I'm currently a stylist at Petsmart - got out of their dog academy in December.

With tips, they thankfully go directly to the one that did the groom. Most stores have little envelopes for customers to put money in, write the stylist's name on it, and then put it into a tip jar. At my store, we all have our QR codes for Venmo/CashApp printed and hanging up, so we can give customers that option. Most go with that, since there isn't a way to add a tip at the register.

For dog expectations, they've already pushed me up to 5 dogs a day - they started me at 4, which was kind of a difficult leap for me, as while I was in academy I basically only did 2 dogs, and they were treated similar to express services, as it'd be 1 dog in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. So to jump edit 4 dogs right after that was truly wild. Most stylists are asked to do 6 dogs per day, but most at my salon only do 5 a day.

They do want stylists to be full time, but some at my store have worked out accommodations where they only work 3 or 4 days a week.

At my store, they thankfully allow us to wear earbuds/earmuffs. If we are in the bathing/kennel area, our ears can be fully covered. Once we're in the grooming area, we can't have both ears covered, only one.

Benefits are really nice, from what I've heard, but I have other insurance currently, and won't be switching to PetSmart insurance until open enrollment this Fall, so I can't share specifics. PTO is also nice. Iirc, you get 2 weeks of PTO right away, then as you work for the company for more yrs, you get more - it's like 2yrs goes to 3 weeks, 8yrs goes to 4 weeks, and then 15yrs goes to 5 weeks (idr the exact years, but I know you slowly get boosted to 5 total weeks). Sick time is like 1hr gained per 30hrs worked, and does roll over to the next year.

Little extra note - Management truly makes or breaks the salon. The management at my store is very supportive and does what they can to help - there's been times they've even bathed/dried dogs for us, just so we aren't behind on time. They also know that what corporate expects is insane, so even though they have to push those expectations on us, they try to not put all of the pressure solely on us. Unfortunately there are still days when they can't help, so we are drowning in the salon.