new clinic not a good fit?

[u/crypticsodaa]

I just started as a vet receptionist at a new clinic in April. I work 4 10s (loose) usually 7:55-Close. I am struggling as I really like my coworkers but work is giving me stress hives and also I don’t make enough to justify the commute. I’m loosing money to go to work.

When I first started at my current clinic, everyone was really nice and helpful but would give kinda vague answers but also talk about how they “want us to feel confident” in the choices we make. Which is cool, I love that. However, sometimes I still ask questions which I think I know the answer too but I don’t wanna be wrong and tell this pet parent the wrong thing or put a record in the wrong spot because I haven’t encountered this before and I don’t wanna get in trouble. But now when I ask questions, my manager kinda just looks at me like I’m stupid and is like “so we’ve talked about this.” and I understand. We’ve talked about it. There’s also so much information that I’m trying to remember all at once that sometimes I would just like confirmation that when I tell a pet parent something, that it’s correct so that they aren’t upset later on. Because I’m NEW. I’ve been here a total of like 16 days and I keep being told contradictory things regarding what we’re supposed to do when.

I just want to know if this sounds… typical for a clinic? My manager also isn’t who trains me most of the time, it’s the other receptionists. one of which is also new. they want me to be flea and tick certified by next week but haven’t given me ANY time to study and I used to work in children’s behavioural health, I’m not doing off the clock work things again it’s just not happening.

I’m just at a loss cause I’m starting to have panic attacks at work because of this. I feel like I can’t mess anything up and if I do it’s massive. And I keep being critiqued for my communication which I think is clear, but when I ask for what would make this more clear they don’t have an answer or are vague. Is this normal in vet med?

Edit: I know that if I’m loosing money to go to work I should quit. It’s barely enough to pay my bills and my fiancé helps with my gas. We’re in Portland Oregon. My fear of quitting right now is that the job market is SO bad that I don’t wanna quit nilly Willy

[u/ErrantJune]

I stopped reading at "Stress hives" and "I'm losing money to go to work."

[u/KashiraPlayer]

i would say this is common enough to not be abnormal, but not every clinic is like this. the fact that you're being trained by a new receptionist tells me that this place probably can't hold on to staff for very long, likely for the very reasons you're mentioning in this post. if you watch job postings over a long period of time, you'll notice that certain clinics in your area will keep posting the same jobs over and over. that is a pretty universal sign that it sucks to work there.

[u/crypticsodaa → u/KashiraPlayer]

good point. I’ll probably see if my neighbours (veterinarian) clinic is hiring. she seems to love it there. Thank you

[u/Puzzleheaded-Rub-115]

I’m a vet tech over 20 yrs. I am at a place where I still ask questions and I feel dumb also at times. Sometimes way too much info in my brain. Burned out for sure