Kennedy Center Reviews

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.

- Little recognition unless you are an executive or work directly with them - Outdated technologies and processes - Constantly had to work around execs and upper management who were unwilling to learn new technologies or even check their work emails, slowing down our processes and causing unnecessary issues. - Pay is low and the wage gap seems wide. I began as an entry-level employee and moved up to management, and the salary increases between entry-level, mid-level, and assistant manager were quite small, and the jump to "manager" seemed unreasonably large. Salaries could be better distributed. - "Merit increases" often didn't keep up with inflation, even before the pandemic. - While the public spaces in the building are nice, the offices are cramped and none of them have windows. The hallways are labyrinthian and super inaccessible. - Lots of repetitive, small projects. Not a lot of opportunity to get into a flow state and dive deep. - President explicitly told us not to discuss salaries.