Working for Difficult Vets?

[Catnapper]

Just wondering if this has been a common experience for other pre-vets: working for difficult vets. --You know, somebody who's a combination of Dr. Cox (Scrubs) and Miranda Priestley (The Devil Wears Prada)? Anyone? And what do you then do about evals when it comes time to apply?

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[cyrille104]

Well, I would really try to find another vet, since there's probably one somewhere who is willing to help you and be nice about it.

However, if you really can't find another (nicer) vet, I would talk to the vet you're working with and let him know early that you're planning on applying to vet school. That'll get him prepared for the LOR talk. After working for a little while, tell him that you're learning a lot and ask if he thinks he could write you a positive evaluation for your application when the time comes. It might be best to approach these topics on days when you think you have particularly impressed him, haha.

 

[OsuVet2010]

I work for a difficult vet. I started working for her as a undergrad, and I still work for her as a vet student. She is VERY demanding and will confront anyone who makes a mistake (sometimes she makes people cry). She is hard to please and it's very hard to know if she is in a good mood or not.
With that being said, she wrote me an excellent letter of recommendation and because she is demanding of her staff; she has made me a very conscientious person. I will double, and even triple, check myself before doing things. You have to realize that if you can rise up to the challenge, it will make a great impression on them. I have learned a LOT from her. Also you may one day for as a vet for someone who is hard to get along with.
Here's my advice: You are more likely going to run into difficult professors (especially in clinics during 4th year) so you might as well learn to deal with them early on. Take the criticism, improve in that area and then move on. And like I said, if you can toughen it out you will most likely impress them especially if everyone else is too scare to rise up to the challenge.
Good luck!

 

[Catnapper]

Yeah...that day has yet to happen, but thanks cyrille!

 

[Catnapper]

You've made very good points...I've thought about some of these things too. --As in: "If I can't tough this out, will I be a good vet?" --Definitely appreciate your sharing!

 

[flokemahe]

I think it depends on whether this person is generally tempermental & difficult or whether they're singling you out. Someone who's just moody and inconsiderate can still have a lot to teach you in many different ways, and yes you need to get used to dealing with folks like that! But if they're being abusive, or singling you out to harp on, that's another story altogether and you need to get the heck out. My experience has been that even though it takes guts, it's best to be straighforward/direct with someone like this. Tell them that you want to apply to vet school and you want to know what kind of letter of recommendation they would write you. Ask them if they've been happy or unhappy with your performance, and ask what they think you can improve on. You will likely catch them off guard by being so direct, but you will also probably get a candid answer that lets you know whether to stay or go.

good luck!

 

[ShelterGirl]

I agree w/flokemahe on checking to see what they think of your performance before requesting the LOR - if they aren't going to write a positive assessment, then it's time to think about finding another vet who WILL write a positive one.

I asked my LOR writers to please decline if they felt uncomfortable writing a positive LOR for me. One of the Drs at the practice I work at is like the Dr you mentioned, so I didn't even bother asking them for a LOR. Depending on the person, you may or not be able to be this blunt. Good luck!

 

[philomycus]

Hello Catnapper !! Welcome to the SDN !

 

[Serendipity4]

I have had experience with this, although it wasn't the vet per say. But there was someone with the ability to make employees' lives difficult, and that option was exercised REGULARLY. Now I didn't need to ask this person for a letter of rec, so I can't really answer on that front. But I will say, while there's a part of me who wishes I had gone somplace else earlier on so that I wouldn't have had to deal with this experience, at the same time I do believe I learned a lot about working with people. I learned how to keep my head down and try to stay under the radar (I wasn't always successful at this, but compared to what some of the other employees went through...), and perhaps most importantly I think I will now be SERIOUSLY conscious of how I treat people if I am in a position of authority. For example, I learned that there is a difference between "the customer is always right" mentality and "as a customer, of course you're right; I'm sorry for my employees' complete stupidity." Letting your employees' know you trust them, support them, and giving constructive criticism when necessary will make everything run far more smoothly than "keeping them in line" through intimidation.

Sorry for ranting a bit... Good luck deciding what to do!

 

[theunraveler]

juz stick it to ur boss and tell him/her to "**** off"

 

[Noriko]

Hello.
I think your everyday very nice in this world.
I'd like to see more pictures with animals.
Thank you show us happy pictures.

That is me.

http://webphotos.aol.fr/ap/viewHoo....iOPCJJdNX5w59hg==&noLogo=true&bgcolor=#000000

BYE

Well, I would really try to find another vet, since there's probably one somewhere who is willing to help you and be nice about it.

However, if you really can't find another (nicer) vet, I would talk to the vet you're working with and let him know early that you're planning on applying to vet school. That'll get him prepared for the LOR talk. After working for a little while, tell him that you're learning a lot and ask if he thinks he could write you a positive evaluation for your application when the time comes. It might be best to approach these topics on days when you think you have particularly impressed him, haha.

 

[CookieBear]

Just wondering if this has been a common experience for other pre-vets: working for difficult vets. --You know, somebody who's a combination of Dr. Cox (Scrubs) and Miranda Priestley (The Devil Wears Prada)? Anyone? And what do you then do about evals when it comes time to apply?

If you can extract yourself from the situation or somehow get a letter from someone who is not a jerk, by all means, consider doing it.

It really is a disappointment to hear these stories of nasty and mean vets.

You can either leave, tell the person off and leave, or bow your head, swallow it and do your best to earn the respect (or whatever positive spin you wish to say) of this doctor.

Trust is a big thing when it comes LORs... I think if there's any doubt in your mind whether this vet can write you a positive letter - you need to flat-out ask and hear the answer. It would be terrible to trust this vet as an evaluator and be knifed in the back on a LOR.

 

[sofficat]

The most awesome vet I've worked for also turned out to be the harshest at times.
"all i f***ing wanted is that you people wash my *goshdarn* jacket today and i had to f***ing wash it myself!" (storms off...)
um..... 1st- she only told 1 tech that she wanted it washed (it wasn't in the laundry basket), 2nd- it was only 1 pm, 3rd- i'm sorry that we were caring for your patients and clients today and not locating your jacket, 4th- it's not like we didn't do any laundry that day, we ran 4 loads, we (well, over 1/2 of us) didn't know she wanted her jacket washed .
i really do love this vet. she's amazing and -in her good moods- fun to work with. i have learned SO much medicine from her and also how -not- to behave sometimes.

lets see.... one more story.....
i worked for a vet that was *always* right and would not only make her techs feel stupid (tresaderm.... we typed 4-6 drops per year and she made us change it to 5-7 by saying 'haha! 4-6 for THAT dog? ha... no, change it to 5-7) but she would make her clients feel that way as well...
(i will proceed this by saying both of the dogs were about 20 pounds)
pet was supposed to be losing weight, so in the room the doc said to the client "so does missy seem to be losing weight to you? (with a positive voice and head nodding action)"
client responded "yeah, she seems lighter and looks good to me"
doc, looking at chart (again) "haha! she's only lost 1/4 pound, there's NO way YOU could be able to notice that... haha..."

then..... later that day.... another dog supposed to be losing weight.
doc "so can you tell that she is losing weight?"
client "not really.. she looks the same"
doc, looking at chart (again) "well, she's lost a whole 1/2 pound! haha... YOU can't tell that she's lighter? haha...."

ahh... the fun times with vets....(i wish they had an icon with a growing then exploding head)

 

[flokemahe]

as long as we're sharing!

The owner of the first clinic I worked at introduced himself on my first day on the job. He shook my hand and said "Hi, nice to meet you, I'm so'n'so, I'm the dingus."
Um, OK, I guess admitting it is the first step? But does it really count if you don't do anything about it?
He was missing most of his right index finger. Why? He got impatient with the guard on the circular saw he was working with and ripped it off....
He self-prescribed Ritalin (sp?) to make himself more tolerable to the rest of us.
He was upfront about his feelings that male techs should get paid more than females with the same experience because they have families to support (and he hired a new male tech in with less experience than many of us at $3/hr higher)
I don't know the details, but I heard he was banned from his local endurance riding club - he no longer had horses
He lived about 7 blocks from the clinic, and his dog would leave his house all the time and come roaming into town. Maybe because he let it run outside without a fence? This doesn't sounds so bad, until you realize there was a VERY BUSY 4 lane road between his house and town! The dog's tags had the clinic info on them, so at all hours we'd have to drop whatever we were doing and go pick up his dog from the cafe, the restaurant, the hardware store, etc and put it in a run until he noticed it was missing and came to pick it up
I was lucky that my shifts rarely overlapped with his, so I didn't have to work with him a lot. I just had to deal with the disfunctional practice he'd created.

To his credit: that clinic was very successful, I learned an immeasurable amount there that I couldn't have learned anywhere else, and that clinic had the highest quality of medicine I've seen anywhere.


Edit: how could I forget? I worked 4 10hr days. I was on the swing shift, which meant you had to sign away your right to a lunch break. 10 hrs with no break can make you pretty tired. I couldn't help but notice that the smokers got to sit outside whenever they felt like it and have a cig break. So I tried sitting out in the smoking area for breaks now & then - no good, I got yelled at. Maybe if I have coffee in my hand? Nope. A pen? Near my mouth? Nope. So I learned to smoke so I could take breaks (I hate smoking, I think it's disgusting). I could nurse one cigarette all day through four breaks. Never touched a cig since I left that place!

 

[cyrille104]

If you can extract yourself from the situation or somehow get a letter from someone who is not a jerk, by all means, consider doing it.

It really is a disappointment to hear these stories of nasty and mean vets.

You can either leave, tell the person off and leave, or bow your head, swallow it and do your best to earn the respect (or whatever positive spin you wish to say) of this doctor.

Trust is a big thing when it comes LORs... I think if there's any doubt in your mind whether this vet can write you a positive letter - you need to flat-out ask and hear the answer. It would be terrible to trust this vet as an evaluator and be knifed in the back on a LOR.

HAHAHA your new avatar is so appropriate

 

[hirdDVM]

as long as we're sharing!


Edit: how could I forget? I worked 4 10hr days. I was on the swing shift, which meant you had to sign away your right to a lunch break. 10 hrs with no break can make you pretty tired. I couldn't help but notice that the smokers got to sit outside whenever they felt like it and have a cig break. So I tried sitting out in the smoking area for breaks now & then - no good, I got yelled at. Maybe if I have coffee in my hand? Nope. A pen? Near my mouth? Nope. So I learned to smoke so I could take breaks (I hate smoking, I think it's disgusting). I could nurse one cigarette all day through four breaks. Never touched a cig since I left that place!

Wow, that's intense!!!

I was lucky and worked for good vets, but my mother on the other hand...

She was the hospital manager of a very upscale small animal clinic and the vet she worked for had, lets say, emotional problems. What my mom thought was more responsiblity (in the good sense) by getting a pager, was actually this vet's way of keeping my mother on a short leash. This vet was constantly prone to insane emotional breakdowns, calling my mom at all hours, anytime, for a "shoulder". The vet would literally have temper tantrums in her office by throwing things, screaming, rolling on the floor crying.....so my mom finally realized after 5 years of this craziness that this vet was beyond help. She quit.

However, despite the abuse this vet put her employees through, she was an amazing diagnostician and practiced very good medicine, and even to this day my mom says that she would trust any of our animals with her. She treated her clientele very well so her clients absolutely adore her. My mom compared her to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is interesting what the "other" side sees.

It's amazing what we all do in the name of veterinary medicine

 

[CookieBear]

HAHAHA your new avatar is so appropriate

I was wondering if you'd pick up on it..