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I guess the silver lining here is that the "employees" are already generally unpaid.

cardamomo 6y ago
Museums do tend to have many volunteers, but I'm not sure how this is a silver lining. For one, larger museums employ a fair number of people, from educators to scientists to tradespeople to curators. In fact, many of them are already out of a job. Even museums with large endowments quickly started to lay off workers [0]. I would also argue that to volunteer in a museum is a rich cultural experience -- often a chance for people to engage with a discipline they are passionate about. They may not have been paid, but they are surely missing this connection with the people, places, and objects they love. [0]: https://hyperallergic.com/551571/moma-educator-contracts/ https://hyperallergic.com/551571/moma-educator-contracts/
devonkim 6y ago
The cruel exception is in military museums where all the military funded museums are paid somewhat decent wages but of course these wages pale in comparison to the military intelligence trainers getting paid $650k+ / year mostly tax-free due to being overseas. The NBLS statistics for museum workers is highly skewed for federally funded museums and those with long career tenures which makes it look like they're paid nearly as much as most other white collar workers but this doesn't mean there's actually jobs in the field. And this was all pre-COVID. OPM has been desperately trying to get people to retire earlier by offering huge lump sums but with healthcare the way it is, people are not retiring which puts a drag on a strapped public sector in headcount and requisitions, but the implication to me is that when museum persons are retiring nowadays in public sector they're being replaced with cheaper contractors or simply not being filled in at all. I'm familiar with entire libraries being shut down after a single librarian retired.

Museums do tend to have many volunteers, but I'm not sure how this is a silver lining. For one, larger museums employ a fair number of people, from educators to scientists to tradespeople to curators. In fact, many of them are already out of a job. Even museums with large endowments quickly started to lay off workers [0]. I would also argue that to volunteer in a museum is a rich cultural experience -- often a chance for people to engage with a discipline they are passionate about. They may not have been paid, but they are surely missing this connection with the people, places, and objects they love. [0]: https://hyperallergic.com/551571/moma-educator-contracts/ https://hyperallergic.com/551571/moma-educator-contracts/

devonkim 6y ago

The cruel exception is in military museums where all the military funded museums are paid somewhat decent wages but of course these wages pale in comparison to the military intelligence trainers getting paid $650k+ / year mostly tax-free due to being overseas. The NBLS statistics for museum workers is highly skewed for federally funded museums and those with long career tenures which makes it look like they're paid nearly as much as most other white collar workers but this doesn't mean there's actually jobs in the field. And this was all pre-COVID. OPM has been desperately trying to get people to retire earlier by offering huge lump sums but with healthcare the way it is, people are not retiring which puts a drag on a strapped public sector in headcount and requisitions, but the implication to me is that when museum persons are retiring nowadays in public sector they're being replaced with cheaper contractors or simply not being filled in at all. I'm familiar with entire libraries being shut down after a single librarian retired.