The Arbornaut by Meg Lowman

Author:Meg Lowman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

In a rescue mission, one of the new female curators nominated me for a senior position at another museum, fervently hoping I could continue in a position of influence for diversity in science and creative leadership. I moved to California. Like North Carolina, I accepted this new position in part due to another visionary, charismatic boss, but was again disappointed. Believing he had put the perfect leadership team into place with me as his last senior hire, this museum director announced his retirement soon after my arrival. Once again, the search team tasked with finding his replacement was secretive, and no one knew their choice until he walked through the door. (Sound familiar?) The new director was not only new to the museum world, collections, and fundraising, but his credentials mirrored mine as an ecologist and science communicator, with an almost identical Rolodex of colleagues. But he was not a muddy-boots scientist, as were the museum curators. I suddenly became a glaring tall poppy in his new world, and even worse, was actually more experienced in museum administration and collections. His leadership style was temperamental and top-down. He publically denigrated our CFO, so she left. Similar episodes happened with a few others. Then he turned to me, and I could feel the icy vengeance. Within a two-year period, I was demoted and replaced by a young neophyte who had almost no leadership experience and lacked the years of scientific networking required to bolster the institutional brand. Even worse, I was given three different job titles and salary cuts in rapid succession, strategically eliminating much hope of success. I threw up after work and suffered panic attacks in the middle of the night. Despite pay cuts and title changes (some so rapid that Human Resources never even wrote up a new job description), I remained highly productive in terms of publications, funding, and global collaborations. Other museum colleagues were aghast and quietly hugged me, especially the females I had recently hired, now lacking a senior mentor.

When toxic leadership infuses an institution, it often taints the air for a long time. Issues such as staff anxiety, disenfranchised members, unsuccessful fundraising, or loss of morale can take years to recover from. And worse, such workplace toxicity sometimes persists in a handful of staff who learned how to manage or even manipulate the toxicity. At the height of the museum’s leadership turmoil, I was targeted not just by the director, but also by his young protégée. When I was her supervisor, I had generously supported her through compensation as well as hiring her husband, to ensure she had a supportive homelife. Her reverse treatment of me felt worse than a machete attack. It was heartbreaking for the new female hires to witness a woman unwilling to support another woman, and certainly tough to be the scapegoat. When she handed me a list of petty complaints, I decided not to engage in nitpicking to correct false accusations. Behind closed doors, she told me my research involving conservation and sustainability were no longer her institutional goals.

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