I'm about to start my second week at the new job and I must say I really am enjoying things there a whole lot more than I did at the other salon.
For starters, it's small. VERY small. So small in fact that there are only two groomers and we don't work on the same day. I think I mentioned this before, they're going to phase out the other groomer. I think she's looking for work somewhere else or maybe is moving to another salon. Anyway, what this means is that I don't have to share. Yeah, that sounds selfish but one of the big problems at the other salon was that we were VERY over-staffed. You'd have two or three groomers having to split 5 or 6 dogs that come in. Or worse, most of the dogs are scheduled for the early morning hours and I wouldn't be scheduled to arrive until 11. As a result, the morning person would end up with 5 dogs and I'd get 1. Well that's no longer a problem. Everything that comes in, bath or cut, is mine and I get the same commission either way.
Another benefit is that I no longer have to worry about answering the phone, scheduling appointments and spending a lot of time checking the pets in. That would really cut into the amount of time you could dedicate to a single pet. Instead, the clinic manager checks in all the pets and takes care of all the paperwork. All I have to do is bathe and groom.
Of course, one of the HUGE differences is the lack of drama. Again, this is a small clinic so you have one vet, a vet tech and the clinic manager. That's pretty much it. No drama! That also means much less stress along the way and no worries about whether or not everything is going to come to a screeching halt every and move into crisis mode every time the phone rings.
The clinic is not part of any major corporation which brings us to yet another benefit: fewer rules! At the other salon there was a rule and/or procedure for EVERYTHING. Every little incident that happened in the salon had to be documented and put in the computer. Have a dog nip at you? If it missed, no problem but if it connected, got to write that up. Customer unhappy with something? Can't take care of that yourself. You've got to follow the complaint procedure no matter how minor. The way things were going over there, we were spending more time on paperwork than we were on the dogs.
I must say I'm pretty happy at this new place. Everyone is very nice and very helpful and, I suspect, used to dealing with groomers who divas. That's pretty common in the grooming industry I'm afraid. Groomers have a reputation for being difficult to work with. I guess in that sense I'm more like a dog barber than a groomer and I certainly wouldn't call myself a STYLIST. When you have a groomer who uses the stylist lable, look out. You're in for some attitude.
So it's back to work tomorrow for me. No idea how many dogs I'll have or how difficult they'll be. Last week I only worked on Friday and I had WAY more dogs than I was getting at the other salon. Even if I'm only getting 3 or 4 dogs a day though, that's still at least as much as I would regularly get at the other place and here I have a much friendlier atmosphere to work in.
Best of all, the clinic is closed on weekends which means I FINALLY get to spend a little time with my wife once in a while ;-)
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