Been with the company more than 1 year, but don't want a target on my back. PTO: What PTO? 80 hours includes your sick and vacation, so working 3 12 hour shifts, if you get sick, you can kiss your vacation goodbye (and "work-life" balance). The PTO doesn't increase with loyalty, year after year, it's the same. No overnight differential. Holiday pay for overnight workers starts and ends at 12 am. You lose 2 days for every overnight shift, the whole day before and after to sleep, compensation is just respectful and right. Communication : altogether a nightmare. There's lacking communication on all levels of this company; between team members, from local leadership to the team, from regional to local leadership and the support staff, and definitely communication up to VQ...if the message even gets there, it will go into the void and never return. False promises and no job security. Why are really terrible people with multiple verbal and written complaints held onto without any consequences or discipline yet great, loyal employees are not valued, appreciated, respected, heard, rewarded appropriately, and let go. Don't try to climb the opportunity ladder if you want job security, once you have a title, you have a target on your back with no support and lots of blame, or they'll give and take titles at their whim and call it "pivoting" on all levels of the company. I've worked for this company for a while and understand pivoting can be great and create growth but at what cost and where is the loyalty to your employees that will "make others jealous"? No one feels safe, no one feels their job is secure, and the continuous volume of people "leaving, stepping down" or being let go supports the lack of security. Always have a back up plan if you work here! Local leadership - At some point, VEG stopped promoting from within those with actual veterinary experience, people who would thrive and do fantastic as hospital manager or regional manager, to hire all these "personalities" with no experience to run hospitals? It makes no sense to the employees either, it's wasteful, disrespectful, harmful to the hospital (especially medically and financially - saving a few bucks for inexperience is going to cost a lot more in improper ordering & favoritism of wages (or lack of appropriate pay for loyalty and experience). The same goes for Regional. Someone that ran a bar, restaurant, department store, ect, doesn't understand the veterinary world, costs, value of workers, national shortage of workers, ect. If you were lucky enough to get an experienced local leadership, they won't be there long; they are disrespected, under-valued, overworked, unsupported, and will either have constant battles for their team or drink the koolaid and not support or fight for their team members or fear being let go (which shouldn't be a fight in the first place if the employees were valued and respected.) Transparency: Practice what you preach. Being transparent, vulnerable, open, transparent, will rally the team support, stop keeping everything as a need to know basis or job title specific like it's the CIA. Hypocritical and gaslighting again. Concerns: going to HR will paint a target on your back. If you voice a concern or suggestion with solutions, you're the problem and not the solution. You're "negative" and "toxic" when voicing concerns about the negative and toxic, this is gaslighting which VEG is VERY good at. Those who speak up or speak out on valid concerns will likely get the "so and so is no longer with VEG and we wish them all the luck." Difficult to have people fired because they fear a lawsuit versus team culture & moral that they constantly preach about. Actions don't match words. Opportunities to grow within the company, no. Work-life balance, no. Mental health, no. Promises are not kept. Positive work environment, not unless your quiet and ignore all the problems, enjoy being a number or made to feel small, worthless, unappreciated, undervalued, expendable. Burn out: The doctor's schedules are grueling to say the least. They have to flip back and forth from day to night shifts constantly and without consistency...they can't plan their life more than a few months, are over-tired which leads to mistakes and irritability, and we ask them to take on way too many cases solo. I am unbelievably grateful and constantly impressed with the doctors trying to stay cheerful and give all they can to the patients, but we're burning them out...and the support staff. Burn out will happen to all staff: Understandable, what we do isn't easy, we take it home with us no matter how hard we try, and we give our whole soul to helping the patients, but I was hoping VEG would be different and figure out the key to slowing the burn out process. Of course, they'll support an unpaid leave of absence, or "strongly suggest" employees into one. Employee retention: The company is not that old, if it's as good as it sounds, why is it difficult to retain employees? There are very few employees left that started with the company or stay past a year or a few years. That's a statistic that needs attention. If local locations could dismiss their nasty employees, I really believe that would improve some retention and culture. A word to the wise, if you're paid well here, don't stir the pot, better pay means automatic target. Culture: The ideals, values, moral compass are pure and good but they're now used to constantly gaslight and flip the blame. In honesty, if other places matched VEG's pay, many wouldn't stay.
