Too many to list, but I'll try. First and foremost is the verbally abusive nature of ownership, which cannot be overstated. There is a reputation among staff and clients at both locations owned by this individual (Lawrenceville and Philadelphia) of calling employees into the office and screaming at them for well over an hour, which is rude and unprofessional at BEST, and borders on harassment at worst -- but ownership gets away with it because it isn't like the staff is paid well enough to file a harassment claim and lawyer up. There are right and wrong ways to get the most out of one's staff, and this owner goes about it in the absolute worst way. This verbal abuse happens in the earshot of clients on the regular, and she's also screamed at multiple clients as well. This creates a toxic, low morale environment leading to *massive* employee turnover. I'm not just talking about low level employees, either. In my tenure with this company, the managers at both of her locations quit and most of the assistant managers and shift leaders were openly looking for other jobs as well. Ownership attitude was a primary reason cited. This is simply not an environment conducive to growth, success, or personal sanity. If the owner's office had an audio-visual camera placed in it, which would be legal in New Jersey as per that state's surveillance laws as her office is shared instead of private -- she would very easily get fined by the corporate office daily and possibly get forced out of ownership. It really is that bad of a culture, and corporate needs to step in and investigate if they haven't already. It is *bad* there. The irony here is the owner once did an interview for QSR that anyone can google stating if she had a do-over, she would not be a business owner due to the employee turnover, failing to recognize that her own attitude is the reason for the turnover. I feel bad for the people there who haven't left yet and are still dealing with this stuff.
On to pay. You're lucky to make $9-11 per hour regardless of experience, and there is no room for growth. Oh you get told there is room for growth quickly in the interview, but once you're working there, it will not happen unless you're playing politics and kissing the right butts. Promotions happen on the buddy system and often don't get rewarded with pay increases, because the owner is openly proud of being very cheap and refusing to give raises. There were multiple employees who asked for fair raises and were treated with the aforementioned screaming fit discussed earlier. One of my coworkers was given a good employee review, and then when he asked for a raise, he was screamed at for over an hour about not meeting expectations -- while the owner was literally holding my coworker's good review! Another coworker of mine was a faithful staff member for years and never caused a single problem; when she FINALLY got a raise, she was given 25 cents an hour. I could go on. Every employee has a story like this, because these are laughably bad ways of treating a staff. Stuff like this gets around very quickly, and it's why everyone quits. I myself couldn't get a new job fast enough, and I was not alone in feeling this way. I miss the dogs for sure, but getting attached to dogs is not worth working for a bad owner that doesn't treat people appropriately. The shame here is most people on the staff were very good employees, but they opt to take their work ethic elsewhere where they can be appreciated instead of working in a toxic environment.
A fine example of this: cross-training is virtually nonexistent. I don't know how other locations operate, but at this one employees in the back are quite literally not allowed to talk to clients beyond simple greetings. There is a list of items the owner bans people from talking to clients about, but she never bothers going over this list with "those people in the back". That is solely the front desk's job, and if anyone goes against these rules -- you guessed it -- they are either fired or screamed at. This openly happens IN FRONT OF CLIENTS, which not only creates an us/them environment that directly goes against the idea of teamwork, but it's some of the worst customer service skills imaginable. At a good location everyone should be cross trained, such as how things operate at the job I currently have. There should never, ever be a subset of employees disallowed from talking to customers at *any* workplace. If a client asks a question and someone in the back knows the answer, they should be allowed to answer instead of being made to look foolish. The clients notice, believe me, and they take their business elsewhere where employees are treated appropriately.
Last is the dogs themselves. For whatever reason, this location is AWFUL about dismissing problem pets. It's similar to the buddy system with the employees. We have some dogs that bite staff or other dogs 4, 5, 6, even TEN times before getting dismissed, while other dogs are dismissed far more quickly. A problem dog is a problem dog, regardless of whether we love them or not. Standards need to be set and enforced here, not changed based on how much certain people on the staff like a dog, a breed, or how much money a client spends. I will however end this paragraph on a high note and remark that this location does a fantastic job about preventing overcrowding in the play yards. Generally, no more than 25 dogs should be allowed in one yard at a time; this location is good about keeping to that, but they HAVE to get better about kicking out problems.
