most frequent theme in ‘what museums are getting right’ involved support for the frontline from museum leadership and other staff in different roles (12 mentions), including specifically sharing job responsibilities (5 mentions), and providing backup for frontline staff to support visitor policies and mitigate difficult interactions (6 mentions.)

Third, hiring decisions and training programs were praised (8 mentions), coming in at about the same amount of frequency as museums that did a good job sharing decision making and keeping open and clear lines of communication (6 mentions each).

Other methods of support for frontline staff did make it onto the list of positives; a few respondents mentioned adequate compensation and benefits (5) and continued employment and projects during COVID closures (3). Appreciation for frontline staff (4) and sensible scheduling (5) were also clearly valued where museums made that a priority, and were often paired with a sense of camaraderie and enthusiasm for the work and their coworkers (4).

Only one respondent said they thought that their museum was doing well with diversity initiatives.

Key reflections on ‘what my organization is doing well’ include:

“Surveying us regularly to get our opinions on important matters. Making sure we are recognized as an important cog in the museum machine.”

“They are being as responsive as possible to the various mandates and recommendations re: COVID-19. There are still communication hiccups, many of them related to differences of opinion or understanding amongst staff members.”

“The senior leadership is conscious of and welcomes communication about the health and safety concerns of front line staff”

“Management creates solid policies and consistently enforces them, which make challenging customer service interactions easier. I know that I will be supported by my manager for challenging someone who refuses to wear a mask, uses racist or harmful language, etc. Great to know that leadership supports us, instead of a "the customer is always right" mentality.”

“Because we are a fairly small staff, many of us share front-line duties i.e. giving tours, operating the gift shop, etc. Because of these shared responsibilities I feel there is a certain amount of comradery around these operations. As the sole educator on staff I feel I have been given a lot of respect and freedom to develop and lead programs that interest me and that click with our audiences.”

“We are paid well, considering the national average. We have been able to work from home and keep our jobs/benefits for the entirety of the pandemic.”

“My organization gives front line staff a decent amount of freedom when it comes to solving problems, deciding how to perform the duties of the job, and makes good on a decent amount of simple requests to better improve the day-to-day functions of the museum.”

“The best thing my organization does is speak to us whenever they see us. Everyone who works in the staff offices always makes it a point to acknowledge our presence wherever we are in the museum.”

Needs Improvement: The Report Card

There was a very wide range of opinions on areas of potential improvement when it comes to how museums are currently working with their frontline staff, and what more could be done to support the people in these roles. Logistics, room for professional growth, compensation, and communication concerns topped the list.

Many of the issues that frontline staff identified had to do with the everyday experience of showing up to work. Eight separate respondents talked about poor scheduling and another seven discussed insufficient staffing levels, leading to burnout and a sense that their lives were at the whim of short-notice schedule changes and too few people to do what was necessary once at the museum. In smaller numbers, respondents also noted that necessary tools and amenities for frontline staff were wanting, including lack of bathrooms or behind-the-scenes break space, out of date point-of-sale technology and confusing signage, or insufficient safety equipment. There were also numerous mentions of security and safety concerns, including but not limited to Covid protocols and masking, as well as worries about interactions with difficult guests.

Other common sources of frustration dealt with the support or lack thereof from coworkers and museum leadership. Eight respondents mentioned that communication channels were lacking, and seven indicated that there was a desire for more shared decision making. An absence of senior staff presence on the exhibit floor or at the admission desk was mentioned seven times, as was a wish for more cross-departmental cooperation and transparency. ‘Respect’ and ‘responsiveness’ were also noted a total of ten times, as was a wish for more appreciation that would lead to better staff retention (6 mentions).

Staff retention could also be enhanced significantly at a number of these institutions with improvements in training and professional development (10 mentions) as well as opportunities for staff in those positions to grow and have pathways to promotion (5 mentions). Unsurprisingly, there were also many mentions of room for improvement in pay scales and other forms of benefits, including more paid time off, retirement and insurance, and more equitable policies around work-from-home options. (See the NEMA Salary Survey for 2020 figures.)

Finally, ten respondents brought up failures at their organizations in either staff morale or poor mental health, and/or following through with commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Representative answers to “what do you think your organization could be doing better” include:

“Senior staff need to be on the floor more to see what visitor behavior is like, increase staff on weekends and evening events”

“Providing information that affects front line staff should be a priority, not something you put off telling your staff. If we are having a change in hours or new admission price or extra add ons they need to know these things. A job is a major part of a person's life, they plan around it you can’t just only provide information when it’s convenient for higher ups”

“Communication is in a terrible place. Things change on a near constant basis, due to COVID-19 and an ongoing construction project. Due to these two stressors and the rate at which plans and spaces are changing the communication pipeline is a mess. Additionally the staffing tree is bare as several key staff members have left and not yet been replaced.”

“The vehicles for ongoing, regular communication are slow and mired in hierarchy. We are very siloed from each other. During the COVID closure, all of our staff members participated on a variety of cross-departmental teams working on digital initiatives and DEAI training documents. Once the museum reopened to visitors, almost all of those close conversations and work groups were dropped. We need to bring back the important team-building work groups.”

“Providing front line staff development opportunities that are relevant and interesting to floor staff. It seems that this is in progress, but making sure that we really select opportunities that are high quality would go a long way (ie, I would hesitate to call our recent deai training high quality)”

“The organization could do much better in supporting staff growth. There is not a lot of room to move up. I would also love to see more full time, benefitted front line roles (many are part time).”

“They need to make a stand on issues. They need to protect staff from hostile visitors and trust us in our knowledge, input, and expertise.”

“More staff on at certain times of the day that are KNOWN busy times. More training for consistency of experience from those on the front line - visitor facing employees are inconsistent with they way different areas are handled.”

“Communicate with us. Emails, meetings etc. Treat us as valuable employees. Team building. Pay us while we are on lockdowns. Create pathways to advancement within the organization. Hire us as part time permanent not just contractors.”

“Because of the size of my organization, front-line staff is continuously overworked. We are used as catch-all employees where many of the tasks we perform are outside of our job description. Genuine concerns are ignored by administration because it would make it harder for them to take advantage of us.”

It’s Not Just About Staff

In addition, when asked how they perceived their institution’s ability to grapple with the major changes and current events of the last two years, frontline employees had very disparate reactions. On a sliding scale of 0-5, with 0 being very poorly and 5 being very well, 32% of employees rated their museum a 2 or less. 14% gave a middling score (between 2-3), with statements like “I think our organization usually comes around to making the right decision, but our senior management does not do a great job of communicating it to the rest of the staff.”  28% gave their museums a ‘B’ (between 3-4), and 26% said their organization is coping well.

Those who had issues with their museum’s comportment reported problems like:

“I appreciate that my organization has put safety first, but they have not made any impactful gestures to acknowledge how hard the pandemic has been for the workers - it would be nice to close during surges, or at least offer hazard pay or more sick time - I had to be out for five days and lost a lot of my sick time (because I got sick at work.)”

“They’ve done very poorly, taking a really long time to implement virtual programs, not being all that flexible. Giving no guidance or support on trauma events”

“We have been abused and harassed by upper management. They steamroll and gaslight us at every opportunity.”

“We don't have a plan. instead we are reacting to each situation.”

“ I gave the rating roughly a 2.5. Despite working with Black organizations in the community, my organization has not explicitly commented on the Black Lives Matter movement out of fear of alienating conservative/racist donors. My organization is lackluster in their COVID safety protocols, to the point where they admitted to being unsure about them a few weeks ago when a front-line staff was exposed. Events are hybrid, but refreshments are still served despite protest from front-line staff about the safety of it.”

“Leadership is so out of touch with younger and more progressive employees.”

“There’s a major disconnect from frontline to leadership. Leadership is all wfh [work from home], they literally don’t see what we have to go through on a daily basis”

“Each week there is a new policy or a new proposal from the board or new guidelines and every week we are making more and more signs about changes that we have actually run out of room to hang signs. The museum is putting out inconsistent information and policies, all contradicting each other.”

More positive reflections included:

“I am grateful we reopened at all! The hierarchic structure that makes some aspects of work excessively complicated also provides a grounded, trustworthy approach to certain policies.”

“We've adapted to the Covid situation very well. We offered online classes and field trips, altered our site and exhibits to keep people as safe as possible, and found other creative ways to reach the public. Safety was our first priority. In the last month or two, our plans for the rest of the year have taken a less careful direction and it would be better if our upper management were flexible on this.”

“During the pandemic, the museum has kept us with the latest scientific data and state mandates, but we have also been more cautious than the state would allow. Since we work with children who are too young to get vaccinated, we are vigilant in ensuring every visitor over 2 years old is wearing a mask. Earlier in the pandemic, we also had capacity limits per exhibit which helped ensure social distancing. Though visitors would occasionally get upset, I believe it helped keep everyone safe.”

“We pivoted to an on-line and outdoor women’s history exhibit in 2020 that was actually way better than the indoor exhibit we had planned. In 2021 we did our first permanent exhibit in 40 years because we did not want to waste effort if Covid closes a summer exhibit again.”

“Given no one from our institution was laid off, we have stayed in business (with my understanding) no one getting Covid at work, and presently get support for testing regularly for safety. I feel very lucky. I also feel like the institution is trying its best to tackle DEAI as well in a major construction project and while we won't have answers presently it feels like the right move.”

Tangible Steps Towards Better Support

So what are the proposed solutions? What kind of support do frontline employees want to help them do their jobs better, with less burnout and more flexibility? We asked both ‘what would more support look like for your position’ and also ‘if you could change one thing tomorrow about your position, what would it be.’ These two facets of a similar ask had interestingly different primary answers.

In terms of support for their role, respondents overwhelmingly asked for more hands to help, be they equivalent staff, senior staff, or volunteers (15 mentions). The second most important was increased benefits and pay, including time off and increases to full time instead of part time or contract work (10 mentions), and the third most important answer was respect (7 mentions). Better training, room for growth, a role in decision making, more safety and comfort, and clearer communication also featured multiple mentions.

When asked what one thing they’d change tomorrow, however, the proportions flipped. Increased pay and benefits topped the list for this question (22 mentions), with more leadership and decision power coming second (8 mentions). Next most important was the request for more staff to work with (6 mentions), and a greater variety in duties was the other most mentioned desire (4). More time in which to do these duties, more flexibility, and also a desire for new management were also repeat themes.

This desire for greater opportunities to lead and to be involved in decision making is echoed in front line staff’s assessment of their inclusion in key museum strategies and plans; of the 49 respondents who answered “How involved is the frontline staff at your organization in key strategic decisions? (May include budgeting, exhibition planning, equity and inclusion strategies, etc.)” 32 of them gave their organizations a 1 or less, meaning ‘not at all involved.’ Only two respondents gave their institutions a 4 or a 5.

Representative quotes from these three related questions include:

“Not even the back of house staff gets any say in exhibits. When asked our opinion, it’s often in front of whoever donated the money to make that exhibit and you’re grateful for the money so you say you love it!!”

“I think with the size of our front line staff it varies. So from an education perspective we are partially included more than our Visitor Services Associates and Security.”

“Better understanding of what frontline staff do/deal with from HR. Bonus for frontline staff (including seasonal) who worked through the pandemic. Stop mis-classifying staff as seasonal - many in our department worked all year but just weren't guaranteed hours and were payed less since they were hired as "seasonal." HR and admin need to act when they know about disengaged (or worse) supervisors/directors and not leave frontline staff to manage a bad environment on their own.”

“Currently, my department does not have a department head who is involved with our day to day operations. It would be helpful to have someone in charge who participated in our day to day but was also a part of senior staff. In addition, our department has gotten smaller and smaller with various staff departures. We have not been allowed to replace people who have left. However, other departments have been allowed to replace [those] who have left. It is unclear why those decisions have been made.”

“More time to do all the tasks asked of me in a single day! I rarely get a 4 day work week where I feel I have time to catch up. Even when given catch up days, I have to spend an hour or more determining which task is the most important and something is always still not finished be the end of the day. I do not want more hours and more tasks- just enough hours to finish a day and start again the next day without already being behind.”

 “Have our input included in creative and decision processes. To have frontline/education /interpretation roles feel like a more valued position. Unfortunately, this seems to pop up across the field where these roles are viewed as entry level or stepping stones. Front line roles are important!”
“Better pay, as well as more respect from other departments: despite institutional awareness that my department (security and visitor services) is the largest and most diverse, we're often viewed as less-than, and there's little institutional awareness of the nature of the work we do.”

“Make my position full time year round, pay a reasonable wage, and include all staff in higher meeting discussions, not just a chosen 3 to 5. We are all involved and committed to the organization and should have a voice, not just be downstream catching the you-know-what.”

“More training or resources in technology. I feel there are features on programs and devices that would make my job easier, but I am not tech-savvy enough to know about them.”

“We are not involved at all except for our union who is able to speak on our behalf”

 “More money. Specifically time and a half for holidays, or hazard pay for working with the public during pandemic surges. Sorry to be that blatant about it, but I cannot buy a house or plan for my future on so little. The museum I work for does not offer any retirement match, no vision insurance, and we get 10 days of PTO per year. Because the regular work schedule includes weekends, I have to spend my PTO to participate in life (attend graduations, weddings, birthdays, etc. spend quality time with my loved ones, most of whom have weekends off). I don't get to take vacations or actually rest.”

“Every once in a while a manager will ask for frontline staff input, but it is rare. We also do not have a good system for frontline staff to make suggestions to upper level staff, even though we are the ones on the floor and seeing visitors interact with exhibits. There have been a couple times that a decision was announced and it was clear that frontline staff had not been consulted, and in due time that decision got drawn back.”

“In part because we are a fairly small staff, a lot of us are involved in the big picture conversations. It can still be difficult to drive change, though.”

What Next?

One respondent answered that the thing their museum is doing best when it comes to frontline staff is “Training the staff to be real hosts of the museum.” Another reflected that “The passion the front line staff have is usually the best of the organization.” It is clear that despite the numerous difficulties of the last two years which have in many cases compounded the less pleasant parts of being a museum’s public face, frontline staff continue to bring great care and dedication to their chosen institutions. The NEMA staff is grateful for those who took the time to answer this survey and share their honest experiences in the hopes of better understanding for all.

We hope this compilation will prompt discussion and reflection at your own organizations, as well. What resonates with you and your colleagues from this survey? What responses or reactions challenged you? How similar or different is your museum experience from the survey respondents’?

Header image: Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash.