veterinary assistant

client services coordinator

veterinary technician

veterinarian

veterinary receptionist

Banfield Pet Hospital

I work in a Banfield Pet Hospital. My review is based off of my experience in the clinic and not as someone in a corporate office of Banfield. Some of the perk answers were hard to answer because associates in the hospitals don't have quite the same amount of perks as those in the corporate offices.

The pros significantly outweigh the cons of working at Banfield. Banfield is a principled company that has an active mission and vision. When an associate has a difficult decision to make, they should always look to the 5 principles of Mars, and make their decision to promote the principles in their specific order. For instance, the five principles are: Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency, and Freedom. So, if you have the decision to make of staying in budget for weekly inventory, or going over and ensuring that your clinic has everything it needs, you go over budget to get those products on the shelves because the quality of medicine that we practice and the responsibility you have to provide the tools needed for doctors to do their jobs outweighs the freedom of profit principle. However, if this happens often, you probably need some support in learning how to do the weekly orders. I also like that they send out emails updating the associates on what they are doing to achieve the Banfield vision and how they are living up to the mission. 

Banfield focuses on associate engagement, which means they conduct annual surveys to gauge their employees satisfaction with their jobs. This information is then used to create action plans with SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) objectives to improve workplace satisfaction. It seems like they are constantly rolling out a new initiative to enhance their associate's work/life balance as well. The company also understands compassion fatigue and has resources available to their associates. It's an open conversation so people can feel comfortable to reach out for help. Banfield also promotes their employees professional and personal development with annual development plans for one's personal development, as well as the role they play to achieve the company's annual objectives/goals. These require quarterly reviews with the individuals line manager to track progess. If you are performing satisfactorily or exceeding expectations, you will receive an annual raise, which is another perk. Leadership also receives bonuses based on their performances. 

Banfield also believes that anyone can stop the line and you don't need a leadership position to become a leader in any given situation... within reason, obviously a Veterinary Assistant isn't going to gown up and ask for the scalpel because they were feeling like a leader that day.  

Banfield asks for feedback from their associates, sometimes before making changes, sometimes after, and sometimes both. Banfield is committed to continuous process improvement, so you have to be comfortable with change, or at least self-aware that if you aren't comfortable you need to go to the right people to discuss it and gain insight. The best part of this is that when the company receives a lot of the same feedback, they usually make adjustments that are in-line with the feedback they've received. This is empowering and makes me feel like my company cares.

Banfield offers their employees competitive pay, opportunity for career advancement, skill-building courses, generous paid time off, health, dental, vision, 401k and matching, tuition reimbursement for Doctors and LVTs, CE funds for Doctors and LVTs, and more. Lastly, it is a very satisfying job to make a difference in the lives of pets, to heal them, and to support their health and longevity. 

The cons of working for Banfield are that the cascade of information can be unorganized and inadequate. Associates can be unclear on policies and information/processes. This applies to the hospital support team at our home office as well. They are supposed to be a support system that the hospitals can call if they have questions about how to perform certain actions or what certain policies are.. however, there are times that I've called and received the wrong answer and had to find out the right answer on my own. I've also hung up and called back to get someone else when I felt the answer was wrong and have on several occasions received a different answer from the next person. 

There is a lot of focus on training, but the training courses are underwhelming and have far too many elementary themes. They also do not contain all the basic information an associate needs to learn to perform their job, such as vaccine protocol, how to TAN in a new associate, benefits training, etc. Employees are also often times unaware of what all resources and benefits are available to them and it would be so simple to put this information into the on-boarding training. Training courses are updated often, information that has also updated since the last course isn't always corrected, so sometimes the information is incorrect in the training courses. 

The Banfield intranet has frequent navigation issues, lacks certain information that would make a PMs life a lot easier, and policies are not always updated. I've also been directed to use another Banfield website to find information, however, the website seized to exist years prior. 

Banfield is committed to continuous process improvement which is great, but sometimes it's too much at once, or the new system was rushed and has glitches, or it fails and is quickly reversed, or it's rushed and training is inadequate. You have to be comfortable with change or at least able to acknowledge that the intentions are good with the changes they constantly make, or you might not be happy.

Quality of leadership and follow through with responsibilities can fluctuate from one unit to the next, both in the hospitals, in the markets, and in the regions. However, in most cases, I don't think it's because these individuals don't care. Leaders tend to have A LOT of responsibilities and not always enough support to help when things aren't going the way the company would like, so some people burn out quick or have a hard time keeping up with everything they are supposed to be doing. I think the leaders have the worst work/life balance because there are so many people who rely on them and they feel the need to be available all the time. Especially since they will be held accountable if things falls apart. However, there are some leaders who have strong numbers to support them, but that doesn't mean that they are following through with all of the responsibilities their job demands. I wish there was a checks and balance system in place to ensure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to, regardless of their numbers.There is an operational excellence checklist which is a great start to this, but the execution has been poor.

I will preface by saying that my co-workers have been fantastic and my direct supervisors have done their best to work with me. I used my employment at Banfield as an opportunity to relocate cross country and successfully reboot my life. The doctors and parastaff quickly trained me how to be fully functional vet assistant coming from a minimally vet related research background. My clinic's supportive staff kept me from burning out, but they have been exceptional in the Banfield picture.

At a stand alone clinic, I expect to work from 8am-7:30pm 4 days a week. I also expect 7:30 closing to become 8-9pm based upon the days work flow.  My manager *tries* to keep me with set days off, but I rarely get the same days off every week. I need to request specific weekends off, because the other staff have to do the same to live their lives. Suffice to say work/life balance is NOT good - 4 full days from morning to night and 3 unpredictable days off make planning a family life or participating in groups/classes outside of work very difficult.

We have had stable parastaff since my hire, but 5 DVMs have been officially part of the hospital in the 6 months I have worked here. We spent one month without a full time doctor and had a different relief DVM every week. During that time, our probationary DVM was a major conflict issue in the clinic. He was a known agitator at other clinics, having yelled at staff and causing a hostile work environment. We were his "second" try. He would defer all work he could upon parastaff and front desk while taking leaving early for lunch and closing. He was fired due to questionable medical practice, no commitment to clients, creating a hostile environment among the staff, and making racist jokes about clients. Corporate management let his influence fester in the clinic for almost two months, despite constant complaints from clients, parastaff, and clinic leadership. During his time, our clinic took a hit in client satisfaction, sales metrics, and morale - which still have not recovered fully in the months since.

Most of the other DVMs I've met have been fantastic, but Banfield is driven by metrics (like other corporations). If your clinic cannot maintain a good number of patients, average profit per client, and wellness plan signups, hours will be shortened and new staff will not be approved. Good DVMs and staff work under increased pressure to meet metrics on short staff. A bad month (ex: caused by DVM turnover) can impact the next two+ months, with new, NECESSARY employees being denied to the clinic because of past metric performance.

Banfield's are open 363 days a year, with breaks only on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Holiday's are not time and a half and overtime does not begin until you go past 40 hours a week. An extremely stressful 14 hour day for late emergencies does not confer any additional pay unless it pushed you past the 40 hour/week mark.

10-minute breaks are a figment of your imagination and mandatory hour long lunches easily become abbreviated when the schedule invariably gets chaotic. You have the right to demand these things (I do) but it easily becomes part of the clinic attitude to scoff at your coworkers for wanting their allotted time (ex: Well *I* had to miss 1/2 my lunch to cover the front desk).

I think Banfield could do a much better job if long hours, unstable schedules, minimal staff for stand alone locations, and firmly metric driven management decisions weren't the status quo. Many clinics continue to do great work for our clients and patients. But many of the employees are constantly on the verge of burnout, which encourages turnover and further instability. My clinic has been supportive, but I am currently looking to move on - knowing that the lack of work/life balance is not going to help me further a career outside of a vet clinic or develop my family life.

Higher ups seem to only care about statistics. To them, it’s quantity of pets seen in a day over the quality of care they’re being given. They don’t care if you’re understaffed and drowning or leave 2 hours after closing when you’ve already worked an 11 hour shift and have to be up for another open to close shift the next day. Lots of our patients ended up having things missed or looked over because we were so rushed and drowning with appointments that we physically couldn’t keep up, which ended in lots of stress and some mistakes. Every week our shifts were different. Different days and different hours, so there wasn’t any consistency with scheduling. Work their doctors and support staff to death and expect you to be happy go lucky, bubbly all the time. They will not hesitate to completely throw you under the bus and allow clients to verbally abuse you and will just do whatever the client wants to make them happy, doesn’t matter if what they say or do causes you to have a mental breakdown in the back. Our old practice manager took pride in our numbers, but ignored the fact that we were all burnt out. Corporate preaches that they’re all about the mental well-being of their associates, but that couldn’t be further from the truth from my personal experience. I quit after I started coming home crying on every lunch break and was getting physically sick from the stress and anxiety of that work environment. They basically turn you into a salesperson, trying to sell their wellness plans onto every client that walks through the door. We were praised on the number of plans we had clients sign up on each day rather than being praised for our hard work during team huddles. Each employee was given a percentage of how many plans they’ve sold (I never looked at mine so I don’t even know what my numbers were, because I literally could’ve cared less how many plans I sold, I cared about the patient and client in front of me and what they needed) and we were always asked how we can “make that percentage higher. How can we get people to sign up on the plan, even when they originally say no?” If we didn’t meet the weekly quota, it was a big no no, shame on us, like it’s our fault that a client declines wanting to sign up, which they have every right to say no and not be further bothered by it. Compared to some of the other local clinics in our area, their plans aren’t really saving their clients any money. Even though I worked there, I still often times took my pets to the previous clinic I worked for prior to Banfield, because their prices were way more affordable. Any time I brought up any concerns or suggestions, it was blown over and I was once told “that’s just Banfield life”. My coworkers confided in me all the time about how they didn’t like it there and turnover was high. I felt like we were always losing and hiring/training new people almost monthly. The pay was decent, but not worth any of the emotional and physical toll that comes with it. All the assistants, techs, doctors, and receptionists I know try their hardest, but the higher ups are what is causing us all to experience such harsh burn out and compassion fatigue, because we are nothing but a replaceable number to them and really appear to care more about their reputation than their employees well-being. The only good thing about working here was that my coworkers and trainers working the floor with me were awesome and have taught me a lot more than I ever knew. I gained many skills from them that I didn’t have before and I can carry those skills into my future positions, and I enjoyed learning how to do new things all the time, but it doesn’t make up for everything else. Since I quit, a new practice manager was put in place at that location and I really hope they strive to make things change for the better there. The corporate mentality should NOT belong in veterinary medicine. 

I wanted to quit after just a couple months of working here, and some how that turned into 6 years, feeling everyday like I wanted to scream and walk out!
A typical day consisted of scrambling about in the morning trying to get patients prepped, lab work completed, and as much as we could possibly get completed of our daily tasks (since once the day gets rolling there is not much time to even get your stuff done, because you typically need to help out everywhere else, both up front office and in back), all while juggling phones and trying to find coverage for the day, because there is always someone calling out sick and our staff was always light everyday in the first place.
I would typically feel our facility was understaffed, and there was not enough help to go around. And if there were enough people on staff, forget about everyone putting in 100% of their efforts, and to bad for those that do. 
OHH, and let's not forget our daily dose of radiation!! Yes there is protective aprons, gloves and thyroid guards, as well as sandbags, v-troughs, and ties, which are all suppose to help "protect us" and manage "Hands free radiographs". BUT, due to poor patient compliance, and lack of proper sedation methods via the doctors, the whole "Hands free" idea is quickly abandoned, leaving us to get exposed DAILY to radiation, sometimes multiple times throughout the day. Kinda' makes you feel like the doctors and management don't care about you as a person, being that they A) typically don't assist you with them, B) typically won't sedate until someone gets hurt, or they are just to fractious to obtain proper views, and C) always recommend it, even if not medically necessary (PRODUCTION PURPOSES).
YES I did learn a lot  of skills, because I was thrown into without any proper training, and had to choose to sink or swim (I'm a very strong swimmer, but most aren't and will drown, leaving you irritated and still short handed). The training has slightly improved over the years, placing in front of a computer screen, going through the steps properly of how to do your job, and shadowing here and there, however, @ the same time continuing to hire those without proper education, certification, or licensing. 
You can ONLY ADVANCE IF YOU DRINK THE "KOOL-AID": My life is Banfield, Sacrifice of integrity, self-worth, and kissing all the right behinds, or you can just act like a self-entitled brat throwing tantrums until you get your way (or fired). 
Maybe it's different at other locations, but EVERYTHING was the hardest part of the job, especially when you are @ 110% and everyone else is putting out about 70-80%.
It was enjoyable to learn to new things, try new things, and see cute fun rooms, but those are far and few, and clientele is a major pain every step of the way. 
The worst part was working for a MULTI-BILLION $ corporation, and always having them let your supervisor know "It's still not enough $$$", "Write up your staff for not maintaining their wellness % A.K.A. let me be a pushy brat and solicit this plan ( because that's what veterinary medicine is all about, RIGHT?)", and "Here's $3.75 to split between all of your staff for the annual raises", why thank you MULTI-BILLION establishment Banfield, you are just so generous.
Sure, they have a lot to offer the clientele, but @ our expense and greatly unappreciated for all of our hard work if I must say so myself. I would rather be unemployed w/o and income then ever have to go crawling back to this establishment.
It's fun for a while, but you'll quickly experience and feel the negative effects this place will have on your life.
Best of luck for those who wish to work here, I pity you and GUARANTEE you WILL NOT be happy or wish to finish out your career here.

They'll make it sound good with lots of promises,  especially if you are a new grad, but please do your homework.  I drank the Kool Aid.  Don't make the same mistake.   If you have VIN membership, review info on the student loan benefit.  Realize that your 12 week mentorship period depends highly on the quality of your mentor and the hospital that you are at.   During my mentorship period, I was sent to a busy hospital to work a Saturday by myself when that hospital's doctor couldn't come in. Also, they often forget to tell you this when you're hired, but just because you're hired for one location doesn't mean that you'll work there a lot.  If other hospitals in the market are lacking doctor coverage, you may find yourself being sent to a variety of locations to work with teams and clients you are completely unfamiliar with.

There is constant focus on metrics with a major emphasis on pet numbers. You may be expected to see 18-20+ pets/day along with performing multiple surgeries.  Banfield bases your support staff numbers off a projection for pet numbers, (para hours/pet).  Their goal is to have around 1.9 para hours/pet.  This means that you may literally have 1-2 veterinary assistants at most, so you will be doing a whole lot of  tech work.  Staff are overworked, underpaid, and turnover is high.  Banfield is big on training them from video modules rather than actually taking the time to allow them to be trained by a DVM or RVT.  I find they are often placed in roles, such as monitoring anesthesia, before they are comfortable or ready for such a responsibility.  This makes it even more stressful to perform surgery as you ultimately are also monitoring for yourself, depending on the qualifications of the staff member present.  

You'll hear lots of hype about  Mars culture and principles, especially mutuality.   This is what mutuality translates into.  At the corporate office, apparently there is a dog park and dogs can come to work  In the Banfield clinics, if staff or a doctor need to bring their dog to work for a non-medical reason, they will be charged to board their pet in the hospital for the day.  Does that sound like a mutual benefit?

In some markets the hours are 8-6 M-F, 8-5 on Sat and closed on Sunday, but despite being told that would happen across the company in 2018, most markets are still open on Sunday and have the longer hours until 7.  Mutuality is very subjective.

Then there are the wellness plans. The concept of wellness plans is a good one.  It allows clients to budget for preventive care services.  However, they come with a whole host of catches that cause clients to become confused and often angry, which you will have to deal with.   For example, on the plans that include a dental, there is pre-anesthetic bloodwork included.  If you perform the pre-anesthetic bloodwork and decide that the pet is not a good anesthesia candidate and thus do not want to proceed with the dental,  the client will have to pay for that bloodwork out of pocket.  If the pet had the dental, the bloodwork would be included, but if he does not, then they have to pay.  Make sense to you?  You can imagine how much sense it makes to clients..  They only get to use the dental pre-anesthtic bloodwork, if they are willing to have the dental done on their pet.

There is a major push for wellness plans.  Its one of the many metrics you will be judged by- how many wellness plans you enroll patients on.  It gets to the point that you feel like a used car salesman because you're pushed so hard to sell them.  

My best advice, work in private practice where the focus is on medicine, not these type of corporate metrics.  You didn't become a DVM to work for corporate MBAs who have no understanding of veterinary medicine or what it takes to provide quality care.  

DVM and support staff turnover is enormous and that should be the biggest red flag about the environment.

I was wrongfully terminated after putting in my 2 week notice. After many meetings and emails about an employee who was not only harassing me but was harassing the rest of the staff and the doctors on duty, I was fed up and decided to find an employer who would stand by my side in a harassment case. I just gave my 2 weeks yesterday and I was wrongfully terminated a few hrs later. I was first told that my last day working at Banfield was June 28th (since I was scheduled out until then, and this location is extremely short staffed) and I was happy with that since I had told my new employer that I wouldn’t be able to start until July 1st seeing as Banfield still needed my help. 

Now mind you before all this happened I had sent multiple emails to the manager and chief of staff about the harassment with no response and no changes to the harasser and he received no repercussions. This manner was supposedly sent to the “higher ups” with no change as well. This employee has an EXTENSIVE record of harassing former employees who had also left because of him. A doctor on staff had QUIT because of him and she clearly stated that. The current doctors on staff at this Banfield location have freely expressed that they both do not feel comfortable working with this employee as well. To give you a bit more history, no one at this location is willing to work. Myself and one other employee were the only full time VAs and we took most of the load seeing as the rest of the staff would not pick up shifts or work more than 4hrs. I’ve had more than enough times were I was the ONLY VA for 2 doctors all day long and I was also having to work as a receptionist at the same time since they have no employees or ones that want to work. I’ve had more days where I did not have a break or a lunch and I worked 9hrs straight. I’ve had plenty of days where it was just me and the doctor doing 5 surgery’s (if you know this industry you need at least 2 VAs for surgery’s. AT LEAST). Management or the so called shift leads were hard on me and the only other full time employee, but were very lenient  to the employees who never wanted to work or who made constant excuses for not coming in. They were also very lenient on the harasser as you see, that’s why I’m here writing this. My fiancé had called management (since this wasn’t resolving) about why they haven’t taken action and he expressed his concerns. He was told they would take further action and this would be resolved but obviously it didn’t. 

So to fast forward to yesterday June 5th, I put my 2 weeks in and everything was great. I worked my whole shift and was about to start to get ready to leave when the chief of staff called me into a room. She then proceeded to tell me that they would no longer be needing me and that I was only allowed to work the next 2 days (Thursday and Friday) and I wasn't allowed to work until my original end date of June 28th. I was extremely confused and blindsided seeing as they have no staff already and they need my help. I proceeded to ask why? Why wasn’t I allowed to work until my original end date? Why am I not allowed to work at least 2 weeks? Why am I being terminated but the harasser isn’t?! And she gave me no answer, all she said was she couldn’t... she just couldn’t let me work my last scheduled shifts so that I can survive and pay my rent until my next start date. I ran out of the room crying as I thought I was a good employee and was so confused on why they would treat me this way?  The story can go on and on but just know you’ve been warned and if you take this job TRUST NOBODY cause the ones I thought who’d help me in this situation and acted like they were my friends and cared were the ones who sent me home that day with no accurate reason.

Banfield is a good place if you're new to the field. You'll learn alot that you can take to another vet clinic. However, it also depends on the managers. When I was trained, there was no training plan in place. I just learned whatever whenever. I had to take initiative to learn things and take control of my own training. Also when I was shown things, I wasn't shown things from A to B to C. It was A to D to C to B and months later found out you also have to do E. I would have preferred for my training to be more organized and thorough rather than getting yelled at for not doing something I was never shown. 
I would say that's the only pro of working there besides being able to work with animals. 
Cons: 
- No work/life balance. The schedule is put out a month in advanced so you think you'd be able to make plans around that schedule. Well no, they change your schedule last minute and expect you to come in even though you were originally scheduled off, AND they don't notify you. They don't care if you made plans a month ago when the schedule first came out. I was told by management that if you have plans to put a request in for that day. You shouldn't need to do that, your days off should be your days off whether you have plans or not. Also, even when you do put a request in and it gets approved, there have been a few times that I was added on to the schedule for that approved day off and had to tell management to change it. 

- Responses from management seem dismissive. There's an open door policy, but anytime I have brought concerns to management, the responses were unacceptable. For example, we had 5 dental cleaning appointments scheduled, and finished the 4th one late in the afternoon (it took longer than usual because a pet needed extractions) and also had drop off appointments that we had to see in between dental cleanings (Trust me, dentals and drop offs at the same time are stressful) Thankfully the 5th one didn't show up. When I expressed how stressed we were and how we were behind on time because we were short staffed and should have cancelled some of the appointments, she said "well you only had 4 dentals" Yes, but if the 5th one came in we wouldn't have finished until 5pm. Normally dental cleanings should be done around 2pm so patients have time to recover. There are more examples of us expressing our concerns and management saying in a polite way "suck it up" Its not simple complaints, its legitimate concerns and instead of management saying "I understand, what can we do to change this?" they make us feel  not heard or acknowledged. 

- High turnover. We had both of our regular doctors quit, and 4 or 5 staff quit. 
When I mentioned how people were quitting left and right, my manager responded with "we have two new people coming in" as if that is supposed to make the fact that half our staff quit any better. How long before those new people quit? 

- You're overworked. They cram in as many patients as possible to meet the numbers. If you're short staffed, no changes are made to the appointments to accommodate. Our CVT was expected to be the surgery nurse AND also have her own drop off appointments at the same time. 

- Corporate seems to prioritize quantity over  quality. 
- You never get out on time, and I don't mean leaving a few minutes late. Most of the time we were leaving an hour and a half to two hours late. 
- You seem to be expected to do your job and also everyone else's job while still getting paid the same. 
- Long hours. When you first start you might be working 8 hours, but once you've been there for a few weeks, you might be working 11-12 hours, 3 or 4 days in a row. 

Banfield is interesting. Your job satisfaction is highly dependent on the higher ups/field director of your location, the practice manager, as well as the scheduling system (Petware) and this can all be different from location to location. You can have a great practice manager and have the other two categories leave something to be desired; or you could be unlucky and all three can be a mess that'll you'll have to tolerate until you can find another job or transfer to a different location. Granted, if you are just starting out in veterinary medicine, this is a wonderful place (based on which location) to learn a ton of new information, and it did teach me quite a bit my first year. I started as a veterinary assistant under the guidance of some great and experienced technicians, but unfortunately since they had just about all left or stepped down to part time positions, it left the next league of sort of experienced folks in the hospital to try to fill their shoes without all the necessary training to feel comfortable in the quality of care given to our very important patients- but corporate just wants you to see more and more with less and less resources. Management fluctuates, the manager turnover since I started has been crazy, I have worked with about 5 different managers in the 3 years I've been there and they had all shortly after quit leaving the hospital to be a sinking ship. The field directors did not seem to care whatsoever, still pushing for numbers, and messing with what little hospital flow we did have to at least try to operate our hospital well so everyone working there didn't burn out. As far as workplace culture goes, there is no reprimanding done so that unacceptable behavior doesn't get tolerated in the hospital, people seem to be able to do whatever they'd like without getting into any trouble and it seems impossible to fire anyone who is technician even if they aren't doing their job correctly. The hardest parts of the job are these instances: when there is an overly aggressive pet that the client does not want to properly medicate to help us be able to get all the services done, when field leadership goes in and physically changes our schedule without warning us and walking into additional cases that we are understaffed for and are unprepared for, not getting acknowledged by anyone but other technicians that you are doing a good job/your best with the resources you do have, being understaffed almost constantly because managers can't schedule accordingly to the needs of the hospital, having interim managers when the location has no primary manager who doesn't seem to have a clue about other staff members competencies leaving experienced technicians to do double the work for the day, having random call outs on packed days because worker's are burnt out, getting travel pay denied by a field director even though you went to go help a different banfield location so nobody had to do surgery alone, getting reminded several times that no one will have overtime approved as it cuts into our field directors and practice manager's bonuses. The most enjoyable parts are my furry friends that I've grown to love and care about and know by name after my 3+ years working there; the pets and the other team members are the only reason I've stayed so long despite everything going on. 

So, many Banfield pet hospitals run the same, 3-6 dentals/surgeries a day plus 20-25 additional drop offs/ appointments in that day (some places are able to get away with less if Drs give push back about how many patients they are pushed to see a day). 
If you're new to the field, you will be able to build up experience very quickly. However, the burn out in VetMed is difficult to navigate as it is, and  corporate does not feel like they care. Your hospital can meet their desired quota that they set for your individual hospital based on the county standards they set, but they will always continue to ask for more. Which is very frustrating, as they continue to want more appointments to be scheduled and push to "sell, sell, sell" but yet preach that it is all about "educating the client." Yet they never consider how much people pay for their plans nor how expensive recommendations can be. 
The standards are pretty good compared to single owner private practices,  but because the company is focused more on quantity vs quality, a lot of mistakes or incompletion of tasks can happen. Many Drs are burned out as they are constantly pushed by their staff to see all the patients that are scheduled in a day. 
If youre trying to receive some sort of training in protocols or even to develop tech skills, it is oftened rushed or you just get thrown in from the get go. If the hospital is not constantly busy, they send people home prematurely, which ends up hurting the hospital as tasks are left unfinished, i.e surgery packs being cleaned and autoclaved, laundry piling up, urine/fecals being left, cleaning being bare minimum and barely any time to restock supplies. 
They constantly compare you to other hospitals and if youre not the hospital that is "doing the best", it just feels like youre not worth the space and keep getting "goals" to meet. 
Work culture can vary, some exp techs that have worked for years simply can show evidently how exhausted they are from being at Banfield for so long. Drs can be very irritable at times due to the amount of pressure they are under. Which is why many talk about leaving or wanting to leave. Which is another big issue, the constant talk from associates wanting to leave or thinking about leaving can be disheartening. 
Management often has very little time to help the front or on the floor due to constant meetings they have to attend. Which begins to be aggravating as it feels that corporate is very much disconnected with how the day goes with all that they ask of the hospital and staff to achieve within a 13-15 hour window . 
Also, they are implementing RVT appointments, which often means that one tech is taken off the floor in order to complete their appoints, but they are also left to work on patients by themselves or wait until someone is available to help them obtain a sample.
Furthermore, the "comprehensive exams" are really not comprehensive from what I have been able to observe. It is not to say Drs are not thorough, but it is evident that notes are copy and pasted due to the short amount of time that can be given per patient. They have also begun implementing comp exams with RVT appts, which defeats the purpose of the RVT appt not needing a Dr to perform their examination as well. 
Sorry if this is a lot and sorry if you disagree with anything that I have written. I am just trying to give my POV of banfield to better help people decide if they really want to apply at any of the hospitals. 

I’ve been working with Banfield for 2 years and I honestly wouldn’t recommend working with this company in any position (except maybe corporate). While some of the issues I’ve had are location dependent, such as with practice management and doctors, this company as a whole drains everything from you. I started as a CSC and have since cross trained as a VA. There is a lot of room to grow and be promoted from within so that is definitely a pro, and I have learned a LOT and gained so much experience from this job that I truly am grateful for. There are also thousands of locations across the country so transferring is fairly easy. The best part about Banfield and frankly the only good thing about them being a corporation is that they provide good benefits, such as decently priced healthcare with dental and vision, 3 wellness plans for pets and huge discounts on additional pet medical care. However, the cons significantly outweigh the pros in my opinion. First, the pay is ridiculously low for what we’re expected to do. This is common across the entire vet med industry but it’s even worse with Banfield. Every worker is expendable and upper management has no reason to give you a livable wage when they can just hire new people who will accept their insulting pay rate. Second, CORPORATE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. This is undoubtedly the worst part about this job. No amount of raises or changes in management will change how exhausting working for this company is. All they care about is money. You can have clients literally threaten to burn down the building (this really happened) but corporate won’t let you fire them as a client because they’re on a wellness plan, and the billion dollar company would lose a couple hundred dollars if they left. We’re also constantly understaffed and overworked, but regardless of staffing we’re told to see more pets than humanly possible because, again, all corporate cares about is numbers. You have people who have never even stepped foot in a pet hospital telling you how “quality medicine” is done, yet they enforce unrealistic standards that ultimately hurt our patients. And they’re not exactly nice about it. I’ve watched every practice manager who has come through get reduced to tears multiple times from the bullying done by upper management for not meeting pet numbers, it’s horrible. Lastly, and because of these other reasons, there is a HIGH turnover rate. I love most of my coworkers and I’m so sick of watching them get completely burnt out until they finally quit. I’m also tired of the constant rotation of new people, it feels like half of the staff is untrained at any given time. Speaking of which, there is no actual training period. You’re just given online modules that you’re expected to complete at work but you don’t actually get any time to do it. You will get thrown straight into everything and all of your “training” is through coworkers taking the time to help out. Overall, there are definitely some pros that have kept me with the company for 2 years and I can’t pretend like it’s been all bad. But I genuinely believe that Banfield brings out the absolute worst in people and it’s not worth your mental well-being to work for a company that cares so little about you or the pets you take care of.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Veterinary assistant 698 salaries reported	$18.27 per hour
Client services coordinator 364 salaries reported	$17.31 per hour
Veterinary technician 198 salaries reported	$23.46 per hour
Veterinarian 67 salaries reported	$120,598 per year
Veterinary receptionist 50 salaries reported	$19.12 per hour

Working at Banfield Pet Hospital: Company Overview and Reviews

Banfield Pet Hospital

Banfield Pet Hospital Ratings

Popular jobs at Banfield Pet Hospital

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected