Real Life Ethics Question

[ANY2003]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi Everyone. I need some advice. This is a VERY long post. I'm sorry.
So I used to work as a veterinary assistant for a corporate veterinary chain. I left because I felt as though management was treating me unfairly and the working environment was one of fear and constant confrontation. The veterinarians, other vet assistants, and front staff were absolutely AMAZING people and co-workers. However, I believe that the hospital manager and lead vet tech acted unethically and unprofessionally. I'll tell you a little bit about the situation:
I was hired for minimum wage, despite having 9 months of veterinary assisting experience. I was supposed to get an extra dollar an hour for having my degree (corporate policy), but didn't. I has hired as what was essentially a kennel attendant, even though I was doing to duties of a vet assistant. In fact, if you compared the two job descriptions, I was definitely, no questions asked, performing the duties of a vet assistant. I was doing rooms, drawing blood, placing catheters, administering treatment, discharging surgery, etc. The vet assistant position automatically makes $2/hr more than the kennel attendant position. After I had been at this position for about 9 months, the hospital manager hired a new vet assistant with ZERO prior experience, ZERO education (minus a high school diploma), ZERO training, and ZERO relevant job experience. Her name tag at work indicated the same position as me - kennel attendant. HOWEVER, we had a printout of everyone's name, position, and "production" for that pay period posted on our bulletin board. On it, the other girl's position was listed as "veterinary assistant." When I asked her privately about it, I found out she was making $2 more an hour than me. So my manager gave her a kennel attendant name tag, despite her actual title being a veterinary assistant, so I wouldn't make a fuss about having someone with less experience than me getting paid more. I believe the reason she did this was because she knew I would do anything to get into vet school, including working for minimum wage. When I approached her about changing my title to what my duties actually reflected, she said, "not until you are trained on surgical monitoring" - despite this being mentioned NO WHERE in the requirements of the difference between a kennel attendant and vet assistant.
There were other things, too. According to corporate policy, one person should be monitoring anesthesia while another person performs the procedure. I was often left in the treatment room BY MY SELF performing both the dental cleaning and monitoring anesthesia at the same time - and only after about 1 month of training. I thought this to be unsafe, as I can't fully dedicate myself to monitoring vital signs when I'm looking at the teeth I'm cleaning. The hospital manager refused to pay for having another person on staff to monitor.
She would also adjust our time punches if we went overtime. So if we went overtime, she put the extra time on the next day's time punch. She claimed she gave us time and a half, just on the next day. I'm not sure if she did. Even if we still got paid the same amount, this seems illegal? As a manager, she got penalized for having overtime hours racked up.
She would often get our schedules out to us as late as 7pm on Saturday...for the next day Sunday, shifts starting at 8am.
The hospital manager and lead tech would often be late to shifts (or forget to show up on a couple occasions), then ask us why we were behind schedule. One of the biggest reasons I left was because of the way they treated employees. They would constantly berate and belittle us in front of coworkers. Many times I asked them to have private conversations with me instead of embarrassing me publicly, but they never listened. I tried to have talks with them, saying that they aren't being constructive and they always tell us we are doing it wrong without showing us the right way. Still nothing. They made 4 employees CRY, including a DOCTOR. THEY MADE A DOCTOR CRY THEY BELITTLED HER SO MUCH!! I ultimately left because I felt bullied in the workplace, although I was not alone. I know I'm not being overly sensitive, because I saw other people crying and 80% of the staff was actively looking for another job because of the way they were treated on a daily basis.
The reason I never reported her was because I was in the middle of vet school applications and didn't want it to somehow come back and haunt me. I'm not sure how exactly it would, but I didn't want to take any chances. Now that the process is almost finished, I'm wondering if I should report their behavior? Would you? It's been several months since I've worked there. However, I still feel like the manager's taking advantage of people and breaking anesthesia protocol should not go unnoticed. Should I let it go?

 

[krist]

Hi Everyone. I need some advice. This is a VERY long post. I'm sorry.
So I used to work as a veterinary assistant for a corporate veterinary chain. I left because I felt as though management was treating me unfairly and the working environment was one of fear and constant confrontation. The veterinarians, other vet assistants, and front staff were absolutely AMAZING people and co-workers. However, I believe that the hospital manager and lead vet tech acted unethically and unprofessionally. I'll tell you a little bit about the situation:
I was hired for minimum wage, despite having 9 months of veterinary assisting experience. I was supposed to get an extra dollar an hour for having my degree (corporate policy), but didn't. I has hired as what was essentially a kennel attendant, even though I was doing to duties of a vet assistant. In fact, if you compared the two job descriptions, I was definitely, no questions asked, performing the duties of a vet assistant. I was doing rooms, drawing blood, placing catheters, administering treatment, discharging surgery, etc. The vet assistant position automatically makes $2/hr more than the kennel attendant position. After I had been at this position for about 9 months, the hospital manager hired a new vet assistant with ZERO prior experience, ZERO education (minus a high school diploma), ZERO training, and ZERO relevant job experience. Her name tag at work indicated the same position as me - kennel attendant. HOWEVER, we had a printout of everyone's name, position, and "production" for that pay period posted on our bulletin board. On it, the other girl's position was listed as "veterinary assistant." When I asked her privately about it, I found out she was making $2 more an hour than me. So my manager gave her a kennel attendant name tag, despite her actual title being a veterinary assistant, so I wouldn't make a fuss about having someone with less experience than me getting paid more. I believe the reason she did this was because she knew I would do anything to get into vet school, including working for minimum wage. When I approached her about changing my title to what my duties actually reflected, she said, "not until you are trained on surgical monitoring" - despite this being mentioned NO WHERE in the requirements of the difference between a kennel attendant and vet assistant.
There were other things, too. According to corporate policy, one person should be monitoring anesthesia while another person performs the procedure. I was often left in the treatment room BY MY SELF performing both the dental cleaning and monitoring anesthesia at the same time - and only after about 1 month of training. I thought this to be unsafe, as I can't fully dedicate myself to monitoring vital signs when I'm looking at the teeth I'm cleaning. The hospital manager refused to pay for having another person on staff to monitor.
She would also adjust our time punches if we went overtime. So if we went overtime, she put the extra time on the next day's time punch. She claimed she gave us time and a half, just on the next day. I'm not sure if she did. Even if we still got paid the same amount, this seems illegal? As a manager, she got penalized for having overtime hours racked up.
She would often get our schedules out to us as late as 7pm on Saturday...for the next day Sunday, shifts starting at 8am.
The hospital manager and lead tech would often be late to shifts (or forget to show up on a couple occasions), then ask us why we were behind schedule. One of the biggest reasons I left was because of the way they treated employees. They would constantly berate and belittle us in front of coworkers. Many times I asked them to have private conversations with me instead of embarrassing me publicly, but they never listened. I tried to have talks with them, saying that they aren't being constructive and they always tell us we are doing it wrong without showing us the right way. Still nothing. They made 4 employees CRY, including a DOCTOR. THEY MADE A DOCTOR CRY THEY BELITTLED HER SO MUCH!! I ultimately left because I felt bullied in the workplace, although I was not alone. I know I'm not being overly sensitive, because I saw other people crying and 80% of the staff was actively looking for another job because of the way they were treated on a daily basis.
The reason I never reported her was because I was in the middle of vet school applications and didn't want it to somehow come back and haunt me. I'm not sure how exactly it would, but I didn't want to take any chances. Now that the process is almost finished, I'm wondering if I should report their behavior? Would you? It's been several months since I've worked there. However, I still feel like the manager's taking advantage of people and breaking anesthesia protocol should not go unnoticed. Should I let it go?

Who are you thinking of reporting to? Corporate I guess? Because legally they only thing they may be doing wrong is not paying time and a half for overtime, that is LEGALLY required. Other than that it just sounds like they are being kinda crappy, but to be honest nothing we don't deal with at our clinic regularly, but I am also trying (hard) to find another job because I don't like it (although I LOVE the people I work with). Since you work for a corporate chain it is probably different than at our clinic, so maybe reporting them to someone higher up may be effective? But unfortunately they aren't doing anything illegal, just unethically, which I think you will find a LOT of places, I could write for days on things I hate about the practice I work at that are similar to your stories. We have people crying at our place on a regular basis, definitely including the doctors.

 

[lailanni]

I'm not sure where it'd get reported to, but it's something that should be addressed.

I have seen many practices where the tech runs both anesthesia and the dental with no issue - but I do agree it'd be better to have a dedicated anesthesia person, especially if you're not comfortable with it. Things can go wrong fast in anesthesia and it's important to have someone around who can confidently tend to an anesthetic crisis.

From a business standpoint, it definitely seems shifty. Especially manipulating time punches. That's a huge no-no where I've been.

And belittling people enough to make them cry? Sheesh. That's not a healthy workplace environment. Someone needs to be called out on that.

As Krist mentions, I'm not sure anything is technically illegal (except the payment issue) but if there's someway to report it that may be helpful for future and current employees.

 

[Zusie]

I think that you are getting taken advantage of because they know they can (since you want the experience on your app). I was a kennel attendant and I think paid the lowest of anyone but did a lot of assisting (not nearly as much as you, though). But I'd also told them up front I was only staying there for a year one way or the other.

I really don't know how you handle that.

 

[RadRadTerp]

It's tough because you wanted to get the job, but sometimes I've wondered whether I should have gotten something on paper before starting jobs. For one job, I was promised a pay raise when I started and it never came. I kept asking for my yearly review, which would have brought me the raise, but kept being ignored. Eventually, I got into school and forgot about it, but if there was some tactful way to get a promise in writing, I would have felt more comfortable being more assertive.

(Political side note: Workers have little to no recourse in "at-will" situations in the US and I think the decline of workers' empowerment over the past few decades is a sad shame./end rant)

 

[Tense]

I work in an NVA clinic, and in sort of similar situation. The manager doesn't belittle us, but it seems like she is trying to push us all out and hire people she has worked with at other clinics. One of my co-workers got through to human resources and left a complaint, and they did send somebody out. It hasn't made any difference for us, but I hope something can help you. Their system is anonymous, and hopefully yours is too.
On a side note, I am now searching for another job, and if successful will be the 3rd employee who has been there for 6 years or more to leave in the last month. The only reason the last long-term employee hasn't left is because she will have hit 20 years in July, and she wants to wait to retire until then. It's been really sad to see a place I've been at so long, and people who have been good friends, leave the job because of 2 other employees.

 

[Tco87]

If I were in your situation, I would report them to whoever is up the corporate ladder for the clinic manager. Even if nothing comes from it, at least you did something and you'll know that you tried.
The overtime thing is definitely illegal. Belittling employees to the point that they cry, coming in late or not at all, and many of the other things you listed are very unprofessional and make for an unhealthy work environment. Hopefully, whoever you complain to realizes this and takes appropriate action. Good luck!

 

[JosephKnechtDVM]

This sounds very much like Banfield . If you report it, then likely you will be placed on the "no rehire" list if you want to get a job in the future with them in the future. They really can do whatever they want since employment is "at will" and there are really no state board laws that are broken. Banfield standards are often largely for PR and not really followed if they will affect the bottom line.

 

[JosephKnechtDVM]

Also they have a lot of lawyers on their pay role who largely there to keep these things from becoming a problem with them even with employment laws.

 

[ANY2003]

Just to clarify - I have no interest in pursuing legal action or financial compensation. I realize that she didn't really break any laws (except maybe adjusting time punches), but she did go against corporate policy as well as create a hostile work environment. She also didn't complete several of her duties on time - like getting us our schedule by the deadline. Since it is a corporate chain, I can report her to field leadership. Also - I have no interest in EVER returning to that company, so I don't care if I'm put on the no hire list. I guess maybe I should go through with it, since several of my buddies are still suffering there.

 

[lostbunny]

I haven't read all the replies- but basically everything you've written has happened to me as well at a few different jobs. I honestly think you should just let it go, and take it all with a grain of salt. Next job you get, fight for your proper pay for example. If I were you I'd just move on from this, and let them deal with their issues while you take what you can from them. You've got tons of experience, made connections in the vet world, built up your hours, etc. Forget the management, as it often happens... management seems to mess up in one way or another. I think you should just forget about them, and move on to your next job.

Everything you've said sounds familiar to me and so I wouldn't waste my time on them. You've gotten what you want, and now hopefully you'll be able to make your self clear with your expectations for your next job (i.e. pay rate).

ETA: all of the things you mentioned are things that will happen in a workplace (Especially a big corporate one!!). I think your best bet is to just learn from your experiences, let them f*ck up their own workplace, and you can move onto bigger and better things! Since this is just a job for you (to get experience for example) then I don't think taking it to a hire level is really worth it since you aren't even with the company anymore.

 

[Trematode]

ETA: all of the things you mentioned are things that will happen in a workplace (Especially a big corporate one!!). I think your best bet is to just learn from your experiences, let them f*ck up their own workplace, and you can move onto bigger and better things! Since this is just a job for you (to get experience for example) then I don't think taking it to a hire level is really worth it since you aren't even with the company anymore.

I have been verbally abused and embarrassed in the workplace. I was told that it is workplace harassment and that I should have reported it. In my case, it was the assistant manager, but because he has been friends with the manager for 15 years, complaining has not done any good in the past. I was also verbally harassed by a manager at another location (she actually liked to make the schedule one MONTH in advance. My friend quit because they did not give her time off to go to a scholarship interview, which she got and it ended up paying for her school/living expenses). I regret not complaining about the verbal abuse now. If you are not looking for a LOR from this place, I would talk to somebody about the management issues, especially if you can do it annonymously. It might save the next poor soul who goes to work there from all of this garbage.