Pros
Growing relationships with clients, working with dogs is fulfilling
Cons
Inflexible schedule. There are many blackout periods where you aren’t allowed to take time off, not even just around the end of the year holidays. Just whenever they feel like we might be busy. Like Easter. We’ve never had an Easter grooming rush and I requested it off well over 6 months in advance. Management will do whatever they can to blame the groomer for anything. If a dog is matted and has a seizure they’ll ask you why you didn’t turn the dog away for matting even though it has nothing to do with the issue at hand. The push for vital care, the new money saving subscription service for grooming discounts among other perks made us feel like used car salesmen. Very pushy. District level leadership was verbally abusive. Cleanliness was non existent. Only when the big wigs were coming did our store get cleaned. Verbally abusive clients are allowed to be awful to staff because “that’s retail” They recently changed the pto accrual and screwed so many employees out of a year of pto. The performance reviews were never glowing so you’d never get a good raise. The tools they provide grooming are cheap quality. They recently enacted a 4.99 materials fee for grooming customers that goes straight to the company even though we never have materials we need to begin with. We’d go months without certain shampoos. This company is not one to stay with long term and grow. This is a company with very high turnover and would rather fire their experienced groomers in favor of training new ones who have no idea what they’re getting into and quit once they realize how hard this job actually is. They lie and tell new hires that once you’re a groomer it’s very lucrative. It can be, once you have a couple years experience and if you’re fast, but that’s not everyone’s experience. We were blamed for no shows and cancellations because if we were doing our jobs and doing reminders they’d show up. Leadership came in and reorganized the salon because she didn’t like how we had things and it had a negative effect on workflow. Leadership was chronically late to work. Leadership in the salon was extremely disorganized and it had a negative impact on the entire team. Upper management said awful things about them but never actually did anything about it. She used her mental health issues as an excuse. We were chronically understaffed and the team felt beaten down. We were never appreciated. Our store would be given a budget for holiday celebrations, not really sure where that money went, but all we got were some cheap snacks. Bottom line: if you work at petco, no matter your position, you are disposable. They don’t care about you. They don’t care if you can pay your bills, they don’t care about what you have going on outside work, even if it’s related to the health of your pet, family, or self. You’re expected to leave it at home and work your whole shift. Come in sick. Uber if your car is busted. You’re expected to dedicate your life to this place.