Your experience depends almost entirely on management at any given location. The rest of it is governed by a company that's been relying more and more on lean staffing to turn massive profits over the years. Morning shifts are only 2 people, 3 if you're in a larger store. Incredibly demanding work load for the pay. After 4 years I only made $2 over minimum wage, and I had to threaten to leave in order to get that raise. My entire department depended on me training myself over the years and doing research on my free time to be as good at my job as I was. There seems to be an understanding that in order to be knowledgeable, it's up to you to learn everything off the clock.
The regular abuse from customers would be mitigated by the opportunity to work with the animals, but it gets so busy that no one has time to socialize any of the animals properly, or administer adequate care. Employees are expected to do the impossible, and heavily reprimanded if they can't. If customers push hard enough, they get whatever they want, including live animals. The company was so much better under the previous CEO, so much more attention paid to animal care and doing things right. They're making bank with the recent COVID-19 outbreak at the expense of their staff. Masks were only required in stores months after the pandemic started, and there was a huge company culture behind being a "hero" by working in unsafe conditions. Not once did I ever feel like this company cared about the health and safety of it's work force. It's a true shame that I used to enjoy going to work, and the good days grew further and further apart over the years.
