The Latest Update In Opera Workplace Satisfaction: Summer 2019

It has been just about six months since the last time we examined the value of improving opera workplace satisfaction which means it is high time to see where things are related to your efforts on increasing the quantity and frequency of reviews at GlassDoor.com from arts administrators and staffers about their respective orchestra employers.

This article is part of an ongoing special series that tracks workplace satisfaction. We publish two installments per year. If you are interested in helping out by collecting data and identifying organizations that should be added to the list, let me know (I would be grateful for the assistance!).

A Few Highlights

Since January 2019:

  • We added one new organization: Glimmerglass Summer Opera Festival.
  • There were 23 new reviews across six organizations.
  • The average score increased from 3.2 to 3.4 out of 5.0, or a 68 percent satisfaction rate.

Summer 2019 Results

# reviews (current) # reviews (previous) Score, max 5.0  (current) Score, max 5.0  (previous)
Arizona Opera 2 2 4.7 4.7
Atlanta Opera 3 3 2.1 2.1
Austin Opera 8 8 2.4 2.4
Boston Lyric Opera 4 4 3.2 3.2
Chicago Opera Theater 5 5 2.5 2.5
Cincinnati Opera 4 4 3.0 3.0
Dallas Opera 7 7 3.2 2.8
Detroit Opera 2 2 4.0 4.0
Florida Grand Opera 8 8 3.1 3.3
Fort Worth Opera 2 1 5.0 5.0
Glimmerglass Festival 13 new 4.4 new
Houston Grand Opera 11 11 3.3 3.3
Los Angeles Opera 9 9 2.3 2.3
Lyric Opera of Chicago 35 32 2.4 3.1
Metropolitan Opera 43 41 3.0 2.9
Michigan Opera Theatre 3 1 2.8 1.0
Minnesota Opera 5 4 3.1 2.8
Nashville Opera 2 2 3.8 3.8
Opera Theatre of St. Louis 6 6 4.4 4.1
Portland Opera 3 3 4.0 4.0
San Francisco Opera 19 18 3.3 3.1
Santa Fe Opera 5 5 4.8 4.5
Sarasota Opera 6 6 1.5 1.5
Seattle Opera 7 7 3.0 3.6
Skylight Opera 4 4 3.8 3.8
Tulsa Opera 4 4 3.3 3.3
Utah Symphony & Opera 2 2 4.5 4.5
Washington National Opera 6 6 4.3 4.3

Looking Ahead

Your efforts to improve workplace satisfaction transparency continue to bear fruit; as such, it is more important than ever to continue in this direction. The more you contribute, the better positioned you’ll be at implementing positive change by making sure more opera managers are aware that something like GlassDoor.com exists and can be used by both current and former employees.

Consequently, be sure you reach out and encourage your colleagues to leave reviews for their respective employers; it will only help accelerate progress.

Why This Matters

Regular readers know that the topic of Workplace Satisfaction is one of the more popular here at Adaptistration and even though it continues to remain firmly swept under the rug for the field as a whole, that doesn’t mean you can’t do something about it.

To that end, GlassDoor.com serves as a useful benchmark for gauging current and previous employee satisfaction and after a bit of research, it turns out there are enough employers listed in their database to produce a worthwhile overview.

Granted, there are certainly critics of services like GlassDoor.com, which allow members to post review content anonymously, but some Google sleuthing turns up more favorable reviews than not.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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