animal caretaker

PAWS Chicago

Initially, PAWS appears to be a wonderful place to work, drawing you in with the appeal of adorable kittens and puppies. However, as a caregiver, you quickly realize that your hard work and dedication are undervalued. Management is disorganized, and you may find yourself wrongly accused of not fulfilling your duties while being expected to do far more than your pay justifies. Overtime is prohibited but you always leave past your scheduled time, assistance is scarce, and there is virtually no opportunity for advancement if you voice concerns.

I observed new hires receiving more opportunities than long-term employees, and I'm unsure if this was due to my disability, gender, or lack of higher education. Regardless, I felt targeted and constantly scrutinized. Despite my commitment—even using my own money to buy treats for the animals because PAWS frequently lacks basic supplies—the environment remained disheartening. The organization often runs short on food and essential items for both staff and animals.

The idealized image of PAWS is far from reality. Upper management seems primarily focused on financial gain and impressing wealthy donors, with little regard for the caretakers' well-being. If you don't stay silent and "fall in line," you risk becoming a target. This disconnect between the organization's public image and its internal practices makes it a challenging place to work.

- Senior leadership turns over every year or so. The founder finds someone she likes to put in charge, then this person realizes the founder flip flops ideas daily, asks for unreasonable time commitments, criticizes you every step you take toward a goal and is downright hateful to some employees. Then this person in a chief capacity steps down or leaves because there's no hope for them to make a difference.
- You work all year toward a goal. There are "numbers" to hit in every department. Everyone works toward these goals all year and at the end of the year there is no thanks, no praise- maybe an email saying "good job, now next year we'll do it better". It's exhausting.
- Everyone talks behind everyone's back. Before I left, my boss spoke poorly about the founder, about my coworkers, about directors across the organization- so I know they were doing the same behind my back. No one is safe and no one is looking out for you. It's truly every person for themselves.
- There is no work life balance at PAWS. If you are out of town for the weekend and take a vacation day, expect to be bombared with calls/texts regarding work from upper management. If you have a child, expect to be chastised if you have to leave at your scheduled end time.

Employees only receive 3 paid holidays, limited time at the winter holidays to even take off, no work from home benefits, are forced to work in deplorable conditions including excessive heat or below zero temperatures and at times, no working heat or water in the building. 

The organizations continues to hire outside of the existing candidate pool, but never allow for leadership to have any decision making authority. 

Confidential information regarding fellow employees performance is constantly disclosed to teammates creating an adverse work morale.

Employees are discouraged from any networking or team building activity which only damages office culture further. 


Mid-year reviews and annual performance reviews are often delayed or skipped all together. 

The organization has no hierarchy or advancement for growth which results in a high turnover of employees. Employees are never given any sort of direction, training, goals or expectations to succeed in the role in which tey were hired.

As a Database and Administrative Assistant at PAWS Chicago, I ensure that the day-to-day operations of the office run smoothly. I answer the main phone line, and help individuals with many needs, ranging from taking donations to helping individuals with animal behavior advice. I answer inquiries about the No-Kill movement, and PAWS Chicago. I also handle matching donations from corporations, reconcile all credit card transactions processed, and input donations into our Raiser's Edge Database.

I also oversee PAWS Chicago's Tribute Card program - I take tribute donation information, and send cards as requested. I send donors acknowledgments, and thank them for their support of our cause and organization. I also monitor donations, sending thank-you cards to those who requested donations in lieu gifts, or in memorandum of loved ones in lieu of flowers.

I ensure that potential and current donors feel appreciated for supporting PAWS, and help understand more about the No-Kill movement.

Volunteering can be very rewarding at PAWS Chicago. As a volunteer you can remain ignorant of the constant  push to bring more animals into the system (many from out of state). If there is sickness animals will be stuffed in crates, with 4-5 dogs in a 6×6 room. They are stuck in there all day because they are infectious and the only attention they get is from the caregiver cleaning the mess or the tech that gives their meds. 

When this happens consistently it is a real moral buster. There is very little appreciation or compensation for working to make the dogs and cats lives better. Training is poor and while there are many in management there is no one observing who is getting actual work done. You can be lazy and work here if you stay on management's good side. If you work hard, don't expect much in return, I'm the end you are there for the animals anyway.

I really enjoyed my internship. I got to showcase my animal handling skills and work ethic from being a pre-vet student with some experience under my belt, and also learn the intake process and how to do SAFER tests. Everything is easy to pick up, they have a whole book filled with instructions for interns to read if they’re stuck. My manager was also always happy to help. Half of the job is a lot of administrative work. Lots and lots of paperwork, but gave me a lot of exposure to the world of shelter medicine. Some days are slow when there’s no appointments or transports, so you could be doing little errands like cleaning vans or organizing. Only negative is that the employees seem jaded at times. Also impossible to reach people you work with after internship is done if you want a reference/LOR.

I'm not sure if it's cuz I was one of the few black people that worked there or what but I was talked down to, disrespected, the girl A treated me like I was an idiot with no feelings. She should have been fired. The managers are supposed to be leaders and never helped me. I was yelled at or talked down to if I did something wrong. I was not trained properly. Literally everywhere you went I heard someone gossiping about somebody loudly. All the time. I was depressed going into work everyday. The only thing I enjoyed was walking the dogs. Cleaning the cages stressed me out because I wasn't trained properly and if I did something wrong, I would be mistreated. The hours were very sparse. This is not a job you get to pay your bills or at all since it's such a toxic environment. The animals got more respect than me as a human being. 

Getting to work with animals everyday is a definite pro. Coworkers are great, it’s nice to work alongside people who care for the well-being of our animals. 

Less enjoyable is upper management. Simple decisions are overcomplicated by workplace politics. The environment takes a toll. There’s a constant air of discontent caused by the uncomfortable positions employees are put in. It is a shame that people in higher positions demand so much while not understanding the work we put in. There is an obvious disconnect between expectations and what is physically possible. Employees are pushed to their limits to meet unrealistic expectations all while upper management has no experience or understanding of what they are demanding.

I care so much about the animals and truly care about helping them, but the job makes it hard to look forward to the day. We are somehow constantly understaffed (even when they keep hiring new people?) unless we have volunteers to help out. They will schedule you for long and exhausting days on a weird schedule. They will also assign you more work than you can get done in the time you were scheduled to work. People higher up who sit in offices all day like to nitpick the quality of our work when we're understaffed or make decisions that lead to us being overworked. It's hard to not feel guilty because you're trying to do something important and save animals lives, but it's very hard to not feel burnt out and dread the day ahead

A very rewarding job with very few perks. The organization is numbers driven, which is not always in the best interests of the animals, and can be frustrating to staff. There is an extensive upper management that has little to know idea of what the caregivers actually do day to day. The rate of pay does not reflect the work put out, I enjoyed leading my team but it is hard to always be fighting for the "little guy". Much of the staff wishes we could spend more one on one time with the animals, but that is more left to volunteers.

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