I've been working for a corporate grooming salon for just over 3 years now. I started as a bather and did that for a little over a year and a half and really loved it. While being a bather I was so excited for the opportunity to become a pet stylist. I finally received the training required to become a pet stylist with this corporate company. At first, I started very slow as I'm sure most people do. After about 6 months give or take I was grooming 3 or 4 dogs a day and felt very confident in my abilities as a groomer. There were some hiccups along the way but I made it onto my own schedule and off of my Salon Manager's schedule, aced my grooming assessment, and was moved on to the next phase and started doing 5 dogs a day. As the workload became more intense my mental health greatly started to suffer. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and no longer enjoyed going to work. I had an accident where I nicked a mole on a dog's elbow. There was no blood and I had mentioned it in passing to a manager doing a safety walk of the salon just in case the Pet Parent were to notice and become upset. It turned into quite the ordeal as the manager I told, told the Assistant Store Manager who then told the Store Manager who then had me take the dog to our in-store vet clinic. The vet took one look at the "injury" and said (this is an exact quote, with the first manager standing in the vet's office with me) "That's nothing". Unfortunately for me though it was reported as an incident and things started to get worse for me after that. I was put back on my Salon Manager's schedule and told that this being my third incident meant that if I got another one I would no longer be allowed to groom dogs and would have to step back down to bather. As time progressed my mental health got worse and worse. I had a panic attack at work and was sent home, a month later I made a questionable post regarding my mental health on a personal social media account which in turn caused several of my coworkers to report me to management which then was escalated to HR. I was then put on a final notice for "not having my hands on the pet" while grooming them - I would have my free hand on my hip while brushing the dog or running the clippers over them for example, but I never walked away from the dog and I always had my eyes on the dog and was able to make physical contact quickly if the dog moved. But with the threat of being fired for any mistake no matter how small it is looming over my head, I am petrified. I no longer feel safe in my salon due to my coworkers, I feel like I constantly have to look over my shoulder, I'm paranoid, I feel like I can't talk anymore, and overall I dread going to work. My productivity has slowed down and I constantly ask myself if this is even for me anymore. I LOVE dog grooming and I can't see myself doing anything else and maybe I just no longer enjoy grooming for this company. They have so many rules and restrictions in place regarding the pets' safety that it is no longer safe when everything you do can be seen as dangerous. You can't have someone assist you if your dog is on a groomer's helper, you can't use a muzzle and restrain the dog or have someone help you all at the same time, no more than two people are allowed to touch the pet at a single time, you can't cage dry certain breeds or dogs of a certain age - but you can't finish the groom until they're dry only you can't use the force dryer because of X, Y, and Z but this hinders your performance and productivity. It's always safety, quality, then quantity until your safety and quality make it so that you're not doing 5+ dogs in a shift. Groomers aren't allowed to do bath dogs that aren't their request clients. Services are 3-4 hours but you'd better get your dogs done in an hour or less because anything longer means you're not doing enough dogs and therefore not making the company enough money. And so much more. But I digress, my happy spot is 4 groom dogs and 2 bath dogs per shift. I feel like 4 groom dogs for an 8-hour shift is reasonable, especially because not every dog is well-behaved or maintained at home between grooms and they come in matted. I ALWAYS make sure my dogs are clean, dried, brushed and combed, and groomed to the best of my abilities in conjunction with the dog's comfortability and behavior. But it isn't good enough for corporate. The Assistant Store Manager received an email from our District Manager regarding myself and a grooming trainee that just started grooming back in late October saying that neither of us is where we need to be as far as how many dogs we're doing. So I guess my question here is should I just step down to bather, is grooming even for me anymore? I no longer feel happy or passionate about it. Or do you think that grooming elsewhere may be the better option for me? Is 4 dogs in an 8-hour shift not good or is it a normal amount for someone to be doing? Are private salons any better? Help.
Unsure if I still want to pursue Dog Grooming (Help)
- Thread starter sjcargill
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- dog grooming