veterinarian

veterinary technician

dog walker

veterinary assistant

driver

ASPCA

You will take back-to-back calls all day, every day. You're often dealing with people who are panicked, or situations that you know are not likely to turn out well. Rarely patients will die while you're on the phone. People are regularly verbally abusive to you. You are required (it comes up in your annual review) to work on other projects or study toxicology, but you have to do that in addition to your scheduled 40-hour work week (but don't go into overtime). In the interview they will tell you that there are opportunities to do other things, but the opportunity to work off-phones during your scheduled hours is almost impossible. There just aren't very many opportunities, period. It is a dead-end job no matter how well you do it. If you think sticking it out at this high turnover job will result in you being rewarded, you will be disappointed. Everyone I know who has left from there has said their mental health was at its worst there, and better when they left. Management does not want to accommodate anyone for mental health issues, even if you have a mental health professional write out the request for accommodations to HR. (Everyone who works here has mental health issues--it's vet med.) They make scheduling time off extremely difficult and will reject most if not all of your requests for time off. Mental health issues are a real problem because this is an extremely high-stress customer service job, and they just tell you to use online privacy nightmare Lifeworks instead of making any real changes that would help support the staff and alleviate a lot of the issues. I didn't need an online therapist from a company that's probably going to sell my data. I needed management to make small, crucial changes so my job was less stressful, and to give me the accommodations recommended by my therapist. The benefits are good. The pay is good FOR VET MED, by which I mean it's bad but not as bad as it could be. Starting pay is $18/hr. If you meet or exceed all expectations at your yearly review, you will get a whopping 3% raise as your reward. Upper management flat out does not care and WILL treat you like you're disposable, especially once they've realized they've squeezed all they can out of you. Then the pretense of caring about you as a human being will end abruptly. Turnover for support staff is about 2 years. If you last longer than that, people will tell you that you've worked there a really long time because for this workplace, you have. Which is nuts because training takes an extremely long time and is very resource intensive, but they are not at all concerned about retaining employees. People burn out of this job and leave vet med entirely or go to lower-paying, less stressful jobs. You will learn about a specialty from some of the best people in that specialty, which is cool. I cannot emphasize enough that the people actually on the phones do great work there, my coworkers were phenomenal and brilliant people, and they deserve so much better from management than what they get. They do an important job very well and they deserve to be treated that way. Concessions to staff for their well-being are not made with the excuse being that the call volume is too high. For example, staff can't have a couple of hours per week scheduled off of phones to work on other projects (which staff have been begging for for years and years) because call volume. This sounds reasonable to upper management because they don't take calls. The reality is that the constant back-to-back calls push staff until they snap. The result is more call-outs, more people burning out and quitting or getting fired. If you start asking management how this state of affairs benefits the all-important call volume, you should have another job lined up.

The good: the work is meaningful, the majority of people are amazing and caring, benefits and pay comparably are better than most, more resources than your average shelter, and interesting populations to work with

The bad: Upper management. Isn’t it always upper management? After 15 years in the animal welfare industry, I was left disappointed and disillusioned by my time at the ASPCA. I loved my job and did good work, however, all it took was one person to have a petty vendetta against me to turn my dream job into a nightmare. I was unfairly targeted, bullied, gaslit, and ultimately unfairly terminated. Feedback was given to me months after the fact and many items were brought to my attention for the FIRST time during my performance evaluation. I was placed on a performance improvement plan, and had three meetings with my manager in which I was told I was doing a great job, with no complaints, and then suddenly let go with no explanation. Management above the senior level are cliquey, play favorites, and have some of the worst people skills you can imagine. They are a shady group of people- do not trust them. They don’t want people with ideas or initiative or anyone who may question authority. Instead, they want their employees to smile, nod, and not challenge the status quo. If you don’t comply, be prepared for them to find any excuse to let you go. To succeed here, one must be prepared to have a brown nose. It’s a real shame- good employees, people experienced working with shelter animals, those who have real people skills, and those with an actual passion for the work are getting pushed out by truly terrible people managers and completely useless and biased “people team” - the only people they protect are the ones at the top. Unfortunately, the ASPCA is like every other large corporation that treats its employees like cogs in a machine that can easily be disposed of and replaced. Also, upper management is elitist and values higher education over experience and skill and there is minimal career growth potential, especially for animal care staff. Also, regarding resources, wow they could do so much better. Donate to your local shelter, please, it’ll do way more good.

Value your employees, especially the ones at the bottom of the totem pole- they are the backbone of the org. Just because someone has a phd, it doesn’t make them a good manager. Micromanaging doesn’t make someone a good manager either. Higher education does not mean that someone has people skills or a basic understanding of human emotion and empathy. Those weekly manager meetings are not helping- the managers are not getting better and the workplace culture is becoming increasingly toxic. Please, look closer at the people in charge before all the good employees are driven away by terrible authority figures. Please feel free to reach out to me for further details. I am more than happy to talk about my experiences at this location.


Someone else mentioned how they bring you in and make you feel good I the beginning and as soon as you give your opinions or disagree about something they push you out the door or treat you so bad you quit and this is absolutely true.

The interview process is very dragged out and they lead you to believe your individual thought and expertise is encouraged and wanted here. They also tell you there’s plenty of room to advance after a year of being with them and move up.

Not true at all. I was told nearly a year into the job that the only way to move up would be to lateral over in a position that I wouldn’t be familiar with or would use my skill set, not to mention the pay wouldn’t be different. Also as soon as I started giving suggestions and questioning things that seemed unsafe or impulsive the tone shifted. Giving your opinions on things that weren’t asked of you, or goes against what upper management wants to hear paints a big red target on your back.

NFR is severely understaffed in about every department. Specifically on the transportation side this leads to inefficient equipment and the pressure to pull people outside of professional drivers on the team to make them drive equipment they are not comfortable driving. When I mentioned this to upper management, they told me too bad that’s what we hired them for. When I’m fact, it’s not. Those people have no business doing anything outside of their comfort zone they were not specifically hired to do. And even if they are comfortable driving larger equipment, if your management team on the transportation side says they shouldn’t continue to drive the equipment based on observation or accidents, you should take that seriously. But it’s not, and this leads to many problems for everyone involved. There’s also back stabbing colleagues that’ll throw anyone under the bus for a possibility of advancement and praise. This shows desperation to be noticed and picked for the next promotion when it ever comes.

This position shouldn’t have too much involvement with warehouse management but in fact there were only 2 people managing the entire fleet of vehicles and warehouse entirely for years. Pleads for help were turned down and not prioritized until VP had a reality check of how understaffed we were and told them to hire more people to help. The expectations are ridiculous for 2 people when it’s a 5-10 person job alone. And this is only in one department that I can speak on. Pay attention to red flags during the interview and when starting because they are there and they will grow.

The positives are traveling, flexible hours, working with animals, and I met some of the most impressive people you can think of outside of management. Those people deserved the management positions, and are more qualified.



This is a selfless job, where you become wrapped up in the daily duties. This is therapy. This type of employment, this career field becomes apart of your life.
Every step, every moment, you want to be there to experience it.  These animals become your animals. You learn their habits and their personalities and becoming attached is a common, bittersweet struggle.
Employees who are committed to the work that they do are more than willing to come in and do the work that we are asked to do, and more. We as a whole, who are from the same department, know that we are supposed to stay on our own level in the hierarchy and if we do not then we are either questioned or we are told that we are not able to do anything outside of our job descriptions, unless told otherwise.
Overworked, and underpaid for the amount of physical work that we do, when team members call out and we have to put in more work and we do not so much as get a simple 'thank you'. 
As a union member, we pay the dues to our union rep to whom we never see depending on the shift that we work.  Union rules are either in favor to those who both make salary or work hourly; or not at all. Those that are at the bottom, suffer.

The workplace culture is unprofessional, with frequent passive-aggressive behavior and poor accountability. Management often arrives late, leaves early, and engages in personal activities on company time. Their lack of attentiveness has contributed to safety incidents. LVT managers and flow leads prioritize personal conversations and manipulate schedules to work together, while showing little initiative or leadership.

Opportunities for growth or cross-training are minimal. Some staff routinely take extended breaks or disappear from work areas without coverage, impacting overall efficiency. Additionally, management does not distribute Phat Cats or Cat’s Meows, which directly impacts year-end bonuses. HR has been largely unresponsive to concerns, further diminishing employee morale and support. 

The aspca is a good company to work for if you are  white. People of color you’re not moving up and if you do you definitely had to work extremely hard and adjust yourself to get there. They promise advancement but rarely have people advance. It’s the main problem with all the departments( med-staff, adoptions, match making, etc) is that moving up is almost impossible. Also everything is at your managers desecration. Which means if they don’t like you they can get you out of there for literally any reason and don’t think the union is helping you. The write ups have no expiration date so once they write you up once for being late the ball is already in motion. The employees trauma bond with each other which is why they still have good workers and because they care about the animals legitimately. Other than that management will let you know that you are disposable. I hope this helps with your choice. 

There is definitely a strong feeling of favoritism at the ASPCA. Advancing is almost entirely reliant on being friends with the right people. They disregard employees needs and literally force them to work overtime under the threat of losing their jobs. The way the animals are treated is questionable. They will “treat” a very limited number of things due too “poor compliance” from the public and prioritize what will give them the best numbers at the end of the day which leaves the other animals to be euthanized at some times alarming rates. There’s an air if disappointment, stress, burn out, and competitiveness among the employees which makes working there very difficult. There’s competitiveness from different departments, between roles, and even between the day/evening/overnight staff. 
I would not go back to working there unless I had literally no other choice.

The job itself is great and you always feel good about helping animals in need. However, any mistake is weighed heavily against you, and a team member's opinion of you can weigh heavily on the future of your job. 

Everyone will be nice and cool with you, but complain behind your back and you'll be given no chance for course-corrrection or fair feedback if they decide they don't like you. 

You're handled by a third party staffing agency and nobody actually on the job will give you the time of day if they have a problem with you.

The ASPCA is an organization that does a lot of good and helps countless animals, but their care for the humans involved is sometimes lacking.

During my time at the ASPCA I was tasked in providing exercise, socialization, and behavior modifications of the animals. Creating a stress free and clean environment for previously abused animals. Performing routine health assessments; report issues to supervisor. Properly dispose of general trash and hazardous waste. I learned to utilize the tools acquired from leadership & time management skills to interpersonal communication skills with my coworkers and management. Shelter Management was unfair to the treatment and equality of the staff as a whole. The hardest part of the job was seeing the suffrage and poor state of being from some of the animals we received. The most enjoyable was witnessing the improvement of the animals overall well being through out their time spent with us.

My day in the Finance Department begins with reviewing the previous day incoming invoices and expense reports from Outlook email  and/or departmental in-box located in the office.  The invoices check request and expense reports, are checked for approval, coding, billed to and remit adresses.  Unapproved invoice are forwarded to the appropriate person for approval.  Approved invoice are entered in Finance's accounting system for the weekly check run. 

It is wonderful to be a part of an organization that helps and protects animals.  In the few weeks that I have been an employee, at the ASPCA, I have seen various project pretaining to the care and maintance for dogs and cats. 
It feel good to do work for a organization instead of a company.

So, my only complaint is I wish they would include birds more help to the bird population.  I'm a bird lover.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Veterinarian 83 salaries reported	$149,522 per year
Veterinary technician 149 salaries reported	$37.15 per hour
Dog walker 200 salaries reported	$31.50 per hour
Veterinary assistant 105 salaries reported	$25.33 per hour
Driver 2 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour

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