Petco reviews

Clueless store management who never really understands what goes on in the salon. Just above minimum wage for the first 6 months-year or more (depending on how quickly you get through training). This is definitely NOT a minimum wage job. Too much pressure to become a groomer. When hired, you are supposed to be a bather for at least a few months so you can get a feel for the job. It is extremely high stress and a lot of people (like me) don't end up liking that. I was thrown into the grooming program after only ONE WEEK of being a bather and ended up quitting because I had no idea what I was getting in to. Basically no information about the job is given before you are hired. They say it is an apprenticeship requiring no experience, so you'd think they would be able to tell you a bit about the job. I had absolutely no clue what I would be doing in the salon until a couple weeks after being hired when I started working in there. It would have been nice to have a basic understanding of my job before starting, and I don't think that's too much to ask for. You have to spend $100's on tools and supplies. Again, I was told NOTHING about this before I was hired or during training. The tools and supplies that are provided for you by the store are low quality and break often. Rude customers. Not a lot of structure. Hours were EXTREMELY irregular and unpredictable. The only time I had an actual schedule was during the grooming school. You don't ever have the same days off (and sometimes you won't even get your required 2 days off per week) and the hours are sporadic. My manager was easy to work with and was very flexible, so that made it better. If I needed a day off, she would make sure not to schedule me on that day. Or if I needed to come in later than scheduled, I could just not schedule dogs during the hours I wouldn't be in. However, it's hard to plan anything in your life out when one day you're working 8 am-4 pm, then noon- 9 pm the next day, and some other completely different hours the next, and then a whole new schedule for the week after that. Plus, the schedule is usually only made out at most a week in advance. Too fast-paced. You are expected to learn everything you need to know to groom dogs safely and efficiently within a very short time frame, and teachers/management will get frustrated with you very quickly if you don't. Even outside of training, bathers and groomers are constantly overloaded with work and there is really no room for error. Terrible computer program used for scheduling and customer information. It almost never works properly. IT always says they're working on updating it, but these "updates" never show up. Extremely physically demanding. I went home every single day sore and worn out. My ears were always ringing because the constant noise was damaging my hearing and the earmuffs and earplugs they provided really didn't work that well. Petco policies say that you have to turn away dogs who bite (they recently decided we can't use muzzles anymore for whatever reason), but nobody ever actually turns any dogs away because they want to make commission. So you are looked down upon if you end up telling a customer you can't groom their dog. Management and corporate are constantly pushing you to sell more and get more done in a day, yet they have a strict no overtime policy. It's just not possible to do everything they tell you to. Lots of ridiculous policies that are impossible to work with. There's always some new rule or exception, and many of them make no sense when actually applied to the workplace. Coworkers get frustrated with you for taking your required 30 minute lunch break. The salon is constantly busy, so it's hard to find a "good" time to take your break, but anytime you think it will be ok to leave for half an hour, it gets busy again. You are also supposed to get three 10 minute breaks throughout the day, but I think in my three months of working there, I maybe got two of those 10 minute breaks ever. Anytime you want to relax for a minute, coworkers will find something for you to do. This might just be a personal one that I had a problem with, but one of my coworkers was extremely disrespectful of my time and schedule. I would have bath dogs scheduled to be done within an hour, but because I was a bather, she would make me handle every single walk-in service that came through the door. She would have me do 45 minutes worth of nail trims, then get mad at me when my scheduled dog wasn't done on time. And if I told her I was too busy to do a walk-in service, she would check the dog in under my name, interrupt what I was doing to make me do it, and then tattle on me to the salon manager and tell her I'm not doing my job as a bather. Again, maybe that was just a problem I had with a single coworker, but I felt like, in general as a bather, you do not receive the same amount of respect for your time and schedule as the groomers get.

The company is extremely top-heavy, hiring executives, VPs and Directors left and right but not filling open lower level roles or expanding headcount for team members that actually do the work. The open roles are covered by current employees, who typically work 2 full-time jobs for 4 months or more without any compensation. The benefits are a joke. You get only 4 days of PTO your first year, and medical insurance is laughable. Career opportunities depend entirely on politics- and the fact that it's a good ol' boys club. There is obvious and blatant favoritism in terms of male/females in certain areas despite abilities and longevity. Salary is fair if you come in externally, but if you are an internal promotion you can be 20-30k behind your peers that sit next to you- even if you are senior to them in title and experience, and even if they report to you directly. You will never catch up unless you leave and come back (some people do). Some managers are starting to be more progressive with letting their teams work remotely- but there are still some of the old school belief that you must be in the office. You will see a Director get promoted to a VP get promoted to a SVP -- but will never see certain lower level people get promoted even when they bust their humps and do an amazing job, because they only create positions for the hotshots and not for lower level employees. It really depends on your manager and VP- and if they don't care, there is no hope for you moving up. During certain annual processes, expect to be late in the office all the time. The systems are always down or with flawed data, and re-work is done constantly, deadlines are never met nor are they expected to be met. There is constant confusion and disorganization. The company spent a tremendous amount implementing new systems for planning, however user (read:analyst level) feedback was not taken into account when developing the software- they only brought directors + in, and they do not understand the pain points that the analysts do so none of them were addressed. There are silos and information is never trickled down to employees until it's absolutely necessary. The building itself is an atrocity and is embarrassing for a multi-billion dollar company. The office is an old warehouse- there are no windows or ventilation (everyone gets sick over and over again), there is carpeting stained with pet urine and feces, there are infestations of bugs and the bathrooms overflow at least once a week (smells). The grand improvement that leadership toots their horns on was re-striping the parking lot (there is an extreme parking shortage which has still not been addressed). Execs are in a different building up the hill (it has windows and no bugs). Employees are not appreciated at all by leadership. Not only do we do not have a holiday party (they blamed the economy at first, but it is hard to believe based on recent profits), but they do not even cater a holiday lunch and departments have been known to ask employees for $5 each to get a rinkydink pizza party. A simple catered lunch or an after hours party, even with employees paying into it, would be a really nice gesture- but they don't care. There are many managers/leaders who have been there for years and years and are very stuck in their ways (and really need to go- I had to teach my manager basic excel functions which is absurd). Meanwhile, buyer/analyst turnover is incredibly high- thus stressing out the remaining teammates and contributing to the cycle of individuals leaving after review time. Nobody gets fired even if you do a terrible job- so there are a handful of employees who have no grasp on the technology or the new jobs they are in and they end up causing more harm being there than good. Company moves employees to TX office with 2-3 month notice. They will try and find you a new job in SD if you want to stay but no guarantees.