veterinary technician

veterinarian

veterinary technologist

practice manager

veterinary practice manager

VetStrategy

Working for Vet Strategy is absolutely awful. They don't care AT ALL about you as a person, you're nothing but a number to these people no matter what position you're working in. They definitely don't care about quality of patient care either. I would often be scheduled 12 hours and end up working 16+ hours without a break. Management hired in Vet Strategy were previously management at places like Pizza shops and have ZERO veterinary experience. "Raises" are never more than 30ish cents an hour, once a year if you're lucky. VS brings shame to the veterinary industry and brings validation to the awful and untrue cliche that "vets only care about money". Vet Strategy really does only care about money. Zero job security. Seniority doesn't matter. Will lay you off without a second thought, with no consideration about how long you've been working there or the skills you bring. Will push out the original founding veterinarians of the clinics they buy. They laid off long time dedicated amazing hard working people and hired new random people on the same day. Will change your schedule without consulting you. I could go for miles talking about how truly awful Vet Strategy is.

DO NOT WORK FOR THIS CORPORATION.

CLINIC OWNERS - DO NOT SELL ANY PIECE OF YOUR BUSINESS TO THIS CORPORATION. YOU WILL REGRET IT.

For the most part it was a good job working here as a receptionist, however some clients could be incredibly difficult and management would not want to deal with them, or have your back in the case of a disagreement. I was hired with the promise that I would be trained to move up to a vet assistant position, but was constantly given excuses as to why that couldn't happen. Also, corporate VetStrategy is constantly looking over your shoulder and changing things. Considering how much you have to deal with mentally and physically, the industry as a whole does not pay enough, no matter what your position is.

Severely overworked and shortstaffed.
Had to fight to receive an average wage - many underpaid.
Local practice manager is great - though some areas could be better.
Upper management have zero presence - have zero Veterinary Medicine experience, yet make all of the decisions for your clinic.  Every small thing has to climb the corporate ladder for approval.
No matter how hard you work, unless you’re bringing in enough money to beat their incredibly high revenue goals, it won’t be good enough.  They set financial goals without considering current staffing and aren’t happy even when you’re bringing in significant amounts considering shortages.
They will always tell you they’re over labour budget and under revenue budget, even when you’re short staffed.
Culture of the company is 100% corporate - and exactly what you’d expect from a stereotypical corporation. 
In my opinion corporations are ruining the culture of Veterinary Medicine and current staff are all fleeing for independently owned clinics instead.

This hospital is 24 hour emergency with barely enough staff that is competent to perform the jobs because “they just need bodies” so you end up doing more work on top of what you already have to do. And firing people is apparently not an option when they are liabilities. The wage is insultingly low for support staff like receptionists and assistants. Management is horrendous. A lot of favouritism, gossip, non-supportive people in “leadership” positions with zero experience or knowledge on properly leading such a large team. No work-life balance whatsoever. Technicians are abusive towards reception staff with no repercussions. Medicine is poor because there aren’t enough doctors and the locums seem to have incredibly low standards of care. Also, astronomical costs for care for just being basically an urgent care walk-in facility, not ICU. I could list everything wrong with this place for hours, but these are the main points that never seem to be corrected and I am doubtful they ever will be. 

The clinic that I have worked for since 2010 was purchased by Vet Strategy in July of 2019.   At that time, I was promoted from Reception Manager to Practice Manager.   My duties and responsibilities have multiplied greatly but I have welcomed the challenge.  My favourite part about joining the Vet Strategy family is the amount of support and sense of community that comes from belonging to such a large group of professionals.  Going through the beginning of COVID would have been so much more stressful without this company have our backs and working their butts off to ensure we had everything we needed to be able to keep serving our clients and helping animals that needed us.   I would highly recommend joining a Vet Strategy clinic.  
You won’t regret it.   Don’t listen to all the negative ‘corporate this “ and “corporate that” bologna.  It will be the best move you ever made.  

It’s a given that any medical job for animals and humans alike will be fast paced and anxiety inducing. However, at the end of the day you feel rewarded by knowing you’ve contributed to helping a pet feel better or comfort a grieving family. Not a good place to work if handling lab samples makes you uncomfortable.

There is no union, an open door policy is in place. You will have to bring up any problems you’re experiencing to management to help resolve. 

The workplace culture needs improvement as micromanaging and ambiguous responses from management can be a problem. It’s important that they change this for retention, but I think they’re capable of fixing this with hard work. 

The medical staff are professional, intelligent and resourceful. I’ve never doubted the level of attention or care our patients get even if we have our interpersonal challenges.

It’s not a job everyone can do, but if you can ride out the storm you’ll find the silver lining.



Where do I begin? We are understaffed to the point that patient care is at risk and safety for patients and employees is disregarded, yet we are not allowed to hire more people. Clients have started to notice the staff turnover and we have had to reduce our hours and still will occasionally close early because of lack of staff. The system that VetStrategy created, VetUp, makes absolutely no sense and we have been forced to use THEIR veterinary product distributor that is located IN ANOTHER PROVINCE despite the fact that we have a very local distributor that can get us product within a day. I still trust our staff, however our very real concerns are not being heard by anyone. They run each clinic by a "one size fits all" mentality when each clinic is different. The regional operations directors that they hire have no clinic experience and in about 3 years I have seen 4 of them come and go so they are just as expendable. 

This company is totally clueless about keeping staff happy, let alone keeping staff from quitting. They run successful vet clinics into the ground. They let staff quit without trying to work to keep them from quitting. Their goal is to hire people who are easily manipulated and malleable. If you have a mind of your own, this is NOT the company for you. They cut people’s hours without telling them and have no sympathy when they are told this is not sustainable.  Their response is “pick up some hours somewhere else.”  They don’t make employees feel appreciated or valued.… everyone is replaceable.. They are a corporation with absolutely no clue how a veterinary clinic runs. 

If you will do what you’re told, without question and will be a sycophant who is okay with receiving a salary that will not allow you to live comfortably in Toronto, go ahead and apply and may God be with you. 

Experiences will vary greatly depending on the clinic and who is managing it. Clinic level management does not seen to get enough support from head office. Human resources is extremely slow to respond to issues. My specific clinic had a very toxic work environment and a manager who was constantly lying and neglecting their own job. Staff were constantly spoken to in a patronizing tone. The previous owner of the clinic constantly would "call the shots" and it caused a lot of tension. Prices are through the roof and the company seems more money focused than animal focused. This isn't white-glove service as the pricing would suggest. Corporate medicine takeover is sad. I will never work for a clinic owned by this company again. 

If you work for a clinic that is taken over by Vetstrategy you need to find a new job right away because all the good workers will leave and you'll be stuck with incompetent and lazy employees. The company only cares about how much money they are earning and couldn't care about the health of the pets if they tried. Do not work for a vetstrategy clinic if you care about animals or your mental health. They will cut staff down to a bare minimum and the quality of care will suffer. They will raise prices over and over. Mistakes will increase and customers will get upset with the lack of staff, care, and competence. Management only cares about money and themselves. The hardest part of the job is seeing good customers go elsewhere after putting up with decreasing quality, and seeing all the good workers bail for better clinics. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Veterinary technician 18 salaries reported	$29.56 per hour
Veterinarian 3 salaries reported	$115,833 per year
Veterinary technologist 9 salaries reported	$28.11 per hour
Practice manager 2 salaries reported	$68,750 per year
Veterinary practice manager 8 salaries reported	$66,250 per year

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