Run Away - Research Historian History Associates Employee Review

There are so many things wrong with this company. The Research Historian pay is insulting to the employees and clients. Entry-level salary is $35,000, which at an hourly rate is a little less than $17 an hour. The company charges clients $78 an hour for the Research Historian, five times more than the salary . Not only are Research Historians paid $10,000 below the national average, there is little promotional opportunity, even for employees who have worked there for 5 to 10 years. Another major issue is management. They are unorganized, unprofessional, and have little to no education in office management, employee training, and ethical working behavior. Entry level employees are trained poorly for one day and then are left at their extremely busy project managers' mercy to learn the company's standards for formatting, note taking, filling out expense reports, etc.. Communication between management and project managers is inadequate. A typical office day consisted of asking project managers for work to do and being told that there was no work and that you should ask a different project manager. After speaking to five different managers who did not have work, the Research Historians would sit at their cubicle and wait until work did come up. When a project manager finally had work, it was photo copying. Morale is extremely low and work is stressful. New and old employees are aware of these conditions; complaints and feedback has been provided to the management, but employee concerns are ignored. 60% of lunch conversation was painfully joking about the salary, working conditions, and inappropriate manager behavior. I once heard an employee say that working for History Associates was like being an abused household wife: you are abused for so long and once you work up the courage to leave, the company offers a small incentive to get you to stay.