'In a recent survey 20% of respondents confessed that they had fallen in love in a museum, with the V&A topping the list as the most romantic destination to find the love of one's life'. V&A curator, Sue Pritchard's blog on The Power of Love.
Spare a thought for all those public facing staff who act in an approachable manner, smile nicely, listen with interest, and chat in an informed and friendly way. These are the people who then have to field unexpected gifts, hide in cupboards from minor stalking, and politely explain that they are simply PAID to be nice to people all day. Tagged publicly with their name on show and held captive in their galleries, they can't escape the weirdos easily! I'd really like the survey for how many staff have had to fend off well intentioned but misunderstood advances, or actually successfully fallen in love with a visitor! (my apologies for the fast and scrappy text in the cartoon)
1 Comment
Jan
8/7/2021 10:35:37 am
People sometimes joke about this being a "pretty" staff member problem, but it genuinely can be an issue for any FoH worker when someone misreads the signs and starts to become a problem. Especially if your museum is free entry and regular visitors (often more vulnerable members of society) start to eat up time of their "friend" staff member they feel they have connected with. So difficult to regulary disengage without causing upset, and can cause stress for FoH staff if managers can't appreciate how complex it is to "get rid of" someone being "overly chatty".
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