Definitely not worth the mental toll! - Guest Service Representative Homes Alive Pets Employee Review

I also worked at the Southside Edmonton Alberta store. Couldn’t agree with the last review more, titled: “not worth the mental toll” Everything said in that review is absolutely accurate. This place has actually worsened my anxiety. It seems as if the lower management is pushed to incredibly high standards, and this then trickles down to how lower management treats the guest service representatives. Management often appears stressed and gets very easily frustrated with you over things that are not even properly explained or that your not properly trained in. Training was also a problem, insufficient and sporadic. No dog conduct was taught whatsoever. Information you are given for advice for guests and their pets is mostly product selling points from the manufacturers website. Management knows a lot about dogs and nutrition but doesn’t take the time to teach it to you, they mostly just expect you to chase them down if a guest has a question you can’t answer- which can be difficult and stressful because they’re often busy which makes guests wait longer and get impatient. I was also instructed to do tasks I wasn’t trained for, and then was abrasively criticized when they weren’t done to perfection. I’ve also handled far more stressful positions than being in stock and guest service with a lot more responsibilities, yet this job was by far the most stressful I’ve had. Management is in fact, condescending and abrasive. Never have I ever felt so under appreciated and not respected. They are also very quick to place judgement. Gossip is also clearly a problem, they gossip more than they actually offer fair constructive criticism to the employee, which is frustrating when you don’t know what you’re doing wrong. I’ve also run into two other dissatisfied former employees who I’ve never personally worked with but who worked at the same store and described a similar experience. One described management as abusive. During my employment I’ve also witnessed two other employees leave because of these issues. Including myself, that’s three GSRs and two managers, five people total who have left due to the same issues I’m describing. I’ve always left jobs having a very positive relationship with my managers- some of which I can say are still my genuine friends. I definitely did not have this experience at Homes Alive. I don’t enjoy leaving a negative review- as there are some genuinely good workers at homes alive and I wish them the absolute best. But unfortunately the company doesn’t offer exit interviews for GSRs, and these problems need to be addressed for the sanity of future workers and to hold this establishment accountable. Labour is also very hard on the body, but thankfully the company does offer good insurance. A former employee told me there used to be a compulsory stretch before starting work (You are lifting 40lb bags of cat litter and 30lb bags of dog food a lot of the days) but for some strange reason they do not do this anymore. They are likely more concerned with wasting time, but this is unconfirmed. They also expect sick employees to call for their own replacement- something I believe is a manager’s job. I called in with a throat and chest infection and promised I would bring a doctors note next time I was in, but they still made me phone other employees and ask if they could come in. After the anxiety attack of coming up empty handed, and wondering if they were going to make me come in since I didn’t find a replacement like they’d asked, management explained to me that it wasn’t necessary that they had actually had enough staff for the day. I don’t understand why they didn’t just let me rest. I understand its perhaps used as a deterrent against people who “fake call in sick” but the employees they hire here are not the type to do so anyway, and are usually very reliable; but of course this isn’t recognized. A Doctors note should be enough. Labour also isn’t fairly distributed against GSRs. Difficult more physically demanding tasks are not equally distributed at all. Policy is also inconsistently enforced: usually enforced on newer employees but ignored for experienced ones. Treatment is also not equal, as I was held to far higher standards than ones who’d been there longer. Workers who’d been there longer could get away with a lot more imperfection and missing a lot more details, yet I was very quickly criticized if I missed so much as facing one stack of cat cans. One of the other managers also delegated to me whatever task they didn’t want to do; sometimes performing as the cashier while the GSRs did all the heavy lifting. Which I probably would’ve been fine with—I enjoy working hard—had they been more appreciative and just simply kinder.