VCA Antech Reviews

Current Employee – been working at VCA Antech full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Hospitals have access to high quality equipment
Company invests in employees through continuing education
Company matching funds for 401k

Cons – Company rolls out too many 'programs' at one time making it very difficult to execute each one well. Each support office department does not seem to know what another is doing so there is often a funnel effect on the hospitals.

Advice to Senior Management – Some peopler are "more equal than others" - George Orwell. Sadly, this is part of the culture at VCA.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at VCA Antech

Pros – Great co-workers at my particular clinic. It is a like a family with the exception of a few. Free Vaccines.

Cons – It's always about the money, not about appropriate staffing levels or doing what is right by the employees. It takes more than two technicians-even highly qualified ones- to keep two Dr.s moving.

Production based medicine encourages Dr.s to run up client bills to meet their quotas, resulting in clients being "guilted" into doing unnecessary things.

Highly qualified technicians are treated like kennel help with a distinct lack of respect for their experience or schooling. (Just because I don't have a DVM behind my name doesn't mean I don't know anything)

On my way out, just waiting for the right opportunity.

Advice to Senior Management – 1. Perhaps instead of developing private label drugs, you should invest in your front-line employees. You are way out of touch with what really goes on in a busy hospital, and who actually makes the money you put in your wallet. Truth is you need AT LEAST one TECH per DR, and AT LEAST One extra tech for every two DR. Therefore if you have 3 DR you need AT LEAST 5 techs, not three.

 2. Its time for there to be consistent medical standards, applying something called evidence-based practice. (Please tell me where on VIN or elsewhere it says that you should charge a client..I mean check a pet's CBC/CHEM before giving a Lyme vaccine)

3. I went to school to not have to do heavy cleaning and poop-scooping, just like the DVM did. Please respect me for that.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at VCA Antech full-time

Pros – Love my co-workers. They are the reason I stay.

Cons – Corporate Vice President makes decisions based solely on profit. No concern for time spent with the company or level of care provided by hospitals. Changes pay and bonus structures after they've already been earned so that you're no longer eligible. Demands profit margins that leave no way for employees to get full number of hours and still meet the company's numbers. They hurt the people who do the most work for them on the ground level. I would never choose this company to work for.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop lining your pockets and go back to caring about the animals and your employees, because, trust me, they don't believe you do that currently.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at VCA Antech full-time for less than a year

Pros – I'm in the tax department, so my experience is limited to that area:
- Folks in other departments are by-and-large very responsive.
- The environment is fabulous to work in: dogs hanging around, but not causing a nuisance, beautiful offices from the inside, casual attire and interactions.
- My boss has been fabulous to work for. She's a great blend of giving guidance while still allowing for my own decision making.

Cons – - Very poor benefits, but this is hopefully getting better since they've hired a VP of HR in just the last few years.
- Pay seems a little below the average.
- Parking for employees is pretty bad. Although I got lucky and have a good spot, many employees have to find parking on the street or in a nearby structure. This also makes life difficult when you have a guest coming to the office and can't park anywhere.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at VCA Antech full-time for less than a year

Pros – -Office Manager was a Tech for a long time and understands and values his employees.
-Entire staff from Reception, Kennel, Vets, and Techs all get along, drama-free.
-Flexible about bringing your pets into work.
-Offer 10 hour days for 4 day work weeks.

Cons – -Location can be a little sketchy, but security is available at night.
-Pay is low compared to other clinics.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep being super awesome and work to increase pay for your techs.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at VCA Antech full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – some doctors are very good, and hard working co-workers.

Cons – Horrible managment!!!the supervisor current is grossly under qualified. Management does not have degrees and business decisions are made based on persons popularity vs. how qualified a person is for a position. There are new posiions made available every month suspiciously filled by a friend of the current supervisor or manager. The manager/supervisor have fired people just because they felt a person was a threat to them for standing up for fellow co workers or for whats right vs wrong. To sum it up the new supervisor is worse than the previous one was before. She takes 5 times the amount of cigarette breaks, gossips at her desks with the fellow assisant supervisor every day while co workers scramble to do the workload ment for 10 people on a staff of 3. Breaks and lunch are a rarity because the schedule cannot be made. The supervisor also uses threats and coercien towards people she does not like if she needs shits filled or other work done. If only this cycle were broken instead of the same mistake being made over and over by simply picking the wrong type of person to manage a staff. Most of the emails we receive daily are threats made by managements that we better do this or better stop doing that or discplinary action will be taken. This is usually regarding petty stuff that is not relevant but management decides to nitpick to make themselves look like they are working.

Advice to Senior Management – If only management were picked based on experience and knowledge then maybe things would start to turn around. Most o

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at VCA Antech full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Room for growth. Great pet beneifts

Cons – Vacation/PTO/sick benefits could be better

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at VCA Antech full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good discounts on services, wonderful people to work with, good medicine and doctors, good pay rates for licensed personnel

Cons – Expensive health insurance, grossly understaffed ICU department--usually only 2-3 technicians and/or assistants on staff at all times with 12+ in-hospital patients plus incomings, management plays favorites, when you go to management to try to rectify problems with people not doing their jobs to the fullest, the responsibility pretty much just becomes yours to do that person's job plus your own, horrible review process (I have worked there 3 years and have had one review--which went terribly, due to the people making it having personal issues instead of concrete issues--and a promise of another that has never come), lack of pay raises for good employees (I work with a girl who has 10 years of experience in the field and is the lowest paid employee at the practice, including reception, but has only received a miniscule raise in the last 2 years), lack of proper job placement (everybody new gets put in ICU, even though that is the most difficult place to work--we have lost probably about 5 good employees that could've done a great job in a different department but couldn't handle the understaffed nature of ICU and everyone's grouchy attitude about it), paying higher-paid employees to come in to fill in on the weekends in ICU when they are understaffed (which is always, so this happens pretty much every weekend) because they are usually the better employees and are "easier" to have come in, not disciplining employees who have obvious problems (we have a girl who works at our practice who has missed 50% of her shifts this past year and nothing ever gets done about it; they just keep calling in the same people to fill in for her shifts and get overtime), not appreciating the good employees--some of whom are considering moving on to another practice

Advice to Senior Management – Appreciate your good employees. Properly discipline people who are blatantly unprofessional and who aren't holding up their end of the worker-employer deal. Do more things to raise morale for your employees (for starters-give everybody their Memorial Day and Labor Day back as a paid holiday--everybody has complained about this). Pay attention to people's strengths and use that to benefit the company as a whole by placing them in the right setting to be successful. Stop wasting money that could potentially be used for raises for good employees on filling in positions in understaffed departments because nobody prepared for what deductive reasoning could've told you would be a day where you would need more people.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at VCA Antech full-time for less than a year

Pros – cannot list any because there aren't any

Cons – was promised would be treated as a "tenured" worker, i.e. vacation compensation etc, not true, continuing education not made available, peer elevated to supervisor position, when she clearly was favoring employees (her friends, hiring her cousin) upper managemat agreed not appropriate behavior but sided with her anyway, did not consider legitmate complaint on my part, probably a campaign to push out higher waged workers to get work done as cheaply as possible, they seem to have NO CONCERN FOR MAN OR BEAST, only care about the almighty dollar

Advice to Senior Management – the veterinary business should be one of compassion first, you don't get it

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at VCA Antech full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Good employee discount
Might be lucky to work at a decent individual hospital resulting in good coworker relationships

Cons – Minimal training provided from the corporate office so it's hit or miss whether the environment will be good.
Terrible pay structure for staff and veterinarians. Veterinary pay structure conflicts with time off benefits. Poor time off benefits for all staff
Policies and procedures inconsistent. Observed questionable unethical decisions made by regional and some hospital management. Failure to treat employees consistently and senior corporate management takes very little interest in field/hospital employees. Employee terminations have been due to personal dislike versus a business decision.

Advice to Senior Management – Senior management has to invest in better forums to determine the best for the company and not rely so much on regional management (they are not always the best source for information or decisions). Policies and procedures should be tightened so less opportunity for unethical damaging decisions; however, there should also be compromise and collaboration between the regional managers and field staff for the best for each individual hospital. Field staff deserve better pay, benefits, recognition and fair, honest treatment.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend