PetSmart Reviews

Pros

Get to work in an environment with other animal lovers. Must be an animal lover to work there and be willing to handle any of the animals.

Cons

Hours tend to get cut after the holidays and at certain points of the year when business slows down.

Pros

1. They treat you with respect
2. You can always go to your manager with anything you need help with and/or are uncomfortable with.
3. You will never get blamed of anything unless they already have prove you've done something (fair treatment)
4, You never have to deal with an animal that makes you uncomfortable
5. All tasks given to you are able to be completed in a timely manner as well as breaks.
6. If for some reason you are having difficulty completing the tasks they always help you when you need it.
7. There are multiple opportunities to prove you should be considered for a promotion or pay raise.
8. You are rarely asked to do anything your managers or seniors won't do themselves.
9. You do have a "blackout" period where you can't request off for the holidays-but they are as fair as possible and let you choose which shift you want. (shifts for holidays are only 4 hrs) unless you'd like to work more, in which they may let you.
10. The customers really like to know that you know their pet, and interacting with them and telling them about the day their pet had is rewarding.
11. Anything extra they see you doing, you do get a small reward.

Cons

1. The starting pay isn't ideal, but higher than most places.
2. Sometimes the hours are long, the dogs won't behave and you are stuck in a day camp yard all day. (Everyone has to take their turn in the yard, it's only fair) If you interact with the animals and actually play with them, time flies.
3. You may not get your break when you want it--but you do get it.
4. Others don't work as hard as certain people and that is frustrating but this happens everywhere.
5. Sometimes Customers take out things on Pet Care and not the Manager (but every time this has happened a senior or manager intervenes.)

Advice to Senior Management

The only advice I could give to Management is to pay more attention to what employees are doing or not doing.

Pros

Solid place to work. Compensated well but very policy driven. If you love pets this can be a fun place to work.

Cons

Hourly staff allowed to make numerous mistakes, while managers are almost never given a second chance or benefit of the doubt. I myself had to terminate many managers for small infractions. You need to be prepared to deal with the ugly side of pet business, such as injured pets, pet death, etc.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not make a mistake be sure to know all P&Ps and do not leave any room for error. Depending on your imediate boss you may or may not be given good feedback and oppurtunities.

Pros

Company really does care about the animals.

Cons

Very few full time employees. Managers very well paid.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep a few good full time employees. Supplement with the part timers. Share commissions on the Pet Training (50/50) between seller and trainer.

Pros

Good pay, great atmosphere, employees and management alike. Rewarded for accomplishing good work.

Cons

Lack of communication on policies.... was told I was being payed out unused vacation hours, and later learned the 40 hours i earned and saved were being considered forfeit.

Pros

The people you get to work with understand the stuff you have to deal with day to day. Good stuff.

Cons

Dealing with dirty animals and angry self righteous customers.

Advice to Senior Management

Train your employees especially the managers. The managers know little to know about management.

Pros

PetSmart associates are some of the nicest people I've ever worked with. The store I worked for was in a really great neighborhood so our customers were extremely nice as well. The job in general, was enjoyable and something I was happy to go to in the morning.

Cons

Serious animal issues were frequently glossed over or ignored completely, especially in the Hotel and Grooming. Upper management is very young and they cover each other when something goes wrong rather than do the right thing and district management is clueless to what really goes on with upper management. Quality, new employees bail out pretty quickly because of a serious clique mentality with the management and the associates that have been there longer.

Advice to Senior Management

District management should take a closer look at how their stores are being run. Too much goes on behind the scenes that goes against the rules and regulations.

Pros

I would say, helping customers make the right decision regarding their pets is one of the most rewarding aspects of this job.

Cons

The salary caps are one of the biggest downsides.

Pros

15% discount off any merchandise or services.

30% discount off any merchandise or services offered 3 or 4 times a year.

information available about all the products and animals PetSmart sells if you have the drive to read it.

Interaction with lots of different animals.

Adoptions of homeless Dogs and Cats

Opportunity to donate from your paycheck to charities.

Educating Pet Parents about their animals.

Cons

Inexperienced Managers hired from outside the company.

Lack of leadership and lack of recognition for a job well done from many of the hourly managers, but mostly none from the salaried Managers and district managers.

Management Favortism. Rumor spreading, No confidentiality about anything , feels like in high school at times

Selling Training classes pushed off on employess.

No Fairness when making the store schedule.

When you call out sick some Managers can be very nasty.

Reveiw Process and Raises.

Educate associates more consistently.

Return policy.

Corporate Hotline.Call, lie, complain and get a $25 PetSmart giftcard.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote to management from inside the company first before hiring outside and provide better training for the management teams. There's such a high turnover and burnout rate for your managers because you don't train them properly. Also base your promotions on consistency of good job performance. Not on butt kissing and smooth talking the District Manager. Those managers usually get fired down the road and the cycle starts all over again.

Most managers need to get out of the office and actually interact with and help our customers. How can you constantly yell at your own employees to provide great customer service when there are 3 to 5 of you in the office, laughing and joking (mostly on weekends when you're needed). Show some leadership for a change and earn your employees respect! Also show some genuine recognition to your staff, especially the workers that show up on time and actually care about PetSmart and give 150% everyday. Praising the drones that show just because they need money and don't care is a real morale killer for those of us that care and never even get a thankyou.

Have some fairness when making the store schedule. Especially for the full timers. I'm full time and i've worked every Fri-Sun for about 4 months straight. The part timers are all college kids and usually have no classes on weekends. Putting in requests for time off are not guaranteed. Even 1 weekend off a month i would consider fair. Some of us would like to spend time with our familes.

Also lighten up when somebody is sick. Its far more considerate when someone is ill to stay home and keep the germs away so the whole store doesn't get sick. If the managers read the monthly newsletter they post all over the place they would see that written during the winter months.

Give better raises!!!!! 15 cents a year if you are lucky? Hey Bob Moran, last year i know you got more than that. I got a 15 cent an hour raise. Woo Hoo! Now i can go out an buy that new mini-van for the kids! Also give perrfomance reviews more often to address and correct issues, and to recognize a good consistent work performance. 1 a year, if you're lucky, gives the impression that nobody cares and you are just a name and a number to PetSmart.

Educate the associates about the products and food we sell. I've worked with certain people for years and they don't know the difference between Blue Buffalo and Pedigree, or the difference between a 4 foot leash and a 6 foot leash. (2 feet obviously. LOL)

Fix the return policy! If you don't have a receipt you should not be allowed to return or exchange! How much money does the company lose on that part of the return policy alone? Also Managers don't modify the return policy because you don't want to deal with a difficult customer or because they threaten to call the corporate hotline. Stick to your guns and enforce a proper policy! That money lost comes out of the employees pocket at the end of the day.

Fix your corporate hotline! Add some human filters to the process. Many of the complaints the individual store has no control over. While i understand the Hotline is important, it is probably the most abused thing by customers i have ever seen. I've seen complaints about the price of cat food, a defective bed cover ect., ect. When you talk to the customer who made the nonsense complaints they freely admit they called the number for the gift card. Other times i've seen a situation happen and then the complaint is a complete fictional version of the story. No matter what the situation the store is always wrong and the customer is always right. That comes directly from the DM's.

Hey District Managers! Maybe you should drop in un-announced to see what really goes on with your management team. Most of the salaried managers think they're rockstars and don't even work a full week. When you give them your schedule of when you're coming by all the issues have a band-aid put on them until your next scheduled visit. Also ask the workers some different questions. Everything is scripted and rehearsed for your arrival.

Pros

the different animals and the different people make it fun and interesting

Cons

you often have to deal with stubborn coworkers and customers on how to "properly" care for an animal while there is no one way to do so

Advice to Senior Management

i enjoyed the management at my store they were nice and helpful but stayed out of our way so we could do our job