Truth about working as a bather at Petsmart

[christiangirl30]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Omfg this sounds so relatable. My salon leader told me that as I get better and faster, nails should only take 5 mins but in reality, you need to dedicate time to ask all the questions, have them sign off, do the hands-on and then tie the dog up, etc etc etc. it takes so long, not to mention the dogs behaviour watching its owner or trying to escape and make my job harder. I’d love the job too if we weren’t constantly overbooked and told to help groomers every second of the day. Literally the reason why I even took this job to begin with was because I thought I’d do around 2-3 dogs a day and get to give them lots of pets, but I was very wrong. If I have a dog scheduled from 12-2:30 pm I’ll end up finishing around 3:15-3:30 and it sucks because I told the pet parent around 2.5 hrs and then from all the walk-ins and other stuff, I end up being delayed and having to explain to them or deal with their anger!

It would also make the job just a little bit easier and less stressful if we didn’t have to talk to the customers and laugh at their stupid jokes, like idk why but I always get so nervous when my dogs pet parent comes in.

Are you still a bather though? And what’s keeping you there?

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@christiangirl30 Dont even get me started on them being stingy af w bather hours and scheduling. Today we had three bathers come in and share 12 hours, so each of us got 4 hours, two dogs and no lunch break…

I’m still there and I don’t plan on going anywhere, it’s just very unorganized

 

[tokai]

@christiangirl30 I got this job at beginning to let me just have things to do, so that my mental health is not that bad. But guess what, it’s getting worse. Many days I have to come back home with scratch or wound on my body because people don’t train their dogs. They charge customer 100 something for a dog and expect we finish them in less than 2 hours. I get paid 17/h in California. Wonder where all other money goes.
You don’t know how many times I have cried because of the frustration. The dogs are not listening and more is coming into the kennel for you.
People also don’t care to train their dogs, no matter how much times you tell them their dogs have bitting problems. They will just deny it as the dog never does it at home. They can just pay money for you to suffer this.
I’ve just been there for a month, I start to experience severe depression, more anxiety. Nightmares have never stop. Never ending crying and suicidal thoughts. No therapist wants to take me, they all want to send me straight to hospital.
I was not this bad before this job.

 

[jenib]

@tokai Same. Delusionally, I thought bathing dogs was going to be a relaxing, stabilizing job after relocating to another state. Big mistake. The salon is several gossipy groomers and a former salon leader who had a coke problem and also called out for almost all of their shifts. I was sent to another store to train and, like someone mentioned here, it was like a night and day experience. It gave me hope in PetSmart. It is a stressful environment even in the better salons -- dogs barking and biting and struggling, intense customers, special needs for scheduling groomers that are not told to you until you "make a mistake." If the salon leader is kind and calm, it makes all the difference though.

But now that I am back to the original salon, it's the same old crap but a new salon leader who is flexing their role and taking it out on me, the lowly bather. My mental health has gone downhill in the 4 months(that's all!) that I've been there. Almost "rage quit" the other day. Am going to give it another go while looking for another job. I was thinking of getting into academy but, with the current cohort there, know that it will be at least a year and my mental health cannot handle it.

 

[jowel]

@christiangirl30 I really want to get some professional training and thought about working at PetSmart. I’m a barber at a private salon now but I don’t want to stay here. I know they won’t properly teach me to groom.

But I don’t wanna have to wait 6++ months to get academy training. And by these comments they well overwork you. Do y’all even get tips?

 

[christiangirl30]

@jowel Yes we get tips. Bathers don’t get as many but I’ve received $20 a couple times and it feels nice although $5 is more common. Groomers on the other hand receive more frequently. It is a lot of work though and bathers receive hourly so going to academy is seen as the end goal here but you are tied to petsmart by contract for 2 years. You just have to decide whether it’s something you want to do or not

 

[dennis1209]

@christiangirl30 Yes I have been through this. I’ve worked at a lot of corporate salons and they’re all pretty much the same sadly. Not to say I didn’t meet good people there, but these companies usually aren’t pleasant to work for. Also I’ve dealt with my fair share of rude management and groomers.

Just a friendly reminder if you get your training done at petsmart you’re contracted to work for the company for a certain amount of time to “pay them back” for the training or actually pay them money for it. I haven’t personally heard of them going after anyone, but I wouldn’t put it past them.

If you love grooming and want to continue maybe try working for another corporate salon for training (petco or whatever) they offer training as well and when I trained with them they didn’t force me to take 10 dogs a day until I was completely comfortable doing so. It’s worth a shot. (Results may vary here, right before I left they were getting really aggressive about sales and etc)

Or you can try to see if a private salon will take you on as a bather and train you to groom.

Whatever you decide, I hope it works out and is a better situation for you.

Edit to include: I’m also sorry you’re going through this right now.

 

[andrew77]

@dennis1209 Apparently they were sued in cali for that contract and they don’t tell anyone but it’s actually not a thing anymore.

 

[dennis1209]

@andrew77 It’s really good to hear it isn’t a thing anymore, thank you for the info.

 

[israelp]

@dennis1209 Yeah they were sued for that contract because it’s technically illegal for any company to make you pay for training they make you go through.

 

[dennis1209]

@israelp Thank for the info, I acknowledged this by replying to the first comment mentioning this.

The only reason I mentioned it is because when I was interviewing to work at petsmart as a bather that was what a hiring manager told me.

But in my years grooming since then I haven’t heard of anyone getting sued by petsmart over the situation which is also why I mentioned that in my comment.

Not trying to spread misinformation!
Clearly still pissed some people off here for even mentioning it with an added disclaimer.