An "Archaeology" Company for People Who Hate Archaeology - Recensione dipendente - Archaeologist presso MOLA

Pay is near worst if not the worst in the industry. Health and safety violations are a weekly occurrence. Favouritism and bullying are rampant. Promotions are reserved for white men and although there is tokenism practiced if you're not a white man nothing including decades of experience, specialist knowledge, publication, education, and outreach will save you from the redundancy axe. MOLA management lies about other companies and the favourites spread damaging rumours about former employees. It's very cultish. Most other companies pay better, do far better archaeology, support, develop and promote their employees, and encourage excellence. MOLA tries to keep employees from getting better jobs by telling them that everywhere is as bad or worse but it's simply not true. Normal companies will use a points based system in order to determine who they promote. MOLA has a points based system as well, but uses it to determine who is terminated. The system is also arbitrary and if one of management's favourites doesn't like you for whatever reason it doesn't matter if you are the best archaeologist who ever lived and beloved by the rest of the team, you will be terminated. MOLA doesn't even have good sites. Other companies especially London companies tend to get the better sites because while MOLA was good several decades prior, its reputation for H&S violations and terrible archaeology is slowly catching up to it. You may not be paid for overtime and many employees have had to wait months to be reimbursed for expenses including their away work allowances. Employees are usually told when they are first hired that they can expect to do away work for three weeks out of a six month contract, but in most cases half or more of a six month contract will be away work and historically, deployment tends to be punitive. If you point out that you have done more away work than expected or ask to be put on a certain site you will typically be punished for it. Possibly the worst thing about this company is they tend to blacklist people. If you are let go rather than get out on your own you will not be rehired no matter how good you are or how desperate they are to fill that position. Additionally it is not unusual for former MOLA employees to be out of work for months because the management favourites - the very same people who arbitrarily decide who stays and who goes - will go out of their way to lie to other units about former employees. It's not a matter of putting the wrong person down as a reference; they will slander you without previous contact if they hear you're applying elsewhere. Technically you can get field experience here, but MOLA is so terrible that most former MOLA archaeologists have to relearn all their skills after joining a real unit if they are hired at all. MOLA has a "low average target" for various work in excavation and processing. These targets are ridiculous and very difficult to hit without damaging artefacts or features or simply doing very sloppy unprofessional work. But - like the MOLA point system - these targets are quite arbitrary. The idea and threat is that if you do not hit them or do not consistently exceed them you can be brought up for review. However, even if you do routinely exceed them as I and several of the better archaeologists who were terminated have learned, it will do nothing positive for you as a MOLA employee. Employees who do not hit those targets but who are favoured by management can put their name on your work or will be credited for it. If you report an H&S violation, if you report unlawful conditions, or if you report bullying or harassment, or if you are even suspected of having done any of that your contract will not be extended. If you are permanent, MOLA will look for a way to terminate you. This includes if a supervisor or manager specifically asked you to make a report. Theoretically, there is a holiday allowance and benefits but if you take your holidays particularly on a temporary contract that will be another mark against you. If you are injured or made sick by bad conditions on a MOLA site and take off sick even with a doctor's note that will also be used as a reason to end your contract. Especially if you're a specialist or have specialist skills stay away from this company. Whenever MOLA goes through financial difficulties, and that's pretty much their constant state, they first look to make their specialists redundant. This includes specialists who are mostly in the field and don't have a specialist title because management has no idea what is actually happening in the field and does not actually care. In an attempt to offset their financial difficulties MOLA often terminates various roles and then outsources them. This at its most extreme has resulted in MOLA sites being largely staffed by archaeologists from other units who - predictably - demanded the bare minimum protections and safety that MOLA doesn't like to procure for its own employees. Recently MOLA ended the contracts of most of its field staff, but did so by calling them up in order and in front of their colleagues so that everyone would know where everyone else had fallen in the points system. Staying at this company is very difficult and usually means compromising your professional standards and basic morals. There are a few people still at MOLA who are respected in the industry, but for most archaeologists both commercial and academic working for MOLA means you are not good and probably not trustworthy. I regret having ever accepted a role with this company and I am considering removing it from my CV. I and most of my colleagues endured completely inappropriate abuse. My time at MOLA degraded not just my confidence but my actual skills and it has taken months of determination to get back what I lost from having worked at this deeply awful joke of an archaeology firm. Recently, Archaeology has been booming and most companies are frantically hiring as many field workers as they can logistically take on. MOLA has mostly stopped terminating people but they are not hiring and while other companies are considering pay raise MOLA's salaries are frozen. MOLA's ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is its only real skill. My advice to anyone especially archaeologists fresh out of uni is to not accept a contract at MOLA. Work as a barista if you must. Selling coffee will be better for your health and archaeological career than working at MOLA.