https://www.aam-us.org/2023/07/06/b-u-i-l-d-ing-empathy-a-framework-for-reinvigorating-your-workplace/ American Alliance of Museums Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:48:47 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 https://www.aam-us.org/2023/07/06/b-u-i-l-d-ing-empathy-a-framework-for-reinvigorating-your-workplace/#comment-214757 Thu, 06 Jul 2023 19:31:17 +0000 https://www.aam-us.org/?p=133876#comment-214757 What is missing in this article is a reference to the growing trend of unionization within museums throughout the country — indicative of the lack of empathy of museum administrators and trustees towards the people tasked with direct cultural stewardship and public interface. More importantly, the resistance of cultural organizations to the union movement, as witnessed by the recent reneging on longevity pay as contractually agreed upon by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, underscores the indifference and outright hostility of museum elites towards the working-class challenges their staffers are faced with, among which are historic wage suppression (common across many industries over the past forty years), inflation, increasing rents, and lack of incentive or merit pay. Employee morale, as such, is the responsibility of the organization, which begins at the top, and is often notoriously missing in HR departments, which tend to protect the institution foremost, not the employees. I’m delighted that multiple museums are partnering to curate mental wellness experiences — too bad some of the major arts institutions are not paying anything more than lip service to the idea when it comes to their own staff.

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