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Liberty Science Center

Is this your company?

It looks good on paper, but run for the hills - Anonymous employee Liberty Science Center Employee Review

1.0
Jan 10, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you are full time, they offer an extremely good benefits package with up to 5 weeks vacation a year for vested employees, unlimited sick hours as well. Free membership for your family and if you have guests you can get free wristbands for them as well with no limit on how many. If you are part time, the schedule is very flexible and there is always opportunity to pick up shifts on nights and weekends. If you are full time and not a part of the front line experience (90% of full time positions fall into this category) then you basically never have to interact with the public and are off on major holidays. Most of the admin staff make their own hours and don't have anyone to report to.

Cons

This is a company that doesn't care about their employees, at all. If you have ever wished that someone warned you about working here beforehand than take this as that warning, don't do it. The front line customer service staff work the hardest and make the least; they also have to work nights, weekends, every single holiday except Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day with extended hours on all holiday weekends and are never included in any of the perks that the admin staff may receive. They are also subjected to extreme rules that admin does not have to follow. For the admin staff, there are a lot of "lifers" that will not allow any change or improvement to take place to excel the institution, which is greatly needed. Those in charge at the top levels, don't do anything but sit in their offices or at their desks all day and they make the most salary. When an idea does get past roadblock 1, 2, and 3 those at the top often veto it due to budget reasons. It's all about the bottom line and how many people they can pack into the building with no regard to safety, the guest experience or staff morale. There is often no cross departmental support and when one person does speak up they are labeled a negative person. In addition, the HR department is the biggest joke in the building and absolutely zero help with anything; they aren't even there on weekends which is when you have a large part time staff working (whom only work weekends) so they never have an opportunity to talk face to face with an HR rep and when they are advised to call during the week to set up an appointment on the phone it is often cancelled or rescheduled about 3 times. The customer service coordinators are in charge of the largest team in the organization (over 100 associates) and are given no training, support, or guidance throughout their career and most have never been a manager prior. Basically the entire place is on auto pilot with everyone crossing their fingers that nothing goes wrong while they are on shift. Almost everyone that works in the guest experience /front line area is unhappy, overworked, and stressed out. With the guest experience being the number one priority, you would think there would be more resources allotted to this. Also, raises are non-existent for part time employees and rare for full time employees. Everything is basically just way more stressful than it needs to be due to old ways of thinking. The birthday party program and camp in program are the worst of them all and I feel sorry for guests that are spending way too much for these services.

Explore other reviews about Liberty Science Center

5.0
Oct 26, 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great pay for a summer job, great coworkers

Cons

Dont have much to say

2.0
May 1, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

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.

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