Pretty much all bad - Anonymous employee Mud Bay Employee Review

2.0
31 Aug 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Working in a retail store where animals are welcome. Pay was decent for the area but could be better considering Mud Bay's net profits.

Cons

-Management simply ignored customers on the best days and fostered a toxic environment by gossiping and amplifying tension between employees on the worst days. -Training is laissez-faire; there were no designated new hire trainers in stores and no template to keep track of skills learned. -It was not uncommon to be chastised in front of peers. -It is a requirement to work a "pack schedule", meaning you must available to be scheduled at any store within 30-ish minutes of your home store, at any time. -There may be rivalry between the stores, so while you may be working at another store once a week, there is a possibility you will not be welcome there. -Mud Bay does not provide any training on animal behavior or body language, which can become a hazard since staff is "highly encouraged" to 'greet and treat' every dog that comes in. Since behavior training is not standardized, Muddies may be practicing unsafe handling of dogs and giving out damaging advice to coworkers and customers. -The standards that are pushed by Home Office regarding customer interactions seem like an AI generated script, denoting a clear divide between upper-level staff and in-store employees. Standards are unclear and often vary from lead to manager to other lead to other manager. Often, staff-level employees take the blame for "mistakes" that are actually unclear communication between leads, managers, and Home Office. -Coworkers were bullies and management protected the bullies because they were friends outside of work. -Under-qualified people were promoted based on management favoritism. -This is not a small business, this is a large, 60-store chain of retail locations.

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Mud Bay Response
2y
We are sorry to hear that you did not enjoy your time at Mud Bay. Customer service and store support are the pinnacle of what we do as a company. We take accusations of racism and bullying very seriously. We ask team members to reach out to HR at HR@mudbay.com so that we may complete a prompt investigation. To ensure that we can provide solutions for every customer who enters our stores, we do provide a comprehensive one-year training program that has specific courses on dog and cat behavior, including how to approach a dog, reading body language, and safety in stores. If there is specific information that team members feel their training is are lacking, there is a feedback option at the end of each course for our Learning and Development team. Training is led by the leadership team as a whole at each store, to ensure that staff can continue their training on days their manager may be enjoying their day off. We are proud to offer our ESOP and benefit plans. Detailed information on eligibility and coverage for each is available to all employees through our company-wide knowledge library, as well as our Benefits Resource Center via phone at 866-468-7272. Additional questions can be directed to HR@mudbay.com at any time.

Explore other reviews about Mud Bay

5.0
4 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great company. Very friendly and professional. Treat you like a family.

Cons

Your work night shift. So if that’s not your thing you won’t like it.

3.0
10 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The employee discount is great, best benefit of the job in my opinion. You get 40% off all products. My immediate team and manager were absolutely wonderful and the work atmosphere was great. You get to pet cute animals every day and help people solve their pet-related problems. When I started, there was great training and education, but that has recently gone downhill.

Cons

Even though my team was awesome, you can be sent to other locations when there are call-outs, and not every store has a good manager and co-workers. It felt a bit hostile when I went to work at other locations. Upper management is a total joke. They are controlling and make decisions that impact store employees without consulting those who actually work in retail.

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