Several co-workers made the workplace itself pleasant, but as a company, VCA is distant from its employees.
Pros
I worked at Fifth Ave. Veterinary specialists (FAVS) in New York. Some of the other techs there were awesome and helped increase the quality of care immensely. Due to my longevity, I received a lot of flexibility with my schedule to accommodate school and vacations and got along well with the specialist I worked under. Luckily, I also got along well with the head technician, which made my life much easier. I was able to become more involved in my department, including learning new technologies and was given freedom when ordering supplies and equipment. At one point, I was offered a management opportunity at another VCA hospital. Also, I don't think FAVS management ever fired an employee due to slowing business, although hours were cut where possible.
Cons
For the majority of my time at Fifth Ave Vet, I was not reviewed by the hospital management or given feedback for the work I did or extra duties I took on. I was told to just keep doing what I was doing, but given no real benefits for a job well done. The only sort of reward for good work came directly from my specialist. My pay increased only a few dollars over several years, generally at the rate of fifty to seventy-five cents per year, despite taking on additional responsibilities. Although I stayed for the flexible schedule and more interesting specialty/emergency work, I could have made four dollars more per hour at a local private practice. All benefits were lost if weekly hours dropped to 32. Among the staff, there was a lot of discontent, showing up late, shirking duties, and disinterest in learning about the medicine behind the cases. To be clear, this was not everyone, but an atmosphere of complaint and resentment often pervaded. I don't feel the hospital management was very good at making good hiring decisions and feel they often decided a "warm body" would suffice. New hires often were given a higher hourly rate than long-time employees. Raises and reviews have been non-existent in the past few years. FAVS is not a thriving practice and techs, assistants, and receptionists take the brunt of it generally through cut hours. Long-time assistants were frequently asked to do the work of technicians (even fill technicians' shifts), but were not compensated accordingly.