VCA Antech Reviews

Pros

Some people are very good to work with, some departments are strong

Cons

Some departments are very disorganized

Pros

Great People in the hospitals

Cons

unrealistic expectations of employees in the hospitals

Advice to Senior Management

People are more then a number

Pros

Compassionate and caring individuals
Team-focused work environment
Great discounts on care and medicine for pets of full-time employees
Excellent quality of medicine at some VCA Hospitals

Cons

Inconsistent in quality of service across hospitals.
"Wage freezes" for all employees despite obvious corporate investment in projects like "Scriptright," "Vethical" and accruing new practices
Non-existent or rarely used training protocols for new-hires
Communication from the corporate office was inconsistent, confusing, and usually hard to reinforce that the hospital level

Advice to Senior Management

Even after being part of VCA/Antech for nearly 2 years, I am still unable to describe what this company stands for or the public image it wants the consumer to believe in . I know what the mission statement 'says', and while I see the assistants, techs, and most of the vets working compassionately and professionally on the front lines, I never saw that reinforced by management or 'corporate'.
As a company, VCA needs to refocus it's growth internally. Hourly employees are rarely given raises, even after years of hard work and loyalty, and from what I can tell, most can barely afford the cost of living on what they make, let alone afford the sub-par health insurance. In my time with the company I saw a lot of outstanding and talented employees leave for greener pastures (including myself). If this company isn't willing to invest in good-hiring practices, training, and retaining its employees, I don't think it has a very bright future,
Also, I often felt like management was perpetuating this idea that "the veterinary field just doesn't pay well, so you gotta love what you do". I know what the numbers look like, and while we all can't be pulling in six figures, it's wrong not to offer fair benefits and decent annual raises to loyal and dedicated employees because it should be enough for them to feel the 'reward' of helping animals. The reason we chose this profession is because of our love for helping animals, it's manipulative and unfair to use our compassion as a means of denying proper compensation for a job well done.

Pros

Bring dog to work
Casual atmosphere
Some great people

Cons

Terrible benefits
No performance reviews
Poor raises or none
Some very poor management at the top
Corporate office does not offer training or growth opportunities, all CE is directed towards hospitals

Advice to Senior Management

It's great to be down to earth, but it's more important to be fair, respectful and realistic. There are real issues that are not addressed in time and as a result good people leave. VCA is a BIG company and needs to own that reality. Most departments are under staffed and under appreciated. People shouldn't have to come in on weekends and not be paid for it. The benefits are terrible and not competitive at all.

Pros

Excellent medical care provided by caring Veterinarians.
Opportunities for advancement depending on your willingness to work.
Opportunities for part-time workers.

Cons

Obsolete practice managemen systems.
Unwilling to spend money for modern phone systems.
Failed to deal with conflicts between front-office staff and treatment staff.
Local management required to spend 40-50% of their time working on administrative tasks unrelated to improving client experience at Clinic.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at your practice from the eyes of a client and their pet and focus on that process.

Pros

The company is so massive it might be different in what division/office you work at.

If you are smart, and keep your head down, you might be able to have a work-life balance.

Cons

HORRIBLE benefits, minimum required by state. 2 weeks vacation and 1 week sick, no berevement, no jury duty?!? No short term disability? High copay for mediocre insurance. 2 weeks vacation does not cut it for professionals that have to work insanely hard in an understaffed environment on call 24/7 with very little flexibility. It definitely leads to an attitude of not giving a crap about quality output.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve benefits, improve work/life balance.

Pros

Good on the job training.
Ethical veterinarians.
Good pet benefits.

Cons

Bad communication.
Disrespectful to employees.
Biased promotions and pay raises.

Advice to Senior Management

Get things done in timely manner.
communicate better with employees
Show respect where earned.

Pros

Can bring your dog to work.
Very chill environment.
No one really bothers you.
Internet usage is relaxed.
Comfortable, which can actually be a CON.

Cons

Dust EVERYWHERE. If you have allergies, BEWARE!
The biggest problem with working here, are the people up top are NOT qualified for their positions. They all got to the top because anyone who is smart, knew to left the company. So what happens over time? The idiots who only know how to "work" and not "lead" get to the top, and all goes to hell. These people are not good at delegating roles, have no idea what the people under them are doing. They are too busy doing what they are doing, which is NOT managing. They are producing reports... which is something they can make others do and then review themselves.

Lots of buddy/buddy groups here. If you are not part of that group, you are done for. Don't expect to get promoted at all. Promotions do not come until someone up top leaves.

Performance reviews are little to none. And when they come, its all made up issues. They'll pull something you did when you first started as a problem area of yours. Top management, even the person above you, usually have NO idea what you actually do on a daily basis. All they know is if a deadline is met... so if they don't know what you do on a daily basis, how are they able to give you an honest and accurate performance review?

The work is deadline based, BUT the funny thing is that if you are more efficient than most of the group, you STILL have to stay the odd hours they are all staying. One would imagine, if you are done with your work, YOU ARE DONE... GO HOME! But no, come in on the weekend even though you have nothing to do at work.

When you start working, there is little to no training at all. They sorta help guide you in the monthly/quarterly tasks, but they don't walk you through what people do step-by-step. I found out some people have been doing some tasks on excel which takes them 1-2 hours to do, but the people who have been working there for 4+ years can do in 3-5 minutes!!!! And its all due to a simple function in excel the people that should have been teaching the new hires could have taught. It has frustrated many new hires over the past few years, which led to them leaving within months.

Some supervisors/managers are anal about some issues that are incredibly immaterial. You will have to spend lots of time redoing a spreadsheet or schedule, that does not matter to begin with.

The executive management is fine. Which means the CEO/COO/VP/CFO. The problems listed are about the department heads.

BENEFITS SUCK as well. Expensive, useless, pointless. I hate that it comes out of my paycheck when everyone else I know has a better plan at their jobs.

You people need to get out of the idea of a strict 9-5pm schedule, and turn into a "get the job done" schedule. Its embarassing that every cube you walk by around 3pm and after, has internet explorer open to some shopping site.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop promoting "workers" to leadership roles. Hire "LEADERS" instead. Promotion should be based on ability to do the work competently and efficiently. The whole accounting department is a joke. There are so many things wrong with the company and with the hospitals that could be fixed/avoided had you set some controls! It is VERY simple. But no. The people you hired to lead a department only know how to work, and have no insight or motivation to make things better. They only know how to do the work that they did before. There is no growth at all, and no increase of efficiency... all these things could reduce the need for more staff, and make everyone happy, and cut costs.

Instead of giving your subordinates performance reviews (or lack of), allow the subordinates to review the management above them. This will open your eyes to any griefs your core workforce has. How can you expect incompetent managers to evaluate the staff, when theyre incompetent?!!? And the sad part is, you dont even know that they suck at being a manager. This would also help be an open forum for ideas that the people who actually communicate with the field IMPROVE functions within a dept.

Why have you never heard of this idea? Because the people you have as managers arent managers. They are just mindless grunts that happen to be given a label of manager/director/senior. Most of these people barely even know how to navigate Excel because they did not grow up with computers.

Pros

Employee discount for services and retail is good. Some of the people I work with are wonderful - one of them has become a very close friend.

Quality of medical care is excellent at my hospital.

Cons

Terrible terrible management on all levels. From the Hospital Manager, to the Medical Director, to the Regional Manager, and so on --- barely any training of new hires, then frustrated, angry doctors when things don't run smoothly. Perhaps eventually you will become their "go-to" person, but forget about being heard or respected. Despite your incredibly hard work (of completing your own daily duties, and then fixing the mistakes made by under-trained employees), you will rarely hear a "thank you" or "well done." You will work 45-50 hour weeks because your hospital is horribly understaffed, and then get reprimanded by your HM and Regional Director for accruing overtime.

While my HM is pretty good at resolving client disputes, when it comes to her own staff, it will take months (if ever) to resolve anything. Raises are miniscule. Perhaps you will get a title promotion, but no monetary acknowledgement of your hard work. Ask multiple times to be reviewed (with the hope of getting a raise), finally your HM will sit you down, and only then you will learn that 3 days earlier a nation-wide salary freeze had come into effect.
If you move into a management position (i.e. salaried) from a lower title (i.e. hourly), you will continue to receive your hourly wage with a pat on the back and a "this is technically in your job description, you know."

In 3 words: MANIPULATIVE, DISHONEST, EXPLOITATIVE.

Advice to Senior Management

see above.

You will lose good, hard-working employees due to your poor management, your disrespect, and your exploitative practices.

Pros

Some great people, relaxed office atmosphere, privilege of bringing dogs to work, pay is decent

Cons

Some departments receive more attention than others, Sr. Management needs to treat the company as the large company it is, Sr. Management needs to listen to and respect the opinion of middle management, serious employee issues need to be dealt with consistently...way too much special treatment, value/acknowledge talent and get rid of negative, unprofessional, poor performing employees that drag departments down. Also only 3 sick days per year is absurd.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward professionalism and loyalty not "friends" and incompetence and increase number of sick days