service assistant

supervisor

The-Sherlock-Holmes-Museum

You usually get a six-months contract, and getting your contract renewed would be very rare. They also tend to hire people only for a trial period of 5 days, and after the trial is finished, they don’t contact you again, so you don’t get an explanation of what went wrong.

The job itself is okay. There are different roles that shift every 45 minutes, which I personally liked because it keeps you very active. During busy periods, like Christmas, it can be very stressful, since the place is quite small. The shop gets extremely packed and there can be very long queues to enter the museum that go all along the street. I’d say the best part is that you get to talk with tourists, who are in most cases very friendly. And if you like Sherlock and history, you will enjoy the atmosphere there. Also, the relationship between the team members was good, most people were friendly with each other and would do stuff after work.

But there was a clear degree of favouritism with the management. The permanent employees could do what they want, while the rest of the employees would be told off for minimal things. This would result in an overly disciplined workplace which was sometimes difficult to deal with. Some of the supervisors were extremely tough with the new employees, trying to put them in stressful situations for no reason.

The way the museum was managed was also weird. We were told to lie to tourists about Sherlock’s existence. I wasn’t told this when I started, but I was told off by one of the supervisors when someone asked me if Sherlock was real, and I explained to him he was a fictional character. I also felt like they didn’t make much to improve the experience for visitors (there are no signs with information within the exhibition, there isn’t any type of accessibility, no toilets for visitors, they didn’t allow visitors to take videos inside, etc.)

The job itself is both enjoyable and challenging. The supervisors ran a tight ship and the daily rota ran like clockwork. Lovely, hardworking colleagues. Excellent rate of pay. Weekends are busy. Christmas and summer/school holiday periods are hectic.

There was however a great degree of favouritism with the management, and some staff members were allowed to get away with things that others weren’t. Often newer staff members would be reprimanded for making simple mistakes while some older staff members were allowed to take liberties without question. This made for an uncomfortable work environment and social segregation between some (not all) staff members.

To work here you have to be tough, have a sense of humour and a positive attitude. If you are passionate and knowledgeable about Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle’s legacy and late Victorian England you will add a lot to the ticket value, as the place itself is essentially little more than a nicely decorated Georgian townhouse with a few curiosities.

The job itself was great and I loved talking to people from all around the world, experience their love and excitement. The other staff members were all amazing and supportive to newbies so that was a nice environment to come into.

As a previous review said, there was definitely favouritism on the managers side. There were some punishments for simple mistakes, when others I saw do the same got away without even a slap on the wrist. It did make a few of us feel like there was a quite a social separation that they weren't really trying to resolve. That being said, if you just keep your head down and get on with it, it is a enjoyable place and they are flexible with hours for University.

I really enjoyed my experience at the Sherlock Holmes Museum. As a fan of the character, it was very nice to be surrounded by items (and people!) from the 19th century and well connected with the stories.
The team was great, we had lot of fun together and we started very nice friendships still ongoing! Dressing up like maids and butlers of the time was a plus, at least one customer per day was so surprised and impressed in seeing our outfit! The management was nice, firm but polite: I guess this is what is needed to run a business - not too small but not even too big either. For what we had to do, the salary was great. Higher than the basic London living wage, and again the job is more than anything about smiling and being polite.

This company is not registered as charity and it’s poorly managed to exploit international visitors, none of the artefact are genuine and it’s very archaic and the museum is poorly looked after with some unconvincing replica of a Victorian house. Most appallingly, this company intends to put you on a trial period with no intention to hire you before or when you finish the trial period to use you as cheap labour. Their rotating system is built to exploit manpower like this. It needs reporting. 

Really enjoyed being on the team, lots of lovely people who were all very supportive. Management was firm but fair - a lot of the reviews here talk about favouritism which I never personally experienced. A bit more consistency regarding pay would be good: towards the end of my contract I was on a lower salary than others who had just joined the museum, despite the fact that I had more experience than them in the position.

Most days you have diverse jobs and a lot of contact with a huge number of costumers, the team, however, is lovely and provide a familial environment.

A typical day of work consists of shifting roles every 45 minutes to an hour. It is often fun and stimulation, but can be quite stressful during peak tourism times.

That is a bloody casual contract job. They fire you after 6 months.
The environment is not good and wird supervisors and managers treating the staff in different ways. 
Absolutely bad


Top Job Titles	Average salary
Service assistant 5 salaries reported	£13.00 per hour
Supervisor 1 salary reported	£15.00 per hour

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