The survey, conducted recently by the Community and Public Sector Union and sent to all staff excluding the director Pete Smith, attracted responses from 14 employees.

It's understood there are about 16 full-time equivalent workers at Heritage Tasmania, including the director. The majority of staff are based in the old Vodafone call centre in Hobart, while four are based in the Public Buildings in Launceston's CBD.

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The results of the survey, obtained by the Sunday Examiner, offer a damning assessment of the workplace.

"Our workplace has internal conflict, real or perceived, between staff and management," one employee wrote.

While not every respondent answered every question, there were 10 participating staff who answered the majority of them.

The most common term staff used to describe the workplace culture was "toxic".

Asked if they felt stressed or anxious at work, 100 per cent of respondents answered in the affirmative: 40 per cent said they felt stressed or anxious every day at work, 50 per cent said they felt that way once or twice a week and 10 per cent said they felt it a few times a month.

The causes of stress and anxiety in staff included harassment, bullying, workloads and a lack of direction from management.

Job satisfaction in the organisation appears poor.

On a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 equating to 'very unsatisfying' and 100 to 'very satisfying', the average response was 44. One respondent wrote zero on their survey.

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There also appears to be a widespread inclination among staff to seek employment opportunities elsewhere: 80 per cent of respondents said they had been thinking about seeking a job outside Heritage Tasmania, while 44 per cent said they were already looking for other work.

When asked to describe their level of happiness at work, staff responded less than enthusiastically.

With 1 being 'very unhappy' and 10 being 'very happy', 70 per cent selected 5 or less.

"Communication is very poor," one worker wrote. "Staff seem to be an inconvenience to management, something they 'have to deal with', rather than being seen as an asset."

In fact, just 20 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement "Heritage Tasmania management communicates with me effectively and in a timely manner".

Heritage Tasmania manages the Tasmanian Heritage Register, in which more than 5000 places with historic heritage value are listed.

The statutory body comes under the ambit of the Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment Department.

One survey respondent believes the department is partly to blame for the supposed problems at Heritage Tasmania.

"Heritage Tasmania is a toxic workplace and has been for some time," they wrote. "The department is aware of the issues and has completely abandoned us in order to save the reputation of our senior managers and the careers of senior executives."

Issues at Heritage Tasmania have been bubbling away for some time and came to a head at a Budget Estimates hearing at Parliament House last year, which saw Labor heritage spokeswoman Alison Standen and Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O'Connor grill then premier and heritage minister Will Hodgman and then DPIPWE secretary John Whittington on the problems said to be plaguing the organisation.

The hearing, which delved into the inaccuracy of large swathes of entries in the heritage register, embarrassed Heritage Tasmania staff, who say it was "humiliating".

An audit of the entries, commenced in 2016 and completed in 2018, found that just 25.5 per cent could be deemed acceptable and that cleaning up the register would take years of work.

A DPIPWE spokesperson said the department continually monitored its workplaces to make sure they were healthy and safe environments, providing "a positive workplace experience for all employees".

"In response to issues raised by staff, the department has been implementing a cultural change action plan in Heritage Tasmania," the spokesperson said.

"Actions in the plan focus on all HT staff and managers, including the director.

"The plan is constantly evolving and being adjusted in response to feedback from staff and the CPSU."

However, the survey respondents' reaction to the cultural change action plan was lukewarm at best.

No-one agreed with the statement "I am confident that the cultural change action plan at Heritage Tasmania will lead to significant improvements at Heritage Tasmania", while 37.5 per cent said they strongly disagreed, 37.5 per cent said they disagreed and 25 per cent were neutral.

The exact same results were recorded in relation to the statement "I feel that the cultural change action plan at Heritage Tasmania is progressing well".

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