Pros
-Tree House is very good at attracting passionate staff. Staff/volunteers are so passionate about the animals and mission - everybody wants what is best for the animals.
-I worked with some of the most amazing people here and genuinely love most of the team. I worked with and learned from so many driven, talented people at Tree House.
-Beautiful facility, wonderful mission and values. Tree House has a powerful brand.
-The PTO balance for full-time staff was fairly generous
-I learned a lot at Tree House - it is a great place to get a foot in the door for people looking to work in animal welfare. I was given plenty of career growth opportunities and learned from some amazing professionals.
Cons
-The culture was incredibly toxic. Morale was low across the board and it frequently felt like the departments were pitted against each other by management. The constant inter-department tension (especially between adoptions, cat care, and the medical team) felt clique-ish and led to poor communication that ultimately hurt the animals.
-Staff were overworked, underpaid, and training was inadequate. Many managers set a poor example by working extremely long hours to finish the daily work.
-Several departments were chronically understaffed. The medical team would frequently have days where there would only be one technician or assistant working, who would be responsible for all of the daily medical care of all the animals in the building.
-The compassion of staff felt taken advantage of by leadership/ management. We were often expected to take on extra work or work over time, which led to burn out.
-The turnover rate is incredibly high because of poor working conditions/pay. I worked at Tree House for 4 years and aside from upper management, there was a constantly revolving door of staff.
-Managers tended to pick favorites and were incredibly unprofessional - I frequently heard managers gossiping or complaining about staff members, including myself.
-There was a huge lack of support for staff members who were struggling with mental health/compassion fatigue. Animal Welfare can be a very tough industry and working with sick/injured animals coming from difficult situations is incredibly distressing. I received no support from management when I was struggling and saw so many colleagues leave after being burnt out and getting no support.
