I have been with petsmart all my adult life; sure, ive volunteered for like a few saturdays at a pet adoption center for a highschool project, but my first and only job starting at 18 was petsmart as a dog bather. After some time getting to know the dogs, people and the job, i was decent and even felt for awhile that my salon crew was like a second family to me. Over the years people left and left and things comtinued to change. And after 3 years, we received a new groomer from another state who was new to petsmart. She definitely did not give off a welcoming vibe and kept to herself. As time went on, we noticed she was NOT a teamplayer and was very much only the team of "me myself and i." She decided to only work at our "7th table in the back" (in the lobby where we checkin dogs, we have a gate to the grooming where there are 6 tables, and a seventh behind a door that goes to the kennel area, and then to the drying tables/and bathing area. ) she would move the 7th table, which was right behind the swinging door, more in front of the door to where anyone and everyone would have to squeeze past her, and prevent the door from moving both ways.
She is part of the reason my bestfriend quit day of; but that is (kind of)another story. She always had kind of an attitude, but i kind of felt like i knew how to deal with it and tried to be her friend anyway, just never took her too serious. And i would say, we were friends for a bit, i even took her to a manmade beach near us before, just us to hangout. I thought we were good. Until a random day, where i was complaining about a client i checked in where the vibes were just off, and she started immediately with, "see, this is why i dont like you-" and it really did hurt me. I thought we were good and something as simple as complaining about clients, a daily thing for us i feel- set her off? After that i really did go into my head a lot, and overthought many many things. Being mean to myself and getting more depressed by the day, just cause of her. I hate that i let her do that to me; but i became mentally ill. I knew how my bestfriend felt about her was obvious at this point, and i did not want anything to do with this groomer anymore if possible. Like, i felt like if she caught me looking at her, it would be an immediate problem. I acted like she was barely there; i stopped doing things i didnt have to do for her- like cleaning her kennels, too, before leaving for the day. As time went on i realized more and more of who she was/is. I believe she is an energy vampire, and is a miserable person who revels in other peoples misery (that she causes). It feels like psychological warfare with her. I even had a very close friend tell my bestfriend about a time when this groomer and close friend went downtown, and groomer decided to steal a to-be brides phone that was unsupervised and chuck it into the street for kicks. Thats appalling. To even be mean to a stranger you dont even know?
While this groomer would constantly tell any and all of us about how we're 'such bitches' but SHE is and always will be the bitch. She tries to turn the narrative..
She finally transfers to another location- and omg is it great without her; until the grass for her, was not, greener on the other side and wanted to transfer back. Other than so many groomers being against this, our managers decided 'we cant turn down the money' and welcomed her back as front table only. (The 7th table was removed) she ofc, as i knew, was being good for a certain amount of time, before she returned to being, who she is. Ive been working with her for about, eta,6 years before she comes back, so i know who she is and her phases. I am not one of the groomers who wanted her to be front table, i just want her to be a teamplayer. But she blamed everyone for putting her in this postion, i know, bc anytime i needed the computer behind her, she would not move out of the way and for you- would turn the computer and keyboard toward you. Making it, weird to use at this angle. And even if youd scoot farther in, or when she wasnt on that side, she would end up there and elbow you and half heartedly be like "oh, sorry. Sorry. Im just trying to work" 🙄 i learned later i was not the only one experiencing this. One time i had to speak up bc ita just so irritating. I mentioned, hey YOU are the one at the front so 🤷♀️ and she wanted to begin to complain that WE wanted this- like ,no this was all you for one, second i definitely didnt ask for this. But she didnt finish. She shut up. Mind you- any simple question you ask her, that only needs a simple answer- results in a smart alike answer. I try my best to just avoid her unless absolutely necessary. Time scrolls on until her table breaks, and she cant work front table, even after gaining another table she is allowed to stay in the back of the salon, which as front table myself, im fine with, i really don't want her as my table sister. More of a problem, is also that she keeps both headphones in to ignore all of us, to where we either have to ACTUALLY yell at her or someone get close enough to get her attention; bc yelling at her usually didnt even work, while trying to tell her things that actually involve her(her dogs picking up, or have come to checkin) things have been okay since she wants to, according to a certain manager, be invisible. Im not sure how thats allowed seeing as this is supposed to be a team environment, but whatever. Ive mentioned to mgmt how, idk how she is supposed to stay invisible when she continues to mutter under her breath things to all of us that arent necessary. Many coworkers have compained about her, to no avail. Some have left because of her, and now i am one of them- soon.(as only a major PART of the problem with this store, i have other concerns and complaints) Recently, i have became very close with a male coworker there in the salon, and we do have contact, i.e. hugging and staying close, headpats, etc. I knew it was allowed to have relations as long as it wasnt a manager/underling relationship. I tried not to be too personal with him, as this was indeed our workplace, and i wanted to keep somewhat professional. Well, move forward some, and this groomer i have issues with, (who wears a mask the whole time there) begins to - anytime we pass each other- say "ew" . I just act like i don't hear her and move on. Well, i end up in the office about a formal complaint about someone being "uncomfortable " with me and male coworker showing this pda, and itd be under 'investigation' i think they also wanted to make sure it wasnt like, assault, but i was okay with it all and did not write a statement about it. This male coworker was already wanting to leave and has found another place; since this came about, he decided then was a good time to tell them, he will be leaving in a month. I also want to leave, but just transfer. I decided where i wanted to transfer to; just to be told that after this complaint i was technically on a probation period and would not be allowed to transfer for 6 months, even tho the male coworker is leaving. I am like 85 -95% sure this groomer ive been complaining about is probably the complainer to me and this male coworker. Idk why she has it out for me so bad. She got onto me once, about me closing the bathing area bc 'she' wasnt done. As if me taking the trash really impacted her bathing one more dog, and cleaning/breaking down the force dryers was such a big deal, as if she doesnt have her own hands to replace trash bags or put in new dryer filters- or just use it without a filter on literally only one or two dogs. (Mind you she was supposed to be closing like at 8, and other than her, it was me getting off at like 630 ,or earlier if i was done earlier)and i wanted to do my part, of closing cleaning bc it wouldnt be fair to make her do it all? And the fact of it is, if i didnt clean i would be in trouble with mgmt.
Here recently, i noticed last week, her phone flashlight was on strobe. And it was down, for everyone to continue seeing this annoying light constantly. Whatever. Next day? Still happening, and in a position even more annoying. My thought? Was that she was doing this on purpose to cause my male coworker a seizure, bc he is prone to them. Bc why else would this happen? There is no reason. I only noticed it those two days, but my male corowker mentioned it had been about 3 weeks, idk how true that is, but he did mention it didnt go fast enough to trigger him. Still, i complained to a manager about it, being a safety issue, not only for that coworker but ANY client with epilepsy, or any dog with light triggers. She only tried to tell her once to turn it off, in which case she didnt- just told her "ill get to it" and it remained on the entire rest of the day. Today, i had another coworker also mention it, and also mention how she thinks she does it bc she wants to cause male coworker a seizure. She also mentioned, even without epilepsy, that it makes her dizzy. Today is the day i was told i couldnt transfer and i rementioned, this time, to the store leader, about coworkers strobe light. Anyway, i received papers highlighting things that i should stay in line of and a signature saying i will align with petsmarts rules and regulations, bla bla, i read them and it really seemed to have nothing to say about what me and male coworker, two consenting adults, was wrong. It seemed to seriously not apply to the situation, whatever- ill sign it. Even mentioning why i even wanted to transfer, mainly about this coworker, i was met with straight faces. Saying anything i said about the coworker, without 'dates/timestamps' of certain things happening it was just heresay. I didnt even come to get her in trouble - i was just asked why i wanted to leave and i gave my reason. I was so taken aback that it didnt seem to matter how i felt- i even had started crying. And i told them if i cant transfer, that ill need to put my two weeks in soon, bc i cant do this anymore, im becoming mentally ill. With just a cold face he asked me for dates; and i told him idk, i obviously need to look around first.
I just hate that ive spent close to 10 years with this company and i feel like im just trash. Not ONCE that i can remember have i ever even gotten employee of the month tho i work my ass off for them, and help others continuously just wearing myself out, and for what? No appreciation or anything. I didnt want to leave because of the benefits of sick day/vacation pay, 401k, and insurance. But im finally done and over it. Im willing to go make less for my mental health at this point.
Something i forgot to mention is that managers will take blocks off your dogs, even if theyre big, so you can get another booking. But then i see, this groomer, put blocks on even small dogs and continuously get away with it, even tho she is allowed to do 4 day, 10 hour days, which is supposed to equivalate to more dogs, but shes been doing LESS dogs; and i realized, she even books herself dogs she knows arent going to show up(like a request she has was just in last week and its back on the books) and just miraculously 'no call no shows// cancels'
Okay, i think rant is over, ive tried my best to shorten this as much as i can, but getting my point across. Enjoy.