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Brooklyn Botanic Garden

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Wonderful People and Environment, Poor Management and Pay - Anonymous employee Brooklyn Botanic Garden Employee Review

2.0
20 Jan 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

BBG is a beautiful institution staffed with amazing people who give their all to the collection and programs. The folks in Education, Horticulture, and Development are some of the most passionate, hardworking, and intelligent people i've met in any cultural institution. The culture outside of senior management is really great and work life balance is one of the best in the field outside of custodial and security who are frequently called in at the last minute. I think BBG is a great place to be at if your expectations are realistic and understand that you will be compensated way below market rate, upward mobility will be severely limited and rooted in favoritism, and plan to use this position as a stepping stone towards something else.

Cons

Some of senior management seem to have an adversarial relationship to staff, particularly in HR who are consistently cold and misleading with no accountability for their sometimes life altering mistakes. Some members of management seems to treat security and custodial, and other blue collar employees with little respect. All major decisions are made by a board who only ever interacts with VPs and remain ignorant of staff's concerns. Turnover has been massive across all departments as salaries are kept at a 1990s level, while senior management has enjoyed consistent raises. BBG is surprised when 20% of staff leave every few years, despite the cost of living sky rocketing in the area for at least 20 years. They would much rather replace amazing employees with proven track records and institutional knowledge who want to stay with young inexperienced employees on the cheap than give raises or a cost of living adjustment more than 01%. BBG will happily spend millions on shiny new buildings, consulting firms to address issues that staff already know the solution to, and outside contractors though.

Explore other reviews about Brooklyn Botanic Garden

5.0
26 Feb 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The most supportive & caring team I have ever worked with Extremely welcoming and eager to help with your professional development

Cons

Limited hours, shift-based work Impacted by seasonality No benefits

2.0
24 July 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Ample opportunity to explore the garden. Lovely coworkers at the associate director level and below.

Cons

The members of executive leadership and heads of the development department here are in some weird 8-way power struggle. The VP gate-kept donor relationships for nearly a decade before she gave someone access to her knowledge - which is all in her head. Get ready to get thrown under the bus in meetings big and small. Forget bringing up concerns, these folks are allergic to accountability. Every process is as cumbersome as possible, checked in triplicate even for senior staff, and yet donor notes in the CRM are treated as an afterthought. It’s all paper and in the heads of executive leadership. Any attempt to innovate is taken as an insult. My supervisor couldn’t let go of any of the tasks I was supposed to take on from her in my newly created role, so I mostly spent my time on professional development for my reports, shielding them from her demeaning comments, and meeting with new donors for dedications. I dreaded interactions with finance and the President’s office, where anything I said was met with a baseline level of contempt typically experienced at the DMV. Also, if you’re a working parent, run, don’t walk, away from this workplace. The leadership and HR are inflexible and lacking in basic human empathy to a degree I have not witnessed before or since.

5
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