Pros
The longer I work at Petco, the fewer reasons I can think to recommend it to anyone. The only positive I can think of is that corporate policies on animal care and ethics are mostly good on paper but this means very little as they are not enforced at any level.
Cons
I realize that this review sounds very bitter but this is the pattern I've seen during my years at Petco. The best kinds of employees, the ones who are enthusiastic about their job, who love learning about and caring for animals and sharing that passion with customers, are the ones who will become the most bitter and disillusioned after working here. I hate it when we hire someone who is energetic and enthusiastic because I know that despite my best efforts, I will have to watch them slowly turn into a person who hates their job due to the animal abuse and neglect they're forced to witness and their complete powerlessness in getting anyone in upper management to listen or care. Store standards and animal care vary wildly from store to store and are based entirely on the level of engagement of the store staff. If the staff doesn't care about giving the animals proper care then the animals will not receive it and no amount of complaining to higher management will make a difference. I have seen and heard a very wide variety of animal abuse and things that would make great undercover PETA type videos, if only I'd had a way to record them. Do not work here if you care about animals. You will see horrible things on a regular basis and if you complain about them, you will be harassed by management until you quit or they invent some excuse to fire you. In close to 7 years with Petco, I have seen over half a dozen employees harassed and fired or quit after they raised legitimate concerns in good faith about animal abuse by general managers. The only reason I have kept my job is because I usually keep my head down and try to care for the animals as best I can while ignoring the abuse and neglect committed by my boss and coworkers. Here are some quotes from my general manager and other members of the management teams I've worked with: "When removing dead fish from the fish tanks(to be placed in a freezer), it's fine if you accidentally scoop out some live ones too. It takes too much time to get only dead ones." "It's ok if you forget to feed the fish every now and then. If they get really hungry then they'll just eat each other." I want to emphasize that this next quote is from the general manager of a pet store who had been manager for 3 years at the time: "I don't know anything about (area of animal care) and I don't want to know." I could write a book of quotes like this and specific instances of abuse. Managers will blatantly lie about feeding animals or caring for sick ones and will shrug their shoulders when sick animals die from lack of care. I have either raised concerns about these things myself or seen them raised by others to FIVE different district managers during my time with Petco. The response has been the same every time - issues were ignored, whistle blowers were retaliated against, nothing changed, animal abuse continued. Obviously this is not a problem with a specific store or manager but direct corporate policy. As mentioned above, Petco has good policies on paper but they are just window dressing and the reality is abuse, neglect, and open retaliation against anyone who complains. What else? You can also expect the typical favoritism you get at places like this. Example: in theory, our internal employee recognition program provides money each month for the employee of the month to be taken out to lunch. In practice, there is no employee of the month and each month the general manager buys lunch for herself and a few of her favorite employees. If you're not a favorite you won't be scheduled that day. Hours for salaried employees are not tracked so your general manager can and will arrive late, leave early, spend well over an hour on lunch, and so on. If you're dumb enough to complain about this to the district manager, you will be told that they will "look into it" and the general manager will be told your name and what you said and, per protocol, you will be openly retaliated against until you quit. If you contact the corporate human resources department and tell them that you're being retaliated against for whistle blowing? They will forward your "concerns" to the district manager who will relay them to the general manager he hired who will ramp up the harassment as a result. I have seen this same pattern repeated in different stores with different general managers and different district managers. It's not an issue affecting only one store or one manager. It's corporate policy. By far the least ethical company I have ever worked for. The amount of hypocrisy in the corporate marketing regarding Petco's supposed love and care for animals is truly stunning from an insider's perspective. And yes, I'm still working here. Why? Because the vast majority of animal care is being handled by me, I am surrounded by coworkers who don't know and don't care to know anything about it and when I quit, dozens of animals will die from neglect and improper care. I mean that literally. Even when I'm only gone for a week or two for vacations, animals start dying.
