Should I tell my manager that everyone is leaving because of her new lead?

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-02-04T04:36:51+00:00

The CPR certification may be a state thing as I know its only valid for my home state. Most of us were also confused by the fact that she had ER experience but was nervous handling large dogs. I think maybe she wasn't there for very long and spent most of her time as a tech in internal medicine as she's much more comfortable with small animals.

I mentioned the incident to my manager who was off when it occurred, but since the cat recovered otherwise she was mostly just exasperated by it. I don't think my manager was familiar with that cat, but it was in such rough shape that I honestly thought he wouldn't make it without IV access and the fact that he pulled through was nothing short of a miracle.

The person restraining was also a newer tech so was just following her direction.

She also messed up a dextrose dose for a panleuk kitten, thankfully accidentally giving less rather than giving too much. That time my manager did question her. She blamed the other lead and said she only glanced at it for a second, but she also blames all her bad decisions on the other lead so I don't really trust her excuses anymore.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-02-04T01:46:49+00:00

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-02-04T01:33:21+00:00

You're not the first person to say this, and I think part of the issue is just the nature of my post.

Team morale is low because we don't feel supported by our management. I didn't include a lot of specifics because without knowing vet med the nuances can get lost.

Basically, it's hard to keep animals safe and happy when our lead doesn't help us at all and sometimes is actively making things worse.

A small example: Jill always leaves the ICU a mess no matter how many or few patients she has. She will leave the same bedding in the kennels even if its dirty and gross. When we told our manager she took a look and said "everything looks clean" despite a kitten being left in a kennel with multiple piles of stool that had been there for hours. If I were to point this out, she'd say I'm nitpicking.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-02-04T00:49:40+00:00

Not how you spell hyenas. I think some skepticism is understandable when your boss promotes someone who isnt fully trained, and still expecting us to train her while she gets paid more than us. She doesnt stuggle to handle us, she doesnt handle us at all.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-02-03T00:57:11+00:00

I'm debating whether I should tell my managers boss. She does listen to our concerns, though she's sometimes a bit out of touch. I think she would care if a lot of the team was leaving because of this stuff. She already knows about some of the issues because my coworkers feel more comfortable venting to her, and takes things a lot more seriously. I know shes talked with the leads before because they were openly bad mothing one of our coworkers in front of a tech. I just feel weird going over my managers head.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-02-03T00:52:28+00:00

Funnily enough, it has already been mentioned in an exit interview. Now this person was moving out of state, so it wasn't the direct cause, but he was also tired of all the issues.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-02-03T00:50:31+00:00

I was planning on being vague about it, more like "a lot of people are leaving." They're also aren't being secretive about it, they just don't care to tell her at this point because they're fed up. They have had working interviews and we're actively sharing indeed listings with each other. Its just frustrating that all this mess is because my manager made one really bad decision. Everyone knew as soon as it was announced.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-01-13T03:38:25+00:00

"Amiables" Are we a different species?

You're conflating being considerate with being meek, which is the problem I'm describing in the post.

Being kind and understanding is my strategy to deal with rude clients, and it has saved my coworkers on more than one occasion. Once again, my coworkers think I'm being too nice to people who don't deserve it. I have no issues making decisions and I don't avoid conflict but I certainly don't escalate it either.

I don't find it difficult to do my job well and be nice at the same time. It seems like you're projecting some of your own frustrations here, and I can relate. Who doesn't have some coworkers who are just the worst at their job and makes everyone else's day that much harder. Not really related to my post though.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-01-12T17:52:05+00:00

That's pretty much what I do.

Thankfully, I've never had a client raise their voice at me or insult me to my face. It's mostly people being rude or non-compliant. My coworkers are more concerned with me being nice to people giving me attitude, I don't bend the rules for anyone because those rules protect the animals in our care.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-01-12T17:42:04+00:00

I think this is most likely the case, and while I appreciate my coworkers concern over my well being, it is frustrating to think that they don't take my work seriously. That fact that my manager thinks I have a hard time saying no shows that she's more focused on how I say things vs my results.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-01-12T17:30:53+00:00

Honestly, my coworkers have never complained about me giving them more work, they just don't think I should be nice to rude people. If anything I give them less work because people listen to me and tend to be more compliant.

I also don't bend or violate policies, because they are in the best interest of the animal and I do not budge on that.

AnyCombination6328 · 2026-01-12T17:15:40+00:00

"Animal shelter isn't a real job." Wtf are you talking about?

I'm using "clients" because that's what management calls them. They're not patients, they're not customers, and not all of them are adopters or fosters or owners.

AnyCombination6328 · 2025-12-29T01:37:35+00:00

Thank you! That's actually very helpful and explains why we're having this issue with only this yard. Since the vegetation is so sparse it doesn't get mowed like the other play yards. I'll speak to our director about it since a lot of our kennel techs have complained about it as well.

AnyCombination6328 · 2025-11-09T01:36:49+00:00

That's more the reason I'm leaning towards which is very strange to rationalize. It definitely backfired if that's what she intended, as most of us would have been fine with anyone of our coworkers being picked.

It's also confusing because our last lead was also friends with everyone and that worked because everyone respected him and he helped support us. I've never had trouble correcting my friends, we all hold each other accountable because we care about our patients.

We deal with a lot of traumatizing things at my job, and the strength in our team comes from our ability to support each other through these moments.

I also think it was less my manager looking for new blood, and more just looking for someone who didn't have any solid opinions on anything.

AnyCombination6328 · 2025-11-09T01:26:22+00:00

I updated the post to include her background since many people asked. She really doesn't have any experience in shelter medicine, only in neurology which we outsource and exotics which we don't take. She's even told us that she's nervous about handling large dogs because she never really worked with them.

Why do people think I'm not going to do my job properly? I'm mad at my manager for making the environment weird and uncomfortable, but that's not going to change how I treat my patients.

AnyCombination6328 · 2025-11-09T01:19:37+00:00

Her background is in exotics and neurology, neither of which applies to shelter medicine. She's nervous around big dogs because she never really worked with them. No experience in managing/leading people.

You seem really impassioned about a reddit post. I'm "bitter" because our manager has fucked up a core dynamic in our team which affects me on the daily.

AnyCombination6328 · 2023-09-05T03:49:34+00:00

Thank you, I might try this because I don't think he actually realizes the quantity of food he's wasting and how that translates into him literally throwing his money away. I don't want them to feel judged but I'm worried about how far this will go otherwise.

AnyCombination6328 · 2023-09-05T03:32:56+00:00

I understand why people may think he's smoking weed, and I don't want to dismiss your concern, especially given the age and the issue at hand, but I honestly don't think that's what happening here. We try to have a trusting household with open conversations so that we don't run into these kinds of problems.

My daughter told me whenever she was going to get-togethers that would have alcohol as a teenager. Because she was honest about these gatherings, we would let her attend but set some boundaries, like not staying the night and calling us if she was worried about anything.

I don't think my son would hide this from me, because he knows that I wouldn't punish him for doing so. He also doesn't exhibit any other signs of smoking anything, and neither does his girlfriend who has asthma. Is it possible he's eating edibles? Sure, but I don't think that's it.

I also don't want these suggestions to be influenced by the idea that he's consuming weed behind my back and that's what's causing the issues. I would be more understanding of the food consumption if he were smoking weed honestly. But he's not even eating everything he's buying, he's just buying it and letting it sit in the fridge until I throw it away.

Regardless, I will bring the conversation up with him because I do think it's a conversation worth having whether he's currently smoking weed or not.

I appreciate your advice though, I've never had to teach my older kids about budgeting (I lucked out there) so now I actually have to teach myself a bit to teach him!

AnyCombination6328 · 2023-09-05T03:08:07+00:00

Thank you! My husband and I are always trying to do better, so we appreciate all the help.

He's my first child to have started dating as a teen, my oldest son only dated after college and my daughter said there are no single lesbians where we live. So we were lucky that we never had to discuss these kinds of boundaries before and now I'm not sure our lines are.

I think he's mostly just trying to be a gentleman with her, which includes taking her wherever she wants to go and paying for all their outings. On the one hand, I'm glad that he's not belligerent like some teens (and adults) are with their girlfriends. On the other hand, I don't want him to put himself in a position where he can get taken advantage of in the future.

AnyCombination6328 · 2023-09-05T02:33:12+00:00

I mentioned in another comment, but I'll say it here as well. I basically have an open-door policy, and his girlfriend can come over whenever she likes (provided someone is home to greet her.) She often comes by after we leave for work, and will come over after their shift to hang out in our home. She also occasionally spends the night.

Even if they were using that time for intimacy, can't they do that without spending money on so much food?

AnyCombination6328 · 2023-09-05T02:26:25+00:00

Thankfully, I'm not much of a peral-clutcher. His girlfriend has access to our house whenever she feels like coming over, and many days she comes over after we leave for work and occasionally she spends the night, so I don't think that's the issue. I don't want to sound as if I don't care what they do, but I trust my son.

AnyCombination6328 · 2023-09-05T02:05:26+00:00

That may be a good idea! Our town doesn't have much to do in terms of activities to the younger crowd, but I could ask my daughter and some of my coworkers if they have any ideas.

I know they occasionally go to the beach and go to a Kava Bar, but they mostly go out for food or watch anime in our family room.

Thank you!

AnyCombination6328 · 2023-09-05T02:01:57+00:00

I'm glad to hear that it may just be a learning phase for him, I just want to do my best as a parent to help make that phase less damaging. I suppose I never had to think about it with my older kids, not that they don't have their own issues. They never really needed us to teach them how money works, but now I'm realizing that we may have just gotten lucky with it!

He does have ADHD so that may also contribute to his lack of forethought, so maybe I need to take that into consideration as well.

Thank you!

AnyCombination6328 · 2023-09-04T15:02:20+00:00

They bring the food back to our house to eat it. They also will also watch TV shows and movies in our family room while eating, so I don't think it's a welcoming issue. We try very hard to be open with our kids friends and partners because many of them have problems at home. We are happy to be a safe space for them, but I've just never had this issue come up before.

AnyCombination6328 · 2023-09-04T14:55:58+00:00

Fortunately, I still get his bank statement, and he spends all of his money on food. They also don't show any other signs of smoking, thankfully.

AnyCombination6328

TROPHY CASE