Burnt out. - Pet Care Specialist-Petshotel PetSmart Employee Review

3.0
5 Aug 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

PetSmart is definitely a company that embraces its employees on the corporate side. They conduct surveys every year to determine how things are running from the point of view of the employees. I've never heard of any other company doing that!

Cons

Prepare for monotony. It's not a matter of if you will get bored, it's a matter of when. 8 hours of standing in the same place day in and out doing nothing but preventing bloodshed. Safety is secondary in the Hotel. As long as a customer is willing to push money into the register, the dog is as good as gold no matter how many times they've bitten people. Pay is extremely low for an animal care job, especially considering the work involved. Imagine shepherding 15 dogs for near minimum wage. Awful. The people you depend on to manage you have never worked your position, so they have no idea who the dogs are or what they are doing, Training is SCANT. Confidence is low, so we're constantly losing staff which puts pressure on us to do the work of 2-3 people.

Explore other reviews about PetSmart

5.0
12 Feb 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Chance to practice customer service skills -Opportunity to network and connect -Learn time management skills

Cons

-Might not be a good fit if your allergic to certain animals

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PetSmart Response
2mo
We're happy to hear you enjoy working at PetSmart and are happy you're part of our team! Thanks for taking the time to review.
1.0
2 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The company pushes for more and more from the bottom level employees without better pay. I worked there before the restructuring and; not much can make me cry, but working here sure did, even back then. I can’t imagine how anxiety inducing it must be to work there now. Animal welfare is a complete non-concern. The only thing that’s pushed is sell, sell, sell. It’s borderline dystopian. Bad management seems to be a common issue, not only from my experience, but many others’ as well. I worked until I was an exhausted sweaty mess to make sure everything in pet care or, when I groomed, the salon, was cleaned to perfection as expected of me (and I reiterate: “me,” because these standards were not expected of my co-workers, just me) and overall felt very unseen. The only times I did feel “seen,” was when mistakes were made. Work was treated like boot camp. A co-worker that was subtley targeting/bullying me, and even started rumors accusing me of racist remarks(!!!), was promoted and anything I reported was downplayed because they were friends with the assistant manager. Working here was an overall traumatizing experience.

Cons

Employees are expected to be work-robots

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PetSmart Response
2w
We’re disappointed to hear that your experience didn’t reflect what we aim to create for our associates, and we appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback. We invite you to contact the CareSmart line at 1-800-738-4693 so we can learn more and see how we can support you. Thank you.
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