veterinary technician

veterinarian

veterinary assistant

customer service representative

kennel assistant

Heartland Veterinary Partners

During my time at Carolina Family Vet, I worked under multiple changes in hospital leadership and corporate ownership. The current corporate owner since June of 2022, has consistently made decisions that prioritize profits over patient quality of care, client satisfaction, and employee well being. Hospital leadership is incapable of managing their own clinic, financially and culturally. Hospital leadership is also unprofessional and retaliates against any employee who tries to advocate for patient care or employee satisfaction. This has led me to feeling targeted by local leadership and from corporate management in my time at this hospital. There is no transparency or effective communication here, just a “do what I say and don’t talk back” mindset. The Chief of Staff/Lead DVM actively avoids all conflict in the hospital until it reaches a boiling point and then only echoes the stance of the Hospital Manager. The Chief of Staff is unwilling to act as a leader in their own hospital and is hard to approach as they do not try to relate to their team at all. The Hospital Manager is unable to interact with their employees in a professional manner and constantly makes inappropriate jokes and statements about employees. The decisions and statements handed down from management and hospital leadership are inconsistent and hospital leadership has been caught in their own lies many times. The overall message pushed into employees here is that no matter how hard you work it is never good enough. There are no training protocols in place here and employees are not given the education, resources, or skills needed to do their jobs. Pay is barely livable and raises are not easily earned or offered despite the constant price increases on services and medications.

Where to start?
It's really a shame that so many great vet practices are getting bought up and ruined by Heartland Vet Partners. 
There's no action from management, no one taking responsibility, and the chain of command changes every week.
 It's frustrating. 
We’re supposed to contact managers and supervisors for anything and everything. But they are rarely in the office. This leads to a number of emails, Teams messages, meetings and discussions that serve only to fill out necessary forms. 
There’s absolutely no accountability for employees who need correction, and the middle managers are just as bad. 
Upper management has made it abundantly clear that they don’t care about their employees, clients or the welfare of the animals.
There is one focus- MONEY.
This corporation was supposed to help us find all sorts of new employees but has only succeeded in running off some great members of staff.
Trying to reach out to management to fix issues just ends up leading to retaliation and even worse treatment. 
There is also NO pay scale or scheduled raises. I haven’t received a pay increase in over 3 years. There are licensed techs making minimum wage. 

Scheduling is a nightmare and I have personally been told that I should “be available at all times.”  I was scheduled with less than 5 hours between shifts.

There was recently a survey done and 98% of employees responded with. “No they did not enjoy coming to work.” 

Vets, vet techs, kennel techs, 
and assistants- RUN! 
This place is like quicksand.

-Heartland is really a solid corporate partner. They (for the most part) allow you to manage your clinic as you choose. 
-Typical day- The workday is very much what you would expect. There are a few reports and some payroll items to enter daily. 
-Learned/ educational- Heartland has a really impressive collection of educational opportunities. For example our clinic was having a hard time managing our COS, so they brought in an expert to help educate me and my team. 
-Management- Corporate management is a mixed bag. I have had RDO's that were AMAZING, and I have had an RDO that was not. Company leadership is fantastic.
-The workplace culture-  Culture is created by local management- if it is good, pat yourself on the back- if it is bad, fix it.
-The hardest part-  Managing budgets. However, this is the case with most management roles.
At the end of the day we are a business. And your role is to manage the business in a manner that is profitable, yet respectful of your staff and your clients. Heartland will provide you with plenty of tools to help, but you have to choose to use them.


What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of this job is being around animals and the owners who love and value those animals.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
One of the most challenging aspects of the role is navigating workplace dynamics, particularly when the environment  feels cliquey. This can make it harder to build strong, collaborative relationships across the team.
Additionally, inconsistent or limited training from other employees can create confusion and slow down progress, especially when expectations aren’t clearly communicated.
Lastly, it can feel discouraging when there isn’t a clear or attainable path to growth or success within the company, which can impact motivation and long-term engagement.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The workplace is cliquey and not very welcoming to new employees. Training is inconsistent and often inadequate, leaving people to figure things out on their own. There’s also little real opportunity for growth, making it hard to see a future with the company.

Support staff are lovely and very hard working but extremely overworked and underpaid.  Management is useless. Has no clue what is going on at the clinic aside from what they want to be done which usually is the exact opposite of what the clinic needs it’s completely fine for them to screw everything up and never take responsibility but if any other staff member makes even the tiniest of mistakes, it is the end of the world. Management also thinks that their word is the final word. I have personally witnessed the practice manager, absolutely tear down CSR and kennel support staff in front of clients and some staff have been retaliated against for reporting events. Oh, if you want to celebrate tech week, you better do it at your own expense because corporate‘s only going to send you a box of the candy No one wants to eat, and the practice manager isn’t going to do anything except cater a mediocre lunch last minute.

What is the best part of working at the company?
They have the resources to support veterinary teams behind the scenes. They have more resources than private clinics. And better benefits. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
We’ve had a lot of changes over the past 2 years and that’s been stressful for the whole team. I think it’s all for the good but it’s been a lot and sometimes communication about those changes hasn’t been good for the whole team (more of a need to know which is fine but sometimes people want to know more than they need). 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There’s a big focus on serving our clients which is great. I do wish there was a little more appreciation for the whole team. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
We are busy. Seeing appointments, doing surgeries and helping clients with their pet needs. We work together as a team to get the job done.

You do not matter to this company unless you are the medical director or the practice manager. If you already are a credentialed veterinary technician there is not much further you can go as there isn't really additional advanced training available. The 401k match is laughable for such a large corporation. But, I guess 1% is something  right?  No matter how hard you work or what you bring to the hospital you work for in this corporation expect the same raise percentage across the board. It all depends on what is budgeted for your hospital. That is understandable, but expect the same percentage as some one who calls out weekly even if you have been given more responsibilities. While the treatment plans and patient care of your actual hospital may not change, the worth , value, and recognition of  the staff that are exceptional in their rolls seem to have little to no impact on your merit increase that is offered in your reviews.

starting out it seemed to be a great job friendly people but you quickly learn that is not the case the clinic is micro managed and the big issues are brushed off and they focus on the minor we as employees actually got told that we were not allowed to have a group chat or talk outside of work we were told that we weren't allowed to talk while working as if you would think they would want their employees to get along the management favored only those who benefit her, and everyone else was treated differently which is very sad there were some great people working there that I felt should of gotten raises but we were not fought for we were lied to on multiple occasions about things we were going to get like jackets for everyone, or raises or bonuses it never happened I would not rec. to anyone that wants to eventually go somewhere in their career the Practice manager actually told us all that we would not get a raise until she herself got one. 

I loved working in the vet field but the managers were enough to make me leave. Made me feel like he cared about me as an employee and my advancement but then left me with empty promises of bonus or raise and then hoped i would forget. The other manager was hardly ever there making it very understaffed and stressful at times and no matter the problems, i felt like nothing was ever taken seriously unless you went to the head doctor. The environment was very toxic making me feel very uncomfortable every day. My only positive was working with the head dr. She made me feel valued. Everyone there seemed like they were hanging on by a thread of hope that things would change. Pay is not great. You are able to get off most of the time for things you need but management made me feel horrible the two times I called in sick while I worked there. Favoritism runs very deep.

What is the best part of working at the company?
At the wentzville location, the building was new and clean, great facilities for the pets

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Feeling like I did not have adequate training to perform certain tasks that were detrimental to patient health

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
As a veterinary technician it did not feel like the work was divided equally among the team, and little was done by management to correct this issue. During interviews they said they did annual raises, but I never received one and to my knowledge nobody else did either. It felt like management backtracked on a lot of things at the expense of the techs and client/patient care. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
10 hour shift typically including sporadic appointments, occasional surgeries and mundane tasks like cleaning

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Veterinary technician 1142 salaries reported	$20.24 per hour
Veterinarian 1317 salaries reported	$121,162 per year
Veterinary assistant 1105 salaries reported	$16.41 per hour
Customer service representative 862 salaries reported	$15.98 per hour
Kennel assistant 293 salaries reported	$13.47 per hour

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