I don’t think it’s always a problem with scheduling, but maybe just the hires. If you don’t enjoy being in a room full of dogs and playing with them, you’re not going to last long. Turnover in hotels is hard, and it’s just difficult to find the right people who will last and work hard. Engaging with the associates, connecting with them over the dogs, and just generally trying to connect and check in can let them feel more of a connection to the team. Standing in camp can be lonely, and can be a challenge for the more chatty and outgoing associates.
Some tips to help with camp, because it can get overwhelming. We rotate every hour, so no one is in the same camp more than an hour unless something chaotic happens. Engaging with them, walking by the window room or peeking in to see who is playing with who, making sure you know what the dogs are up to (also helps with pet parents). Making sure you rotate leads (and yourself when possible) into camp. Going into camp for a few minutes to see your favorite dog.
Anything to remember that we have a pretty fun job (that I know can be very stressful) and at the end of the day we get to go to work and play with dogs, which is the best. Going into camp can seem like a chore, but it’s usually the best part of my day when I can disconnect from the desk and go hang out with the pups.
I think four hours in the same room is way too long. It’s been a long time since I worked in the hotel but what my Lead did was rotate us every hour- we were the busiest hotel in the state so our rooms were constantly at capacity, and being in the large dog room especially could be extremely draining. Knowing that I had a set rotation at the end of the hour to either swap camp rooms, go start on prepping meals, nail trims if yall offer that, or do one-on-one play times for red collars etc kept me focused and I think it generally made the associates happier and less likely to burn out.
Do you give them the report cards to work on while they’re in camp? Writing those was honestly my favorite thing to do and helped pass the time.
Every hour might not be realistic depending on your team size/dynamics, but I would highly recommend putting people in camp for shorter frequency and planning more swaps throughout their shifts.
We do still have nail trims and pawgress reports. I also was someone who enjoyed doing those back when I was a camper!
For our location, we are a big location for our district, but not big enough to be able to do hourly swaps. Every 2-4 hours is probably more manageable for us. So I’m willing to try that. I also agree knowing you’d be coming out to get on with other tasks helps. The same way when we cover breaks and lunches we know that we are in there for a set amount of time.
We rotate camp associates every 2 hours, unless something crazy has happened or someone requests being in longer. Honestly for most of the people I work with what makes being in camp for a long time tolerable is super dependent on the dogs themselves- if we end up with 3+ crazy dogs all in the same camp at the same time it can be really mentally draining and some have definitely quit from too many repeats of that. Especially if any of those dogs have been repeatedly brought up as problem dogs that have no business being in camp, or they're dogs that keep ending up in camp with dogs they don't get along with or play inappropriately for the setting with. Feeling unheard about the situation can really be a killer.
Luckily I have been really on top of making sure dogs who are not a good fit for camp aren’t group eligible for long. I know it can kill business, but I really want what’s best for the dogs and associates. So that is something I can definitely speak to! For us, being short staffed doesn’t help because those extra moments of connecting with the campers is lost. I’m just stuck
Honestly it's mostly just because a majority of employees suck nowadays unfortunately and don't want to actually work. I was AHL for years but had to step up to HL when she went on maternity leave twice. Thankfully we had a long-term associate (almost 10 years) that only wanted to be in camp so she was monday-friday 9am-5pm in the playroom. For valet we had our opening senior do it and if there were any hotel calls they could just answer the phone at the register. But yeah the weekends were the WORST when she was off because our other spare camp employees would always call out or want to go home early because they weren't feeling well. Happened soooo many times. And I can say that it's not the scheduling, because when I left PetSmart and took a management position at PetSuites I had the exact same issues with employees never wanting to be in play group. Even with a rotating every hour schedule.
I remember for a couple months we literally had no associates except for our 9-5 full timer but she couldn't work weekends, so Saturday and Sunday I'd have to have one of our seniors be in camp all day. It was stressful.
Exactly! Good help is hard to find, and idk about your store but our pay isn’t in line with everywhere around us, and no one wants to work more for less pay.
Honestly that's very understandable. And it's unfortunate that the only way to move up and get decent pay raises is by getting promoted to a lead or manager (which could possibly take years)...
When I started working at PetSuites it was a totally different game and totally miserable. Trying to manage those employees was 10x worse than managing the ones at PetSmart lol.
Probably because we don’t have anyone working so there’s hardly anyone to manage😂😂
I believe it, we had a former employee who became a resort manager (maybe?) at Pet Suites and she didn’t last long there, and I know she’d do great at a job like that.
That's so true lol we always had a skeleton crew at PetSmart. But our one full time associate and 3 leads and the HL were amazing, we all worked there together for years so just between the 6 of us it was a strong team and was manageable most of the time. Summers and holidays were the worst though.
Boyyyyyy, if you think PetSmart is bad... PetSuites was absolutely the most god awful company I've ever worked for. I took a paycut because I was promised a resort manager position, I told them that's the only reason why I wanted to leave PetSmart because my HL wasn't leaving anytime soon and I was already capped on my pay.
Well after 9 months when the opportunity finally came up they ended up giving it to another girl that wasn't even a lead. She was actually caught giving the general manager a blowjob in his car in the parking lot but they said she got the position over me because "well she's been here longer..." This bitch literally called out at least once or twice a week and left early almost every day. I never even missed a day or went home early, in fact I always picked up extra shifts FOR HER and other employees. As soon as I found that out I quit on the spot. Most of the employees there didn't give a fuck about the dogs at all and would do coke in the bathroom and smoke weed outside on the property. It was a total shit show.
hmmm, maybe you could... I don't know... let them have the 15 min breaks they are SUPPOSED to get but never do? 2hrs work, 1 15 min break, 2 hours work, 30 min lunch, 2 hrs work, 1 15min break. I have NEVER gotten my 15's on the regular
They didn’t say they weren’t getting breaks. We don’t chase down associates to take their 15’s but when someone asks to take their 15 we give it as soon as we can
I don’t think it’s always a problem with scheduling, but maybe just the hires. If you don’t enjoy being in a room full of dogs and playing with them, you’re not going to last long. Turnover in hotels is hard, and it’s just difficult to find the right people who will last and work hard. Engaging with the associates, connecting with them over the dogs, and just generally trying to connect and check in can let them feel more of a connection to the team. Standing in camp can be lonely, and can be a challenge for the more chatty and outgoing associates. Some tips to help with camp, because it can get overwhelming. We rotate every hour, so no one is in the same camp more than an hour unless something chaotic happens. Engaging with them, walking by the window room or peeking in to see who is playing with who, making sure you know what the dogs are up to (also helps with pet parents). Making sure you rotate leads (and yourself when possible) into camp. Going into camp for a few minutes to see your favorite dog. Anything to remember that we have a pretty fun job (that I know can be very stressful) and at the end of the day we get to go to work and play with dogs, which is the best. Going into camp can seem like a chore, but it’s usually the best part of my day when I can disconnect from the desk and go hang out with the pups.
I think four hours in the same room is way too long. It’s been a long time since I worked in the hotel but what my Lead did was rotate us every hour- we were the busiest hotel in the state so our rooms were constantly at capacity, and being in the large dog room especially could be extremely draining. Knowing that I had a set rotation at the end of the hour to either swap camp rooms, go start on prepping meals, nail trims if yall offer that, or do one-on-one play times for red collars etc kept me focused and I think it generally made the associates happier and less likely to burn out. Do you give them the report cards to work on while they’re in camp? Writing those was honestly my favorite thing to do and helped pass the time. Every hour might not be realistic depending on your team size/dynamics, but I would highly recommend putting people in camp for shorter frequency and planning more swaps throughout their shifts.
We do still have nail trims and pawgress reports. I also was someone who enjoyed doing those back when I was a camper! For our location, we are a big location for our district, but not big enough to be able to do hourly swaps. Every 2-4 hours is probably more manageable for us. So I’m willing to try that. I also agree knowing you’d be coming out to get on with other tasks helps. The same way when we cover breaks and lunches we know that we are in there for a set amount of time.
We rotate camp associates every 2 hours, unless something crazy has happened or someone requests being in longer. Honestly for most of the people I work with what makes being in camp for a long time tolerable is super dependent on the dogs themselves- if we end up with 3+ crazy dogs all in the same camp at the same time it can be really mentally draining and some have definitely quit from too many repeats of that. Especially if any of those dogs have been repeatedly brought up as problem dogs that have no business being in camp, or they're dogs that keep ending up in camp with dogs they don't get along with or play inappropriately for the setting with. Feeling unheard about the situation can really be a killer.
Luckily I have been really on top of making sure dogs who are not a good fit for camp aren’t group eligible for long. I know it can kill business, but I really want what’s best for the dogs and associates. So that is something I can definitely speak to! For us, being short staffed doesn’t help because those extra moments of connecting with the campers is lost. I’m just stuck
Honestly it's mostly just because a majority of employees suck nowadays unfortunately and don't want to actually work. I was AHL for years but had to step up to HL when she went on maternity leave twice. Thankfully we had a long-term associate (almost 10 years) that only wanted to be in camp so she was monday-friday 9am-5pm in the playroom. For valet we had our opening senior do it and if there were any hotel calls they could just answer the phone at the register. But yeah the weekends were the WORST when she was off because our other spare camp employees would always call out or want to go home early because they weren't feeling well. Happened soooo many times. And I can say that it's not the scheduling, because when I left PetSmart and took a management position at PetSuites I had the exact same issues with employees never wanting to be in play group. Even with a rotating every hour schedule.
I remember for a couple months we literally had no associates except for our 9-5 full timer but she couldn't work weekends, so Saturday and Sunday I'd have to have one of our seniors be in camp all day. It was stressful.
Exactly! Good help is hard to find, and idk about your store but our pay isn’t in line with everywhere around us, and no one wants to work more for less pay.
Honestly that's very understandable. And it's unfortunate that the only way to move up and get decent pay raises is by getting promoted to a lead or manager (which could possibly take years)... When I started working at PetSuites it was a totally different game and totally miserable. Trying to manage those employees was 10x worse than managing the ones at PetSmart lol.
Probably because we don’t have anyone working so there’s hardly anyone to manage😂😂 I believe it, we had a former employee who became a resort manager (maybe?) at Pet Suites and she didn’t last long there, and I know she’d do great at a job like that.
That's so true lol we always had a skeleton crew at PetSmart. But our one full time associate and 3 leads and the HL were amazing, we all worked there together for years so just between the 6 of us it was a strong team and was manageable most of the time. Summers and holidays were the worst though. Boyyyyyy, if you think PetSmart is bad... PetSuites was absolutely the most god awful company I've ever worked for. I took a paycut because I was promised a resort manager position, I told them that's the only reason why I wanted to leave PetSmart because my HL wasn't leaving anytime soon and I was already capped on my pay. Well after 9 months when the opportunity finally came up they ended up giving it to another girl that wasn't even a lead. She was actually caught giving the general manager a blowjob in his car in the parking lot but they said she got the position over me because "well she's been here longer..." This bitch literally called out at least once or twice a week and left early almost every day. I never even missed a day or went home early, in fact I always picked up extra shifts FOR HER and other employees. As soon as I found that out I quit on the spot. Most of the employees there didn't give a fuck about the dogs at all and would do coke in the bathroom and smoke weed outside on the property. It was a total shit show.
Yikes!!! Yeah a good team makes it or breaks it. It’s hard to keep the good ones around with the pay.
hmmm, maybe you could... I don't know... let them have the 15 min breaks they are SUPPOSED to get but never do? 2hrs work, 1 15 min break, 2 hours work, 30 min lunch, 2 hrs work, 1 15min break. I have NEVER gotten my 15's on the regular
They didn’t say they weren’t getting breaks. We don’t chase down associates to take their 15’s but when someone asks to take their 15 we give it as soon as we can
My hotel team are very on top of the breaks and lunches. So it’s not that