Vet Stress!
My Very Worst Job was as a receptionist at an animal hospital. The manager used to be a vet tech and obviously didn’t have very much in the ways of training for a manager. She was pretty flaky and didn’t like to answer her messages. To top it all off, she went on maternity leave and somehow got away with not having to get a replacement while she was away.
Many of the other employees brought their pets to work and put them in the runs in the back. Two of the receptionist had Great Danes and would keep them in the reception office. After one of these receptionists left and the other went on maternity leave, I decided to bring my dog to work. There was a lot of construction going on in my building and it was stressing him out. I was told that my dog couldn’t be in reception even though Great Danes had been. When asked if these rules would be changing after the other receptionist came back, the manager said they would reevaluate the rules when she returned! And then she wrote me up for being “difficult.” A lot of other things happened too but I’m not writing a novel here.
In the end, they fired me because “I didn’t seem happy lately at work.” Why wasn’t I happy? A week to the day of my firing, I had to put down the horse that I’d had for 17 years. So yeah, I wasn’t very happy. And I had asked the other receptionists if they could please do the ‘put to sleep’ forms for customers that week since I didn’t think I would be able to handle it.
I found out later that she told the labour board she had fired me due to not getting along with the manager (i.e. her). Why? Well, my personal opinion is that it was because while she was on maternity leave, I ended up doing a fair bit of her job and she was afraid that I was going to take her job. Which I wasn’t. Zeech.
The management seems a little off, but I don’t know that the job sounds all THAT bad. I think everyone has had a job where they didn’t get along with coworkers.
Als0, I don’t think it is the employee’s responsibility to find a replacement for herself so she can take leave to have a child. It sounds like you had and attitude because she took maternity leave. Maybe it is just written that way.
I would think a manager would need to find a replacement for the person going on maternity leave. Since it was the manager herself going on maternity she needed to find herself a replacement…who was it up to, the OP to find a manager’s replacement? There was another person in the story on maternity leave as well.
What I don’t understand is that, if your dog was stressed out due to construction it seems like that’s the reason he wasn’t welcome – not that they just didn’t like you. What was he doing that made them tell you not to bring him? Barking incessantly? Pooping? Whining? Pacing? If he was stressing out the other animals then why would they want him there?
I too think that we’re getting a highly subjective account of the situation– it sounds as if something about your dog’s behavior made it necessary for them to ban your bringing him to work (actually, I’m not sure if they even went so far as to ban him— perhaps they only requested that he NOT be kept in reception?). If that were the case, why wouldn’t you recognize it as such instead of feeling all slighted that the other receptionists were allowed to keep their presumably well-behaved dogs in reception? Are you an adult, or a sulky child?
You don’t deny that you “didn’t seem happy at work” (the ostensible reason you were fired), you only offer what you’ believe to be an unassailable excuse– your horse.
My last cat went through a long unpleasant illness and I eventually had to make a heart-breaking appointment to euthanize, but that doesn’t give me (or anyone) just cause to behave badly at work. Coupled with the mention of your refusal to handle “put to sleep forms”, it sounds as if you were being self-indulgent in the extreme.
This reads more like irrational-rationalizations-for-being-fired story, than it does a ‘worst job’ story.
(Maybe a fourth site is in order– My Very Worst Employee. )
a couple of years ago i went over to a local animal hospital because they were looking for a receptionist…I love animals, but when I went there i realized it was just basically dealing with neurotic owners of tiny rat dogs. No thanks.
Lisa – love the idea of the MVW Employee.
Tronner: Yeah— as a group, employers tend to be more virtuous than employees, don’t you think?
There are some spectacular outliers, but yeah, employers put up with a lot from people.
OK, i think things came off wrong in my story…seems like the shortened it or something from what orinaly wrote. I brought my dog to work because my apartment was under construction (not the job). While at work he was fine (no accidents, barking or behavior issues).
Also, the reason why I requested not to do the PTS forms (going into the pts room with crying pet owners to get payment and legal forms signed). I didn’t think I could be all that profecional about it temporarily. I normaly did the majority of the PTS customers, but just didn’t’ think it was a good idea for a week or so.
Two people went on maturnity. Reception and the manager. The manager asked that the hospital not hire someone to replace her while she was gone. That left a lot of work that needed to be done and no idea who was supposed to do what.
I do not think I was a bad employee. I did like a lot of parts with that job, just not the managment and owner.
OP, I don’t know what the labour laws in Canada are like, but in the US if your employer gave you a written or verbal statement for why you were being fired, and then gave the Labour Dept. a DIFFERENT reason on paper then the employer is going to be in a world of hurt. Especially if you are claiming/going to claim some form of unemployment.
Yeah I did claim EI. And yeah, I had a long chat with the labour board. I think they ended up in some trouble.
Sorry, but I think I’m more irritated by Lisa’s comments than the OP’s story.
Lisa – it sounds like you’re reading WAY more into this story than is necessary. I don’t think it sounded like there was anything wrong with her dog; even if he was parking or pooping, they could have kept it out in the runs like others. It sounded more like the dog was stressed over the construction but fine at the office and the manager was just being preferential to the other employees.
I also don’t think it was too much to ask AT ALL to not do the “put to sleep” paperwork for a week or so after putting down and animal that you have had for 17 years. I’m sorry but I wouldn’t even be able to function if I had to go through that, let alone go to work, and deal with other people that are also having to have their animals put down. To me, most people would be FINE allowing their employees an out from that (I mean, it’s not like she was asking for the week off from work entirely).
This just sounds like a woman being catty…