Pros
Working 3x12 hour shifts: having 4 days a week off has been nice, but at least one of those days is used as a recovery day if you work overnights
The unlimited CE! Credentialed techs get an unlimited CE budget and $1,500/yr for travel expenses.
The healthcare insurance is standard
The open floor plan is nice that owners can see everything that is going on
I enjoy working overnights, so I am allowed to not rotate between days and nights, which is helpful for my sleep patterns.
Napping is allowed when everything is all caught up… but this is also a con
They try hard to have a positive culture
Diversity and inclusion is big to them. Like A+++ on that one!
‘Come as you are’ attitude. They don’t care about weird hair colors, tattoos or piercings. This is becoming pretty standard in the field, but still very nice!
They really encourage employee participation in all kinds of fun activities, but also don’t force it upon the more
I can bring my dog to work if I need to. I try not to every night, but many of my coworkers do bring their dogs in for every shift.
They really like teaching. If you’re green in the veterinary field, this is a great place to come learn.
The leveling up process is transparent, although at times frustrating (my nursing trainer HAS to see me do some skills and won’t let other employees vouch that they saw me do it. Makes it hard to level up when she is on day shift and I’m always on nights, but I don’t think this is the case for most hospitals)
The pay is great!
Cons
Owners can spend the night and we have to set up exam rooms like hotel rooms. I did not go to school to become glorified housekeeping.
Owners are over-catered to. Often times at the expense of the vet techs or assistants. The amount of times I have had to stop MEDICAL TREATMENTS to get an owner a drink or a snack is unreal. Your legs aren’t broken. Get it yourself. I am WORKING and BUSY.
The vacation policy is non-existent. You get 2 weeks of PTO which includes your sick days and vacation days. So you can either choose to have a vacation or get sick. And GOOD LUCK if you have a chronic illness.
We are encouraged to have owners actively participate in their pets care by holding during treatments among other things and I have almost been bit several times by owners wanting to restrain their own pets. The owners laugh it off EVERY time. IT IS NOT FUNNY!
The napping on shift gets abused. I have had to have several conversations with management about how I will be on inpatients but the outpatient nurses are napping while I’m slammed with treatments. Plus then doctors will ask me to do outpatient treatments as well because the other staff members are napping and they don’t want to wake them up.
The culture seems very cult-ish at times, and the positivity culture varies hospital-to-hospital. It is very dependent on management.
Management sets whole hospital ‘family’ meetings for times that I’m sleeping or off of work. I have yet to have a meeting scheduled during my working hours. I was told that attendance to these were not required as long as you watched the recording. However, I’ve been spoken to by my management who have told me that I need to make it to some. Well then schedule them during night shift. I don’t know what to tell you. My time off and away from work is my time off and away from work. Period. The constant chatter on the work chat is bad enough.
