Iconic building, lifelong friends, prestigious addition to resume... but at what cost? - Assistant Manager Kennedy Center Employee Review

Great experiences if you can withstand the trauma, which many cannot and all should not have to endure. Some of the most dysfunctional, miserable leaders you will ever encounter. Nearly every 6 months in my department there was a major "restructure" - which was obviously always a way to give high producers more work and an avoidance of dealing with toxic managers by giving them a promotion but taking away their direct reports. No work life balance to the point where employees were so scared to call in sick I had a friend report to a performance with obvious pneumonia. Constant attitude of "you'll never have it this good elsewhere" from upper management to try to gaslight employees into being grateful for the leftover event cheese and metaphorical crumbs we were thrown. The CDO of the NSO (who has since left) would tell staff that they would really appreciate how great the place was if they had to go work somewhere else. Now, having worked elsewhere, I find this laughable. Also all the staff, especially the managers, need to be required to take racial sensitivity training. The microaggressions one of my managers would make... classism, thinly veiled racism abound. Told her gently I didn't think our team meetings should be called "pow wows" in microsoft office... iced me out for a week. Systems are dated, when I left POs were still having to be physically time stamped. Health insurance is good, and luckily therapy is pretty cheap under it. I miss my wonderfully kind and talented coworkers, but I am glad to have moved on.