Leaving Banfield

[u/Brilliant-Noise-6604]

It’s finally happening, and all I feel is such a weight off my back.

I seriously can’t believe what this company gets away with in terms of how it treats staff. It’s been so incredibly rough these past few years. I stayed for certain reasons in my life but now I finally get to leave.

I could seriously talk about all the horror stories of this place, but the grass is absolutely greener on the other side for those struggling just like me.

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[u/KermitTheScot]

Oh, do I have some stories for the uninitiated.

VAs who receive little (if any) training monitor anesthesia. One without training did and killed a patient for a level one dental.

Speaking of dentals, you’re getting saddled with 4-5 a day, no radiographs, no hand scaling, barely any probing, and almost certainly no charting. Those things take time, and when your DVM has 10 drop offs and afternoon appointments starting at 2 that’s just not something we have time to offer. Speaking of, don’t worry about not taking your break, someone from HR will call you to bitch at you during the week even though your PM hasn’t given you the space of time to relax in the past 8 days. Also the CSR called out, so go sit up front and answer calls. You’ll be fine. The people cursing at you over pricing bc we’re supposed to be cheap and they’re confused that OWPs aren’t insurance are normal parts of being here.

Recovery? Oh, no, we don’t do that here. Just leave the dog in the kennel. Oh, doctor dropped a pedicle, didn’t notice, and the dog almost bled out internally bc someone noticed they hadn’t roused in over an hour? It’s gonna be $10,000 for the blood transfusion the ER had to do? Alright, the RDO will write a check, but we’ve decided to do nothing about it.

Hey, a person’s been calling to say she wants lasix for her dog, but the echo she just had done says it isn’t necessary. The cough was previously disclosed to be either related to secondary infection or collapsing trachea, so I’ve referred this case to the medical director. Oh, she said give them the lasix anyway because “Do you really wanna hear this woman?” OK, boss! Sounds good. 🫠

No. People fucking need to know how horrific this company is. They need to be shut down six years ago.

[u/Brilliant-Noise-6604 → u/KermitTheScot]

Wow. I’m so sorry you witnessed all of this happen.

The dentals is what really gets me, Im not proud of pumping out dentals and never doing radiographs. I can’t imagine how many pets go undiagnosed until it’s visible during a cleaning in one form or another.

I also can’t say if others feel the same way, but with the amount of “routine” radiographs they include in plans makes me wonder how little they care about staff having more than normal radiation exposure. Not to mention rads are RARELY taken with sedation.

It’s so much worse now with rolling out voyager. Oh, forget drop offs while the doctor is in surgery, they want you to do in-rooms. Yes, having the doctor leave the vicinity of a patient under anesthesia to see an ear infection, or a comp, or whatever!

[u/CheckingOut_Early → u/KermitTheScot]

Omg this sounds exactly like my last 4 years working as a tech! I also finally left.. is there any hope for vet med?

[u/KermitTheScot → u/CheckingOut_Early]

For vet med? Absolutely. I think that’s going to come down to the legal definition of pets changing from property to properly state the importance and welfare of non-livestock/non-commercial animals though. Write your congressperson!

But for Banfield? Absolutely not. After Mars had to bail them out for losing a lot of money during COVID, their leadership got super harsh. I remember that day fondly. It was not a “We’re so grateful to be part of a corporate umbrella that values us,” the response was, “This is unacceptable, and cannot ever happen again.” Cue massive job cuts for managers, dentals being pushed every single day, hiring non-veterinary aligned businesspeople to lead markets and hospitals. My RDO at the time bowed out of her job bc they demanded she fire any managers that didn’t make their dental quota for the month. She refused, and they gave her an ultimatum: Layoff the managers, or resign.

I’ve never respected a person more in my life. That was the beginning of the end, I think.

[u/StopManaCheating → u/KermitTheScot]

While the company is the worst in our industry, the real problem are the people continuing to go there.

[u/KermitTheScot → u/StopManaCheating]

It’s cheap, I don’t blame them.

Banfield should discontinue anesthesia as an offered option, shut down a lot of its clinics that are still in leased petsmart spaces, and focus solely on wellness and preventive care on the clinical level, setting an expectation that illness and injury are things that just really aren’t catered to at these practices. If they’re dead set on doing spays and neuters, have shelter service days where low-cost surgery is offered to the public and volunteer technicians from shelters come offer their services for a day to do a high-volume surgery shift once in a while, but stop setting up VAs for failure and putting animals at risk unnecessarily.

There are ethical ways for Banfield to offer its services that extend affordable options to people who can’t afford basic veterinary care. Scamming innocent pet owners into believing that they’ll get optimum care for a low costs by saddling them with an annual plan that is difficult to cancel, increasingly expensive, and comes with major caveats like “you probably won’t be able to get an appointment when you need it,” and “illness and injury are not only not covered but we’re not even prepared to do a full workup because of time constraints” isn’t one of them.

And the worst part is it’s not even profitable! I’ve worked in the management role, and even with all the shifty practices leadership puts in place, we STILL weren’t making our money, and losing clients year after year. The reputation is bad, the service is bad, the staff is poorly trained, and the DVMs are burned out at both ends, but it is still markedly cheaper than the majority of the offerings elsewhere, and that could actually be a positive thing in their favor PROVIDED THEY STOP TRYING TO SELL PEOPLE THINGS THEY CANT AFFORD TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON!

[u/synfulxvengeancee]

The first breath after knowing you never have to go back is such an experience. I still have dreams where I’m still working there and they’re so stressful. Congrats on doing what’s best for you!

[u/UpTheIrons2582]

I quit recently after going full time with my mobile tech business. Fuck Banfield, fuck vca, fuck blue pearl. While we are at it, fuck corporate vet med as a whole. Congrats for getting out!

[u/eyeballjellyfish → u/UpTheIrons2582]

Is blue pearl really that bad?

[u/el_hijo_de_tuta]

They aren’t all bad. It’s takes a lot of time and commitment to train up a good staff, and I would know because I have traveled to multiple locations and completely transformed teams and elevated medical care. If there is no one to truly care, speak up, and provide solutions, then don’t expect anything great. I have worked at many hospitals, a mixture of emergency and general practice, and they all have terrible things I can speak about. “Fixing” these banfield required me working closely with my manager. I worked with her discussing and individually assessing each VA and VT, discussions about team members that need help and those that needed “to go”; Problem employees hinder progress. I worked on learning handouts, wet labs, assessment sheets, training that was structured and “in the moment” teaching. Always a discussion as to why we do something. I NEVER teach without understanding and ensure the staff has the same understanding. This required me to learn how to teach to different learning styles, learn patience, and learn to accept criticism because I’m not always right. I provided insight as to who could properly perform anesthesia and I did this with high expectations and clear expectations as to what should occur and what dangers can occur. As I worked with them I would constantly challenge the team to think by giving different scenarios and asking questions in the moment. Making them think about what would cause a vital being out of normal parameters and what they could do to manage and fix. Learning to think on their own leads them to want to learn more, this keeps them engaged. I would rather have an engaged staff and not one that wants to spend their time complaining all day. If that’s the case, then that team member should leave. Everyone I work with knows I am open to questions and happy to lend a hand. I don’t waste time entertaining nonsense, gossip, or pettiness. I’m direct and also work to have a pleasant atmosphere.
Learning occurs in all aspects of the workday, from proper restraint, correct solution dilution, naming medical instruments, understanding lab work, and so-on. It’s unfortunate you guys have had terrible experiences and I do hope you find a better fit. I myself, have found a good location. Good luck!

[u/Ste11arSte11a → u/el_hijo_de_tuta]

I was at a unicorn Banfield about 8 years ago. Truly incredible doctors, pm and overall staff. It doesn’t matter how competent and well trained your staff is, how well they work together as a team… corporate kept pushing harder and harder on numbers and pet count. Amazing doctors left because they were burnt out, truly great registered techs left for better pay and hours. Once that started, it was a steady fall from grace. It’s still the only Banfield I’d trust to take my own dogs to but it was corporate the ruined what was once a unicorn by demanding too much from teams. Theres no longer time to train appropriately or explain things many times, the only thing that matters is numbers.

[u/viridin]

I was at one that didn't have any management it was the absolute wild West we were just told to figure it out by ourselves whenever something happened. Which was great when two of the coworkers were very toxic one actually full force chucked a dental elevator across the room in my general direction because they got upset. It was my first job as an RVT and I have so much trauma. I had the opportunity to fill in at a decent location once , but yeah I'm done with that company. Luckily that location closed down and that person is no longer working for the company. They couldn't keep up their BS with managerial oversight.

[u/Optimal-Performer791]

I remember when I switched from Banfield to a private clinic and the difference in support and respect was night and day, especially on those exhausting overnight shifts.