Pros
Seeing new pet parents excited about their pets. You deal w/other animal lovers which isn't a bad thing. My team & peers are pretty awesome.
Cons
Hours- SMs are expected to put in 45-50 hours a week. With labor cuts this routinely becomes 60 hours w/o additional compensation. Labor-1 cashier, 1 petcare associate & 1 manager cannot effectively or safely do everything that needs to be done. OSATs- this only makes sense if you're familiar w/customer surveys. The random survey system is broken but stores are held to ever-increasing rates of customer satisfaction. Turnover- last year a lot of good people lost their jobs in what appeared to be a witch hunt. Lots of tenured SMs (many of whom LOVED their jobs) were hung out to dry for following standard operating procedures for payroll. It's hard to build a company culture when there's no depth left. Vision- the company has changed its mission statement 3 times in the past 2 years. It's hard to get behind a company where there's no consistent long term vision. I understand the need to stay competitive but there needs to be consistency. Services- this is a tricky part of the business because it's based completely on customer satisfaction. The biggest issues always come out of salon, from dogs being nicked accidentally (& pet parents flying off the handle disproportionally to the cut) to people who refuse to pay for a service because they don't like quality of the work. Metrics- there is an ever changing laundry list of metrics (sales, turnover, survey results, total loss, safety, online sales just to name some) that must be met. You run the risk of getting fired if your store doesn't meet all metrics. Of course this is in itself dependent on your relationship w/your DM because not all SMs are treated equally... Physicality of the Job- this job isn't for the weak. Dog food is heavy. Cat litter is heavy. Fish tanks are even worse. There aren't a lot of options in regards to who lifts product. You WILL lift a lot of product. You WILL feel it at some point, especially if you have a bad back, knee, neck, etc.