SFMOMA

This place is great if you are a curator or the Museum Director, but for almost everyone else -- the toxic culture, poor pay, and lack of competent leadership makes SFMOMA a real stinker of a workplace. While the Museum Director and "E-Team" are all paid high six and seven figure salaries + given access to no interest home loans -- SFMOMA still does not pay a living wage to most employees, and it treats almost everyone outside of the inner circle as garbage. Within the organization, there are few professional structures, no process for accountability, and no interest/understanding of how to manage a professional workplace environment.

Many of the decision makers at SFMOMA have been there for decades, and lack professional experience to lead people or perform their basic job functions. You can succeed at SFMOMA by wielding and holding onto power, and not by actually leading or managing people or through professional work. Many of these "leaders" would be classified as toxic employees in other work spaces, but SFMOMA seems to have little interest in cultivating a professional, equitable and inclusive workplace, as long as the people at the top are well paid as a result toxic employees and cultures thrive. I think if SFMOMA did try to create a professional workplace, many of the long term and highest paid employees would probably be of no use at the institution, which I think is the motivating factor for keeping the status quo by the decision makers and maintaining this dumpster fire of an organization.

All of this adds up to create a toxic workplace culture, with no professional systems, low pay for most, and zero DEI. By far one of the worst places I have ever worked. Hopefully the current media spotlight, including the New York Times article on the institution, will bring new leadership and actual change.


Made many long term friends here but was consistently overlooked, belittled, abandoned and disrespected by the C-suite. They did the bare minimum to look like a world-class institution but failed in so many aspects, even when given the chance to make up for it. Pay is high for the city but not for the amount of work expected of you. 3 rounds of layoffs in 5 years, plus constant turnover. Unless you're in that upper echelon of job security, don't expect a stable work environment.

SFMOMA is a difficult place to be promoted unless you are white, outspoken, and have an advanced degree. I was lucky enough to work on a team that valued professional development but as a whole the management needs work. The pay is not great for the Bay Area but it’s doable if you are passionate about the industry. Learn as much as you can and then move on with your career!

I love my job as a supervisor but management didn't do very good job when it came to us letting them know that a person not doing their job they act like they didn't care but other then that it was awesome working at SFMOMA and at Mark Hopkins.

a great place, respectable , great art & have the chance to see great
painters arts to also see modern arts, pictures from great artistic people. and able to assist as a guard on epecial privites events.

the museum itself is great, but the many of the leadership team create an incredibly hostile work environment, ignore serious operational problems, and are frequently dishonest

The whole day I am responsible for security roles, checking carefully overall guests and customers are observing in the museum. if any incident, I have to inform my supervisors. I help the customer and let them know the museum's information.

They let the board make decisions that impact staff without the board actually understanding how the business works. I think most artists would be horrified at the conversations had by those in leadership. 

It's a great institution, but you know that art organizations pay very little compared to other organizations... One needs to find self-motivation to stay in spite of the low wages.

Due to recent changes in management, communication has dwindled and any feedback is taken personally rather than as constructive criticism. It is a toxic work environment.

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