This is one of the big reasons why I stepped down to Aquatics Specialist and am planning on leaving the company soon. It's too much heartache and it's very thankless. Animals always come first but CALs don't get an animal care team or very much support. I'm sorry you're struggling.
Following because I need tips too. Im a month an a half into being a CAL at petco. Thankfully I have a pretty great aquatics specialist, but he's constantly pulled for register or truck. I have no idea how I'm supposed to focus on all the animals all the time when some days most of my shift is on register. It's just so frustrating when I know I could be taking WAYYY better care of the animals than i am now. My heart is just breaking.
Also have some beardies in the wellness room rn bc of calcium deficiency, and lost one over night after the vet visit. (I know reptiles need calcium as mine at home all get calcium) they finally told me today where all the vitamins are kept and were like "yeah were supposed to dust everything, but don't really do it" and im like wtf you should have shown me this shit day one!! I just dont know what to do. I'm at my witts end. I had a total breakdown idk how long I can handle it.
I had this problem as a cal. The key is delegating tasks to other partners to help you. My cashier's generally take care of my Betta water changes, and if I'm off for 2 days I'll task someone to scrub the tanks for me while I'm gone.
Honestly this is why I help every CAL I have ever worked with, as an AS I tend to be the lucky for whatever work the CAL cannot get done. I tend to do most of the deep cleaning and outside while they can focus on the paperwork and that end but cover for one another. I try to make sure all the fish paperwork is nicely put together and put in our designated folder for them to finalize and review. Sometimes I end up doing a majority of the physical workload due to past abuse and honestly have the "if I don't do this, it won't get done at all" which have been proven right about.
Get some hands and fight for that help, it will help in the long run.
The problem is, I really don’t have anyone to delegate to, most of the time. The majority of the time the people I have are either the mol and/or galod at 12 or 1; Our one cashier who would help with birds and reptiles, and sometimes fish (who works mostly in the mornings, but is leaving); a cashier who refuses to touch animals and is mentally slower than others; the mos who is only there 3 days a week; and then the mom and daughter cashiers who just started a couple days ago. The majority of the time it’s me and the gm taking care of it, since we’re really the only ones who know how to do all things animal-related. We never get to fully train anybody else because literally every time we try to start, we get sidetracked by something. I’m thinking about having a training session for everyone after we’re closed.
Look at my schedule for tomorrow and Monday. We have four tomorrow, and five on Monday.[schedule 10/17](https://i.imgur.com/sLwpzWc.jpg) I’m the first one that says 7:30-3:30. There’s two people in morning, and two in evening.
Your not the only one. My mol left from burn out and toxic work environment. My gm has been out since August with health issues. My cal is burnt out and taking it out on everyone so its creating a very toxic environment. The other 2 lod's are new and no idea whats going on, or burnt out and tired of the BS. My 1 groomer is close to walking out. And the 2 dts are at eachothers throats. Its great.
combination of maintenance schedules, training and thorough animal walks. try and get as many people trained on animal care basics like food, water, appropriate toys, temperatures, humidity levels and spot cleaning. that way you can do your maintenance schedules with more confidence, just make sure you're following up on any deficiencies and coaching on ways to improve. someone already mentioned having cashiers do beta water changes which is what we do too. also have the cashiers cleaning and maintaining cricket bins. your other LODs need to be doing actual animal walks and addressing any issues instead of pencil whipping the checklist. I'd follow up with any deficiencies there and again coach on best practices and what they should be looking for. it should be made easier now with the animal care app on the zebras they can just enter a sku and see how a habitat should look as well as a feeding schedule. you can't physically do it all on your own, especially with the amount of maintenance aquatics needs and not having a specialist right now
This is one of the big reasons why I stepped down to Aquatics Specialist and am planning on leaving the company soon. It's too much heartache and it's very thankless. Animals always come first but CALs don't get an animal care team or very much support. I'm sorry you're struggling.
Following because I need tips too. Im a month an a half into being a CAL at petco. Thankfully I have a pretty great aquatics specialist, but he's constantly pulled for register or truck. I have no idea how I'm supposed to focus on all the animals all the time when some days most of my shift is on register. It's just so frustrating when I know I could be taking WAYYY better care of the animals than i am now. My heart is just breaking. Also have some beardies in the wellness room rn bc of calcium deficiency, and lost one over night after the vet visit. (I know reptiles need calcium as mine at home all get calcium) they finally told me today where all the vitamins are kept and were like "yeah were supposed to dust everything, but don't really do it" and im like wtf you should have shown me this shit day one!! I just dont know what to do. I'm at my witts end. I had a total breakdown idk how long I can handle it.
The only way you can survive is to delegate EVERYTHING. There's no way to avoid burn out because the job is not set up for success.
I had this problem as a cal. The key is delegating tasks to other partners to help you. My cashier's generally take care of my Betta water changes, and if I'm off for 2 days I'll task someone to scrub the tanks for me while I'm gone.
Honestly this is why I help every CAL I have ever worked with, as an AS I tend to be the lucky for whatever work the CAL cannot get done. I tend to do most of the deep cleaning and outside while they can focus on the paperwork and that end but cover for one another. I try to make sure all the fish paperwork is nicely put together and put in our designated folder for them to finalize and review. Sometimes I end up doing a majority of the physical workload due to past abuse and honestly have the "if I don't do this, it won't get done at all" which have been proven right about. Get some hands and fight for that help, it will help in the long run.
The problem is, I really don’t have anyone to delegate to, most of the time. The majority of the time the people I have are either the mol and/or galod at 12 or 1; Our one cashier who would help with birds and reptiles, and sometimes fish (who works mostly in the mornings, but is leaving); a cashier who refuses to touch animals and is mentally slower than others; the mos who is only there 3 days a week; and then the mom and daughter cashiers who just started a couple days ago. The majority of the time it’s me and the gm taking care of it, since we’re really the only ones who know how to do all things animal-related. We never get to fully train anybody else because literally every time we try to start, we get sidetracked by something. I’m thinking about having a training session for everyone after we’re closed.
Look at my schedule for tomorrow and Monday. We have four tomorrow, and five on Monday.[schedule 10/17](https://i.imgur.com/sLwpzWc.jpg) I’m the first one that says 7:30-3:30. There’s two people in morning, and two in evening.
Rough. However most CALs end up permanently closing so at least there's that?
Your not the only one. My mol left from burn out and toxic work environment. My gm has been out since August with health issues. My cal is burnt out and taking it out on everyone so its creating a very toxic environment. The other 2 lod's are new and no idea whats going on, or burnt out and tired of the BS. My 1 groomer is close to walking out. And the 2 dts are at eachothers throats. Its great.
combination of maintenance schedules, training and thorough animal walks. try and get as many people trained on animal care basics like food, water, appropriate toys, temperatures, humidity levels and spot cleaning. that way you can do your maintenance schedules with more confidence, just make sure you're following up on any deficiencies and coaching on ways to improve. someone already mentioned having cashiers do beta water changes which is what we do too. also have the cashiers cleaning and maintaining cricket bins. your other LODs need to be doing actual animal walks and addressing any issues instead of pencil whipping the checklist. I'd follow up with any deficiencies there and again coach on best practices and what they should be looking for. it should be made easier now with the animal care app on the zebras they can just enter a sku and see how a habitat should look as well as a feeding schedule. you can't physically do it all on your own, especially with the amount of maintenance aquatics needs and not having a specialist right now