NJ, NY, PA 04/01/2008: When our office was taken over by VCA a few years ago, they promised the world and delivered nothing! They claim to give you a raise every year, but then are 2-6 months late with every increase. They force you to wear these ugly uniforms and write you up when you don’t and won’t let you make any decisions for yourself. Everything is totally micro-managed! (more…)
I worked for one of the 7 local VCA animal hospitals in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was severely disappointed with them. I worked my butt off for almost two years, working all but two holidays during my tenure there only to be fired for wanting to take four days of vacation. I was extremely disappointed with VCA in general before that though.
People use VCA because they are all across the nation, an extremely large company, they have state of the art equipment at most places, and to top it off they are the most expensive veterinarian in the country.
People pay a lot of their hard earned money thinking they are getting a great deal, they have a veterinarian that is a genius, a knowledgeable and caring staff, the most convenience options for taking care of their precious pet, and it’s a wonderful place to board your loving animals. Don’t be duped by the facade people. Let me give you an inside look at how they operate.
Annual exam and vaccines come to over $120.00 – an exam by the vet, a bordetella, rabies vaccine if it’s due, a DHLPP combo vaccine, a heartworm test, and a fecal test. You drop your pet off in the morning and are going to pick Foo-Foo up when you get off work. The technicians draw the blood and get a fecal before the vet ever makes it in for the day, they look your dog over, give the injections, and put your little one back in it’s cage for the rest of the day. Same with surgeries, only the technicians insert an IV catheter into it’s leg.
The office I worked at had a lot of problems, problems that if the state had went in and found would have shut the facility down. There were “issues” with the electric. If certain outlets were used the entire back of the hospital would smell like it was burning. The electrical breakers were constantly popping, fun during surgery. Not to mention the toxic mold that has been growing back in the boarding wards for over three years now. They told the employees that it was too expensive to fix, it was going to cost almost $2000.00 and they would have to shut down for a couple of days while the work was going on, and that would mean that they would lose revenue. It’s always about the money, never forget that.
When the roof was replaced (re-tarred), the “company” AKA Joe Bob and his friends got on the roof and played around for a few days, it was below 40 degrees outside. They had to remove the skylights, so it was freezing cold all day at work while they were making a mess of the roof. Something had to happen while they were up there, because the heater would not work when they left. Come to find out, they had cut the electrical lines on the top of the building when they were getting the old tar off the roof. Oops. The skylights were not put back on correctly, there is still a draft if you stand under the skylight in the front office area.
I have worked days that were supposed to end at 6PM, only to stay until almost 7:30PM because there was still so much work left to do. It’s revenue, and they don’t turn anyone away, or send them to a different VCA clinic because they’re too busy. Even though the schedule is full, they will get you in.
They are constantly understaffed, and require that the front office receptionist work in the kennel area letting boarding dogs outside because if they hire more people it makes their expense budget too high. The office I worked at was bringing in over $100,000 a month in revenue and yet they couldn’t afford to pay someone at least $7.00 an hour to work in the kennel area, with one receptionist, a doctor, and two technicians. Ridiculous.
I would not recommend working there to anyone. I would not recommend taking your animal there for anything. I don’t recommend them for anything period, unless I was recommending the fire marshall go in and inspect, that I would highly recommend.
Pros
You need a job and nothing else is working out? …go for it. But learn and get what you can for as short a time as you can…and GET OUT! Don’t get sucked in the Antech/VCA culture.
Cons
Expensive health care. More work; lesser pay. Too much to hope for employee appreciation. Hard workers either gets burned out or becomes scape goats. Not much of any training. You have to practically teach yourself. Accountability for all…none for management. Errors and problems (which is rampant) are fixed by simply firing employees instead of proper training. No employee retention program.
Advice to Senior Management
Take a moment to appreciate your employees and provide them the tools they need to succeed. Don’t just leave them high and dry to fend for themselves; your setting them up for failure. All while management, corporate especially pads their wallets with profits. Go check insider trading at WOOF.
Please be very careful as to what you are being told when you are there. Two months ago, I took my pet in for regular vaccines and a check up. I waited for about 45 minutes to see the lady doctor; when I went in she told me about the vaccines and didn’t put a hand on my pet to examine him. I had to tell her that my pet had a lump inside back leg and if she could please see what it was? She told that it could be taken out and I said yes… but I ask how much it was going to be? (more…)
