Anyone who sees inappropriate conduct in any type of shop should contact
the manager; better yet, write to the organization/store.  The rule of
thumb is that for every one complainer there are at least ten who had the
same experience but didn't formally complain.
        To me, it sounds like at best the ss is a quick, non-involving way
to solve problems that, I will bet, the supervisor already knew existed to
some degree. Most of the people on this list work at small museums; how
can bad conduct go unnoticed? Are these museums so corrupted that only
the stranger's comment will be noticed? The ss takes advantage of this
reluctance to see certain problems and, as I first said, often exaggerates
them to make their services worth their charge.

A. DeAngelis
[log in to unmask]


On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Beth Tischler wrote:

> i have to say, i agree with the 'secret shopper' approach. in a museum
> studies course we had to 'secretly' evaluate a museum and then let the
> docents and anyone else that we were museum studies students, and we were
> treated differently. also, i recently went to a very respectable history
> museum (to be left unnamed!) in which the gift shop employees were playing a
> VERY inappropriate cd (namely, Cake's Fashion Nugget -- lots of cursing, lots
> of sex...one of my favorites ;) but really inappropriate!!!). i doubt they
> would have played that cd had the director been around. in another gift shop
> of another very respectable institution, two employees were discussing a
> third employee -- by NAME and TITLE -- and saying very nasty things. highly
> unprofessional.
> its easy for people to get comfortable in a job. bringing in a third party
> that is disinterested  to take a look is the best way to handle evaluations.
> (yet, i would suggest at least an educator or one affiliated with museums or
> the subject of the museum, in order to get the best evaluation of the
> material being presented).
> what is that physics law about things that are observed not acting in their
> natural way precisely because they are being observed?! you get my drift.
> please excuse the poor english and inarticulateness (is that a word?!). end
> of semester papers are due, its been a hell of a day, and i am sans coffee :)
> beth
>
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