Pros
Pros were the team, the patients, and the work itself was never boring - I learned a LOT about veterinary care as well as human behavior.
Cons
Policies are made by corporate that prioritize profit over quality of medical care for pets as well as employee well-being. One example is "say yes to pets", which meant receptionists weren't allowed to turn any pets away, even if we lacked the staff, availability, or even the appropriate equipment to provide adequate care to that pet. Turnover is incredibly high due to low pay, high workload, and chronic understaffing.
Training consists of "follow this person around for a day". I was thrown into surgery (anesthetic monitoring) after literally a single day of shadowing. The second day the girl I was shadowing didn't show up, nobody else was available, so I got thrown in. Since I managed to get through all 7 procedures without incident, management decided I didn't need any further training. I sought out additional training on my own time, attending lectures and completing online courses.
When our hospital didn't have a practice manager, I was made to be interim manager - handling things like staff schedules, dealing with customer complaint calls, inventory and ordering, interviews and hiring, employee development, etc. I had no work-life balance as interim as I would constantly get calls on my "days off" and was responsible for finding coverage if anybody called out. I did this for 3 months while I kept being told additional pay was being discussed, was in the works, and finally, that I would receive it once I became the manager. I left.
I loved my team, my patients, and really did enjoy the work and learned a LOT. It's just that corporate didn't really support any of that.
