ambassador

housekeeper

diver

animal care assistant

Texas State Aquarium

In may, the aquarium laid off a good number of its long-time staff. While layoffs were an unfortunate but sadly necessary decision for many businesses during the pandemic, the aquarium's reasoning on who did and didn't get laid off here made no sense. The dismissals, unlike most places, weren't based on experience or title but in fact targeted some of the Aquarium's most tenured and talented personnel. I suspect the decisions were based on leadership's personal feelings and biases rather than any professional objective analysis, since departments or individuals that had close ties or familial relations to leadership were spared. Many of those left behind are vastly underqualified for their positions and unable to pick up the slack, and the cracks are really starting to show. Animal Care, Bird & Mammal especially, lost many quality employees and collectively decades of experience and personal knowledge about individual animals, meaning animal welfare has started to suffer. Education was gutted, leaving few to actually teach future generations about wildlife. The volunteer and diversity coordinator plus many diverse employees were removed, which really reveals the aquarium's actual priorities about making this an inclusive workplace. The communication team must have lost a few people because it took a noticeable downturn in may with lots of mistakes and questionable messaging and pics on social media and now the website barely runs. Most disturbingly, in desperation the aquarium has been advertising to travelers to visit during a pandemic, contributing to making the coastal bend a major coronavirus outbreak region and a national embarrassment. The mask mandate was too late, and even now, it's not enough. At work, I've seen the frustration from coworkers and outside of work, I've had to constantly field questions from relatives and friends  at other zoos and aquariums asking what it is were doing and why. I wish I knew. With the aquarium suffering from financial issues due to poor leadership and planning, covid-19, and now hurricane damage, the writing is on the wall. Many employees are unable to take it and are leaving en masse, leading to an even faster brain drain. The aquarium is already scrambling to hire replacements but too proud to admit they made a mistake in who they lost and either unable or unwilling to pay new people what they're worth, hoping to patch the giant holes with inexperienced part-timers and unpaid interns. Point is, the talent needed to keep this place running effectively will take a long time to replace, if ever, so you'd be putting yourself in an unfair and insecure position and have no real support system if you took a role here at this time.  Even beyond staffing shortages, the culture is a mess. If you have any ideas you're hoping to share, know you will most likely be pushed out by an old guard that's threatened by new concepts and younger employee. That and their layoffs of longtime employees shows there's no employee appreciation or loyalty and you can never really feel safe and secure here. Save yourself the pain that I and so many other loyal past and present employees are going through and look elsewhere

The Texas State Aquarium is a fantastic location to work. Coming to work every day to see, work with, and just be around animals is amazing. The organization is in theory a mission-based organization with a fantastic mission statement dedicated to inspiring people and conserving the oceans and the animals that live in them.
Workdays are extremely varied for every employee who works there, depending on what department you work in. Often even within a department, you may be doing a different task every day which provides a diverse and interesting experience, although this leads to little specialization.
The higher-ups at the aquarium are uninterested at best in helping provide training and education to staff members. Much of what you learn will be on the job, learn by experience situations. Do not expect any training that would require funding to attend. There is little time for training anyway, most of the staff have a very heavy workload.
The management style of the aquarium is concerning. I assumed that the mission of the organization would be primary in management's minds when making any decision. Throughout my time here, I have learned that that is rarely the case. Management is, of course, interested in the bottom line. It is their job to keep the aquarium afloat, and they do not care what choices they need to make in order to do that. This is not necessarily a bad thing but was surprising to me. The choices management makes is not in the best interest of the welfare of the animals, mission of the aquarium, or of the individual employees; excepting when those things benefit the aquarium's finances.
Most, if not all, of the lower-level employees, are extremely dedicated to the mission and take significant joy in connecting people with animals. The workplace culture is very friendly to those who are driven to accomplish the mission. Management does not and most likely can not (due to finances) reward drive or success.
Day to day work at the aquarium is often fun. Chatting with guests and working directly with animals are the best parts. Work can be hard, physical labor, and in temperatures over 100 degrees F.
The actions of management worry me as a current employee. They have demonstrated that they are not afraid to cut departments I thought to be mission-critical like animal care and education. As the aquarium moves forward, I think we will see the significant effects harming departments as those has on the facility. Animal welfare seems to already be declining.


If I had written this six months ago, my review would have been different. It would have been a glowing review about a management team that constantly challenged, valued, and respected me; a job I loved, and a company I was proud to work for. 

Fast forward to post COVID times. Our top management handled this crisis a lot like the hurricane that followed it. Devastation is everywhere, with a few miraculously unscathed portions. When the changes were done, it became clear what is valued here is sales and the guest experience. A far cry from our mission of animal conservation, education, and inspiration. 

The ensuing gaps in staff have led some to be put into positions they are unsuited or ill prepared for, while some do the work of multiple people. Personally, I feel that this is an underlying cause of the new work culture which is not so much 'will I next to be go?' but 'is it worth it to stay?'.

Safety is also an issue for both the animals in our care, and ourselves. A guest might refuse to wear a mask and get too close to an employee or another guest, or grab an animal and then simply walk away. Why should they be concerned with any consequence when it's become clear that TSA will give none? Such things are daily occurrences, small things that nonetheless add up.

Please don't discount this as sour grapes, but hopefully take it as constructive criticism. After all, I have chosen to stay at this job, I have a benefits package I can honestly claim to be the best I've ever had, and if the Aquarium is not what it was, it has the potential to rebuild. 

But I caution prospective employees that this place, which was once a light for conservation and education in our community, that the storm is not over, and the damage deep. It will likely get worse before it gets better. In a few years, I hope I can cheerfully recommend TSA as a place to grow in your career. Until then, I am forced to give it two stars. One for what it was, and one for what I hope it will return to in the future.  



The Good:
1. My direct manager has been great. They truly have my best interests and the best interests of the department at heart. They have been great at working around the schedules of me and my coworkers.
2. Food Service employees and the chefs are amazing. Food is delicious.
3. Safety and Security department takes job seriously. No lack of training, drills, or reports. 
4. Everyday is different and the animals are fantastic. 

The Bad:
1. I cannot stress enough how frustrated I am with upper management (UM) since the layoffs earlier this year due to Covid-19. UM choose a very strange time to decide that communicating with their employees wasn't a cool thing to do. When they do choose to communicate, they are constantly lying through their teeth about the current situation and about their intentions, and I truly believe they don't have the interests of me or my department at heart. UM has always had a very clear favoritism toward the Marine Mammal department, which the Covid-19 crisis has only highlighted. At least pre-pandemic they pretended to care about other departments, but now they don't even pretend. They would likely fire every employee in Fish/Herp and Bird/Mammal if it meant saving Marine Mammal even a minor inconvenience. 
2. I wish the organization would do more for conservation.(Shout out to Fish/Herp and their coral conservation, that stuff is very cool to me!)

Overall:
I love my job and what I have the opportunity to do every day. My day to day satisfaction is very high, but I'm very scared/skeptical about UM and the direction they are leading the company. I wish UM didn't have such clear favoritism.

I was attracted to this company because I cared about animals, conservation, and wanted a comfortable, positive place to work. Sadly, despite what they advertise, I found almost none of that here. animal care is not a priority, and operations leadership is quick to punish and exclude any staff who raise concerns about animal health - meanwhile many of the exhibits are barren and in poor condition and animals die at an accelerated rate - all while it's swept under the rug. Conservation is barely an afterthought and more of a talking point than a reality - barely any money goes to support conservation (less than most executives' salaries) and any minor well-meaning efforts like a beach cleanup or paper water cartons is a drop in the ocean compared to the harm caused by endorsing companies that pollute and make the environment worse. But the worst was the people in charge. Leadership is basically the ladies from "Mean Girls" - but without the redemption arc. They regularly ridicule, exclude, and talk about employees behind their back, and since some of the worst offenders are in or friends with HR - nothing will ever be done about it. I've worked quite a few places and never seen such a toxic work environment as here. They're chasing out quality employees, especially the young idealistic ones , every day, and the few good ones left are bailing out of here like rats from a sinking ship. 

Overall I really did love working at TSA and wished I still did. My position allowed me to do what I loved while also given the opportunity to learn so much more. Having been there almost a year and hiring me on with background knowledge in mind, I feel management should have been more understanding than they were at certian situations. I also feel that direct department co-workers were extremely judgemental towards one another, unknowing of the persons situation, and on multiple occasions witnessed  negative comments made upon others, including myself when the other didn’t know I was there. Extremely unprofessional and childish. Upper management were sticklers for punctuality, but what can you do when there is 3 people ahead of you clocking in/out during shift change? I feel I was also stuck at part time and would never be able to move up to a full time position. All honesty, TSA rakes in the money, and pays “lower” employees terribly. To think I was also considered one of the “good paying” positions. There was no career future with given pay/min. hours for a state certified & degreed educator. TSA could not pay my mortgage, but did give me a low stress environment. I made a lot of friends while working there, many being in guest services, and gained unforgettable knowledge.

Do not believe the good reviews. The aquarium has been telling current employees to leave positive reviews to try to hide the honest feedback they have received. 
Upper level management is the biggest negative of this job and will lead the aquarium to closure if they go unchecked. They have forgotten that the aquarium is here to bring people to love animals and the ocean and instead only care for their image. Employees mean incredibly little to them and HR is the biggest culprit of this. HR gets told of situations that should not be able to continue and then tells you that you are the one causing problems if you try to report it. 
They purposely understaff all departments to save money and it impacts both the animals and the staff. You will be overworked to save them money meanwhile they’re throwing millions into a new conservation building. It’s unfortunate they let the care of some of their current animals be sacrificed as well because it’s too costly. You will be made to believe you are not giving enough as you are near a breakdown for trying to care for the animals when you are not given the proper tools to care for them. 
They have given too much power to a group of bad eggs and now they can’t do anything about it.

When I worked here I saw so many friends and coworkers leave and say how they were so much happier elsewhere, and it took leaving myself to see the problems in full. For one, in many places you have experienced managers who look out for you, and provide opportunities for mentorship and training. Here the managers are controlling, throw their employees under the bus, and are sparse on knowledge compared to professionals at other facilities, so there's little they can teach those that report to them (and they know it).They frequently demand staff live up to the level of larger zoos and aquariums but won't invest 1/10 of the staff and funding those places have. I loved spending time around the animals but the work relationships and broken work structure was so toxic it made every day terrible and you get serious compassion fatigue from trying so hard and being constantly shut down and minimized by leaders. Every time I tried to make a difference or try something new I had my legs kicked out from under me by a work culture that accepts a policy of "good enough" that is all too common in this city. I saw they recently just got rid of some of their best staff so things are probably going to get even worse if they haven't already. I feel for the staff, but know that it does get better almost anywhere else. 

This operation has some opportunity the same as any other organization. Every employee here has the opportunity to come in each day and make it a better place to work. You can't wait for someone else to make it a better place to work, it starts with YOU / US! We can never move forward as an organization if we continue to look at behind us at yesterday. Everyone needs to look forward at tomorrow to move the needle forward and help grow this organization. There needs to be a better advancement / development plan for those that want to grown in the organization. The current staffing levels only support daily operations, the current staffing levels do not support employee or organizational growth. I feel that there are some upper leaders here at TSA that are unapproachable, but on the same hand every leader has a full plate being short staffed under this covid budget crunch. Mr. Tom is very engaged as a CEO, he is extremely approachable, and communicates the path of TSA very clearly. I am thankful to be a part of this organization, and I am committed to making it a better place to work everyday! I encourage everyone to find one thing each day to change for the better of the organization. 

  This was an excellent opportunity to work as an interpreter in a natural preserve.  Having a background in both resource and environmental studies and anthropology, I was really able to utilize, challenge, and expand my academic knowledge on a daily basis.  I would lead group tours around the grounds of an aquatic preserve administered by Texas State University and interpret the natural features and history, from the flora and fauna to the anthroplogical history, to the geomorphology and hydrodynamics of the site and surrounding area.  I led groups both on foot, and I operated the fleet of glass - bottom boats.  My peers were all students and were highly invested in the principles of environmental stewardship, and were all pleasant and knowledgeable, and a pleasure to work with.  The pay was very low, and this was challenging at times, and proved to be the biggest challenge of the job.  The most enjoyable part of the job was the opportunity to work in a pristine environment and have access to all sort of environmental professionals, and the opportunity to witness firsthand the process of environmental research.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Ambassador 2 salaries reported	$13.88 per hour
Housekeeper 2 salaries reported	$14.00 per hour
Diver 1 salary reported	$15.12 per hour
Animal care assistant 1 salary reported	$14.75 per hour

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