Pros
Very knowledgeable staff and managers that care deeply about the well being of most of the animals. certain managers can be wonderful to work with, such as dog walking and grooming. some of the employees are great to be around and you can tell how much they care about the animals. some employees make it a fun place to be. they do offer vacation days and sick days free education at the attached school about pet care better work environment than some other well known daycares in chicago
Cons
near minimum wage work despite level of experience and education, little room for movement upwards. most people wouldn't want to work closely with upper management because a lot of them are not enjoyable people to work closely with. A few employees that have been there for years run the show - no matter how awful they treat certain pets, employees, ect, they never get penalized. They will fire a great newer employee for the mistake of one of the long term folk or to make the long term folk happy. i have seen it happen countless times. many of these long term people are rude - some are highly sexist and homophobic and constantly say and do inappropriate things with no punishment given. if they don't fire new employees that don't like, they will make their lives so miserable that they quit. this happened countless times during my employment here as well. owner's workplace values do not translate well to employees or management - teasing, mocking, and inappropriate comments are made all of the time by staff despite it being against the owner's values. Makes it seem as if it is a great place to work - buys lunch for employees, cakes on their birthday, and other little perks, but most of these perks are paid for by tips for the daycare staff that the daycare staff does not consent to using towards communal gifts. high stress environment and little compassion for employees from management. Certain managers of certain departments are outright rude to their employees. women that work in daycare always get treated more poorly than men by the head daycare manager. The staff and management care more about the pets there than they ever will about you. you will be under an enormous amount of pressure almost every day, especially during holiday seasons, and are given no leway. you will be counting down the minutes for every shift to end, and dreading going in the next day. managers can be very short, condescending and outright mean when under stress - which is usually. you are also treated as if you are an idiot most of the time by certain managers, no matter how capable you prove yourself to be. it is a very demeaning work environment. incredibly loud work environment. your ears will likely be ringing every day after shifts, and your hearing will suffer long term. you are told you get raises every few months, but it usually doesn't happen. it's a fight and serious time commitment to get the raises you are told upon being hired that you will receive. most people never see them or see them months later than they were promised them. owner is more concerned about the bottom line than the experiences and lives of the employees, very much a "profit over people" sort of environment if you can see past all of the hokey perks they try to butter you up with.