Anchorage Museum Reviews

When I started working here there Alaska public media, was writing an article about managements mistreatment of employees, based on a letter written by multiple past employees. I wish I saw that for the red flag it was. The first month we were pumping water into the drum/water exhibit, and my coworker wasn't paying attention, and let go of the hose, which began to whip around spraying water everywhere, and all over the ground power outlet, where the water pump was plugged in. Surprised, I stood there for a second thinking how to fix this without electrocuting myself, the other A/V guy starts yelling at me "Don't just stand there!", Now, I don't always respond well to people yelling at me, so when my coworker just yelled at me like that, I went into panic mode, and i just unplugged it, luckily I wasn't electrocuted, that wasn't very professional. I mean calm down, it's only water... They said they hired me for my computer knowledge, but they never listened to a word I would say, For example I told my manager we need to replace the mosfets on the circuitry of a broken exhibit because it wasn't letting electricity flow through the gate when the correct voltage was applied. But when I told my manager that, he told me he didn't agree with my assessment, and to keep looking for the problem, Well, some time went by and I went to him maybe 3 or 4 times before he finally listened to me, I was able to fix it the day they came in. Why hire me if you don't have faith in the knowledge you hired me for? My boss said he would take us out for a lunch, every 3 months for a review, and talk about how we're doing. At least that's what he said, because I only had one review after my first 3 months. In that review he said I was doing good, but said there were a couple more things I could be doing, and what he expects of me in the future, which I thought was awesome. But it was hard to live up to his expectations when I was constantly being pulled off whatever I was working on to sit and watch him attempt to fix things, until he realized he needed something from our prep shop, I was basically a tool runner, and I felt like a glorified gopher. I felt like I was being underutilized, especially when my boss discarded everything I'd say. It got to a point where I would tell him my thought/idea so he could deny it, just to get that out of the way. because eventually he'd realize, I was right, or he'd suggest my old idea like he just came up with it. Some of our exhibits in the alaska gallery were hosted in quebec, and the whole time I was there, my boss kept talking about moving the servers in house, or contacting quebec to help us. Well one of the displays on the touch screen would only cover half the screen, I told him I could probably find a permanent fix it if I had administrator access to the arch linux terminal, but instead of getting the info I needed, or contacting quebec he just bought a how to hack course on our udemy page, basically saying he wanted me to spend time learning a new skill, instead of just getting the info I needed to fix, so I could work on everything else. After 6 more months, and no reviews, I felt like I wasn't wanted there. I eventually come to find out that my boss wasn't happy with my recent performance, so instead of having those performance reviews, to talk and see how/why things are going the way they are and how they can be better, he just ignored me. Despite the fact that I single-handedly kept all the discovery center exhibits running, which the exhibits were all custom made, with no documentation, or support what so ever. At one point the exhibit manager told me about a review he saw saying that nothing in the Discovery Center works, and when he checked it out he realized it was wrong, and literally everything worked, Well at one point I was frustrated, so I went into overdrive, and I started giving 150%, staying late, though I didn't get paid for it, coming in early, made sure everything was fixed, gave myself extra time. I should note I wasn't really allowed to fix most exhibits while we were open, so this extra time when closed was giving me more time to do extra things, all of which i wasn't getting paid for. Then finally my boss decides to give me a review for first time in 9 months, and he had a few notes, but he said I was doing a great job. Which okay, I don't get when I'm doing not as good, you neglect me, ignore me instead of helping and fixing any issues, but when its going good you can do a review, to tell me how awesome I am, but wont give me a raise, while your actively searching for a new employee in a way less skilled position at a higher salary than me, which is my next point... Eventually they posted a job opening in our department for a painter, and in the post they were offering that position more than I was making, but when I asked for a raise, after a great review, they told me to wait for end of the year. I like the guy they hired, and I'd be happy for him if I wasn't sad about the treatment he's sure to endure working in this environment. But they hired him to paint, and I was an exhibits A/V / computer / electronics technician. The straw that broke the camels back was when I had two, much needed, vacation days approved, over 2 weeks in advanced. but the week before my boss tells me I can't take them because someone had to do startup, and it wasn't fair to the other A/V guy to have to come in to do start up, because he was gonna stay late on one of those days. On the weekends no A/V person is there, security does startup, but we couldn't ask em that day? Also, this happened a week before I wasn't allowed to take ANY vacations days off in September, and it was the last 2 beautiful days of summer. That camping trip would have been awesome, I should have just went. They were gonna fire me anyways, for leaving an honest review like this. And that's the thing, they dismiss their employees, there is NOBODY to talk to if you have any issue, and HR works to defend the company from employees not the other way around. I wouldn't recommend anybody work here, in fact run as far away as you can from this toxic environment, if you value your mental health. After that I wrote an honest review on indeed, much like this one now. Then they fired me the next week, also I heard someone said they were scared of me, which I think is an excuse because I'm a nice guy, just ask any anybody there, and i never came even close to threatening or yelling at anybody, unlike some coworkers of mine. But usually in this country if you stand up to a powerful bully, they have the power to hurt you more. I wish the anchorage museum treated me like a human being.

Inveterate culture of intellectual property appropriation