not enjoing working in a LFS

[Gill]

Hello Paul,

I can So Relate to your experiences within an LFS.
It was the same for me.

My First Day - I was told to Scrub down all the Water Features - if anyone is Familiar with Dobbies Larger Stores you will know they ahve Loads of them.

Second Day
Cleaning again

Third
Cleaning.

The Fulltime workers loved using Feeder Mollies for the Marine fish. I hated that as they wold use the most lovely Black Lyretail Mollies, for the Groupers and Lion Fish. Piranhas were fed Goldfish and Guppies.


It soon Dawned on me that I was a Glorified Cleaner when the Manager was In - He onlt Worked every other Day.

When He was not In, I was able to Chat to the Customers and advise them on what I LEARNED FROM ALL YOU GUYS' ADVICE and not the Managers.

I got Very annoyed with his views.
EG a 5 Gallon, he wanted me to sell 10 Goldfish for it. I tried in Vein to Explain the 10Gallon rule For Goldfish, but HE KNEW BEST as He Was MANAGER.

I got Very upset at the fish they bought and how they did not care about the conditions they kept the Trops and Colds in.
They ordered fosh *2 a week so that the Tanks Always looked full and healthy.
The truth was that the fish were below standard most of the time and whole shipments would be dead the next day.
I was not amused when the Set Up Mudskipper tanks - I asked on here for advice adn then offered that to them - It was Ignored and all the Mudskippers Died within a Few Days, But the MANAGER just ordered more.

The worst was Freshwater Snowflake Eels. Ordered a few and the died within a Day. They stank the Place out.

Also they "had" Quarantine Tanks but never treated any of the fish in them. Leaving them to get worse and die, if they did not die the tanks were not cleaned out - more ill fish would be dumped in them.

Even down to Medicating was a very poor system, All the Tanks ran on Banks of Sumps - refugiums 'sp'. If there were clowns in one of these, they would all get the same doses. so the clowns would die.

I only Enjoyed being able to talk to the customers and help them make the best choices given what I knew and Gleamed off here.
They did start to notice - that Actually he does know what he is talking about and started refering customers to me. More so trop questions and Fighter Questions.

I gave up in the End - as all I was there to do was Clean and Did not Enjoy the Experience.

They only Cared about the Marine Section, that was kept Prestine and never any ill fish in those tanks.

I so Understand. Keep @ it Paul, your hard work will pay off eventually.

PS Does your store use Barcoded system for all sales, or do you just write the prices of the fish on the bags.
Dobbies was Entirely barcoded, so that the System automatically Ordered fish.
Even the Dead fish were Barcoded, so that the Main Data System could track for the Quality of the fish from Suppliers.

 

[Fiori]

Dobbies- *spits on the ground*. Never buy fish from there, they all die (I speak from experience).

Sorry to hear about your hard time at work Wolf - its such a shame. I can imagine how frustrating it must be; I love going into my lfs every week and having a good look around and a blether with the staff. For that to turn into somewhere you would really rather avoid must be hard.

Chin up - "whats for you won't go by you" as they say. It will come right in the end, one way or another.

 

[GSD]

itl get better,at least your job is half interesting and with something you love!

 

[debiasir]

if your heart is not in the job and you are no longer enjoying that place of work. GET OUT!! we spend most of our lives working and if it is in a place that we dont like, what life is that, I handed in my notice 2 weeks ago as my heart was not in the job and i was miserable because of it.

I hope you find a place you enjoy working at The_Wolf and wish you good luck for the future

 

[jacblades]

i have been working at petsmart for nearly a year now and i have wanted to quit so many times.
a manager that despises me because i know so much, ignorant back-stabbing coworkers, ignorant customers, sick and dying fish and other animals every day, a paycheck thats barely enough to live on (not to mention not getting raises because my manager hates me...), people who work there not for the love of it but just because it's a job...so many times people at work have made me cry and i have wanted to leave

but i stay because i know i am the only hope for those poor fish. i am the only one who cares about the tank size the fish go in, how often the people will clean the tank, etc.

thankfully i hasve been able to educate many of my coworkers in some of the ways of proper fish keeping so hopefully if i leave, or get fired-there will be some hope for the fish. (although those are the same back-stabbers that run and tell the manager that i refused to sell a dragon fish to someone with a 5 gallon freshwater tank or refused to sell a goldfish to someone who was going to put it in a bowl) but i know the best thing i can do for the animals is to stay there.

working there for a year with the general fish-keeping public (people who dont give a **** about their fish) has depressed me so much. there is so much misinformation and most people believe they can throw 50 fish in a 10 gallon tank with a whisper filter, change the cartridge every 6 months, change the water once a year. they always say, "well i had an uncle who never changed his water", or "we have had a pangasius cat in a 10 gallon before" (oh really? well what happened to it?)
before i started working there, i thought there would be more people like us (fish fanatics) of course, i always we knew we were the minority but i thought there might be more. i think i see one every week or two, if even that many. and i am always excited to see those people because i know they actually care and that i can carry an intelligent conversation about fish with them. i get so tired of explaining the nitrogen cycle 5 times a day to people who dont know the first thing about fish. now dont get me wrong, i am glad to be educating them but i just wish there was a better general knowledge of fishkeeping. i wish books were accurate. i wish fish magazines wouldnt recommend putting 5 fish in a 2 gallon. i wish people didnt think bettas like being in hexes. i wish people didnt put cost over proper care for their animals. (if you cant afford to care for it properly, dont get it!) i wish corporate pet stores would go to hell.
despite all of this, i will still be working towards better educating people about proper care for their pets.

wolf, hang in there. i bet you are the best thing to happen to your lfs.

perhaps someday you can start your own lfs. thats what i plan on doing. (in order to run a good store, you need to know how a bad one is run)
my (nice) manager always jokes with me that i work at petsmart, not jacsmart (since i always try to do what's best for the animals, and often those things dont fall within the petsmart rules)

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If theres anyone that has decent knolege of fish that lives in sommerset(UK), my lfs has just gone up for sale after the owner had an affair and is getting devorced with his wife and running off with some other woman, i considered buying the buisness but running a shop isn't realy my thing. Everything in the shop is been sold with it too, pretty much just been passed down to whoever buys the place. So...anyone who wants to buy a small lfs buisness and run it well who lives near me can hold true to their word with this opotunity .

And yeah i simpathise for you wolf too, but i think you are that lfs's fish only hope and if somone else comes along to work there that knows about fish you can team up with them and share the workload and make a bigger impact on the way things are done .

 

[The-Wolf]

So remember, you are making a difference, especially someone so knowledgable as yourself!
Ben

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I know we have had our differences in the past ben, but for you to say that means more than I can put into words, thanks just dosn't cover it.

itl get better,at least your job is half interesting and with something you love!

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I think the realisation I've come to germanshepherdlver is that I don't love it enough to do it for a living

A big thanks to all for the support.
I nearly walked out today because someone wanted to buy a Mbu puffer for a 4ft tank, I said no and the manager was going to let the customer have it.
(the boss wasn't in at all today) I had to show the manager info from two books and the net before she reluctantly aggreed the customers tank was too small.
After the customer had gone the manager just moaned about losing a £125 sale
I feel a sickie comming on for tomorrow

 

[mattbeau]

i get so tired of explaining the nitrogen cycle 5 times a day to people who dont know the first thing about fish. now dont get me wrong, i am glad to be educating them but i just wish there was a better general knowledge of fishkeeping.

Jacblades,

when i first started, a fish tank with all of the extras was a birthday gift, my dad had a fish tank (though always low stock of fish) and i had been eyeballing them for a little while but was a bit reluctant of getting one. then a family member got one one for me for my B-day. I jumped into a world of the unknown for the most part. the first thing i did before anything else was buy a book and read it, I idecided on the fish that i wanted to get, but was still lost in the dark. I read about the nitrogen cycle and everything else but one thing i didnt have was patience. when i first picked out my fish i was going to fully stock the tank but the person at the lfs stopped me short of stocking half way, reccommended water conditioners plants, plant food, fish food, and everything else. I explained to her i hardly new anything about keeping fish and i was going to take all of her advice. she also went over the nitrogen cycle for me even though i already read about it, and coming from her mouth instead of text helped that much more.

I've had intelligent converstions with some LFS staff. especially the really serious ones, they tell me all about there set ups and I eat it up. even though i dont know mch about the fish they are talking about, but I'm learning, thats the key.

So even though you may be discouraged about talking about the basics all the time. you are also the guru in alot of peoples minds, the go-to person. without people like you I'm sure alot of us would be lost in the dark.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

i work at a LFS just not in the fish department, i work at petsmart, and i am in the dog section, but i always sneak over to the fish to check out what is hapening, and i get a killer discount (15%) heheh so its all worth it,

work at a store with fish, but not in that department, that is the way to go!

 

[caspercanuck]

i worked in the fish department of a privately owned pet store for a year... it does ''train'' you some things that will ''help'' you in the future..

it taught me to learn to keep my mouth shut.. if i dealt with a customer, and they wanted to put something unsuitable together, i would always say no.. more often then not, the owner would come over and sell whatever it was, but there would be no guarantee on the fish.. i learned quick to keep my mouth shut, its sad, but its something that youll have to learn to do...

you might get lucky and get a boss that actually cares what you think, but most of the time its all about the bling bling..

it took me a few months to get used to it, but now its no big deal to me at all...

i dont work there anymore, but i did learn all sorts of ''good stuff''

we would get in shipments sometimes where all the fish would be dead... hundreds of dead fish.. its not like theres anything you can do about it.. it sucks, but it happens..

if you were told you were going to be trained, ask em about it... its not like youre going to get fired for asking for more responsibility.. they might take it as you being eager to learn...

the more respect you earn, the better things will be.. trust me

 

[simonbrown403]

I know exacty how you feel, One of my hobbies is tuning cars, Since working on other peoples cars it is no longer a hobby, Its a chore. I can imagine alot of people wanting to be a car tuner, Belive me, Its not all its cracked up to be.

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dito... my wife keeps gong at me to do some work on the house as im a trades man, but i,m carnt be bothered, its like a bus mans holiday. all i want to do is relax and get away from all the hassel.

you would never injoy your fish the same again.

I think you should have a word with him, if you take a backseat your just going to be there for the ride.

 

[hellohefalump]

that sounds exactly like the place I used to work... um, it's not tachbrook in Victoria is it?

 

[julibob]

Glad to see you went in today Paul! Good luck in finding something else! See you soon.

Julia