Oh dear, Pamela. You anticipate older baby
boomers on the brink of retirement to move out of their jobs? They, but
obviously not you, are all too keenly aware that Social Security moves further
and further from their grasp, now requiring people to work until they are nearly
70. When Social Security does kick in, the payment does not begin to replace
earned income, due primarily to the part-time, low wage and employed/not
employed insecurity of museum work. Retirement plan? A great idea, but not one
that museums tend to think is worth the trouble. Nest egg? When property taxes
rise to skyscraper height, when aging brings not only the comfort of a life much
enjoyed but the expenses of medical crises-- replacement knees from carrying
those heavy boxes of archives, for example, and dealing with cancer or diabetes
complications-- or the loss of spousal retirement plans and retired employee
health insurance, absence of domestic partner recognition for benefits, the
expense of helping your grown kids out when they lose their high-tech
jobs, then their unemployment and health insurance, then their house... the
nest empties its eggs pretty rapidly.
No, all of these things have not happened to
me (yet), but I've seen all of them in the lives of colleagues all around me,
and I'm pretty sure I will be lying in a pine box before I can consider quitting
work. This phenomenon of hard to find jobs is not limited to the museum or
public history world, and not limited to recent graduates or
ambitious youth. Times have changed, big time, and we are all caught
in the world we created, one that pours money into wasteful war, looks the other
way at executive stealing, and tolerates a "me and only me" attitude throughout
every layer of society around the world. We're not approaching an
economic crisis, we are smack in the middle of it, and losing more
daily. I see money out there, cruelly used in many cases and simply
insensibly used in others. But I don't see it being used to solve the acute
economic problems we face at this moment.
However, I do agree with you on one
important point: it is indeed rare for a job to go to the best qualified person.
I think it is that "me and only me" phenomenon that puts incompetent people in
places of leadership and relative high income; people reward their friends in
return for something for themselves. It is cruel for those with the power
to hire and fire to withhold a job from someone who upsets the status quo by
working to her best capacity! And, it perpetuates both this lopsided,
unfair system of rewards and growing acceptance of incompetence.
At this moment in time, I don't know what to
advise a young person seeking museum or public history work. The museums
are not all going to close, so there will be work there. There is
benefit in doing any kind of paid work (or volunteer for that matter, but
volunteering puts nothing on the dinner table); you learn the discipline of
working to someone else's line, you build a network. I've been surprised at the
growth of museum studies programs in recent years, and just as surprised when I
see how little the graduates have learned. I think there are as many well
qualified, competent grads as there have always been-- but because there are
more grads there are more average and below average grads, and fewer non-profit
museums too (but a huge increase in industry supported ones).
Anyone have other thoughts? How can we
encourage good students, excellent teachers and competent grads, because we
do need them to carry museums into the future. Has there been a sea change in
museum expectations, favoring less competence, or favoring for-profit
sensibilities? Where are the models for dealing with a surplus of
graduates in such a specialized field? Does there need to be a big change in the
way Museum Studies and Public History are taught? Uh oh, where is Pogo when we
need him?
Micki Ryan
Museum & Archival Services
Holly,
I can truly sympathize with your experiences and many of us have had
these frustrations and still do ... we can anticipate even
more [job openings] with
the older baby boomers being on the brink of retirement. ...