Trouble with a teen's summer job

its probably illegal to do that unless she agreed to it.

Ive done it but with freelancers not employees.

 

It would depend on what the girl was doing at the time the dog broke loose. If she was goofing off, yes she should pay; if it was just a dog too big for her to corral (which I see all the time at the park, a 100 lb girl getting dragged around by a 75 lb dog), then no, accidents happen, the vet should cover the cost.

 

Like Jerry said, I would be surprised if the vet could legally charge her $80. However, the vet could probably fire her instead so I guess it's a choice between the lesser of two evils.

 

This jerk of a vet should have taken care of the smaller dog on his own dime - especially for a first time event with a brand new employee. I would quit before I paid a dime, just out of principles.

I have a related story: I had to go to the dog pound to get back my Dalmation, which got away to see a girlfriend. While I was paying his fine, a teenage girl came in with a Siamese Cat that had been hanging around her house for some time. They caught it and she was turning it in.

They charged her $40 or so to drop it off - she told them "look - it wasn't our cat - you can call my Mom". They didn't care...she had to pay. She had no cash, so she eventually wrote them a check.

This is nothing more than an incentive for people to turn their cats loose in the greenbelt. That is how I got my cat - she was a dump-off in the park across the street from my house. If I had picked her out at the shelter, thus saving her final life of the nine, it would have cost me probably 50 or 60 bucks, plus whatever the responsible owner had to pay.

 

I agree----The vet is probably making big $$$$, paying them $6 an hour and is whining about $80----F%$$ him---Find another job...

 

A friend of mine used to work at Pepi's in Vail right out of college (swanky expensive restaurant and bar in the Village). Some dude came in and ordered 2 bottles of Cristal and then ducked paying the bill. My buddy was going to get hit for retail on the bottles (not cost) by the owner because they were shortstaffed and he was the only bartender working a busy Saturday night. Lucky for my friend, the dude came in the next day while he was working and didn't even remember being there the night before he was so drunk. He paid for the champagne and all was fine, but I think a lot of shady employers pull this kind of crap.

I can tell you I'll never darken Pepi's door. And I would never go to that vet, either.

 

Good for you. I share your thoughts. There is a huge difference between a business owner in terms of responsibility and an employee, especially an hourly worker.

 

He can't charge the girl for the meds. First of all, he's gouging his own employee. Second, I'll bet anything he has no policy in place for this, he's just shooting from the hip. He's responsible for the safety of the dogs and shouldn't be allowing dogs to co-mingle. Especially at a veterinary facility, where new summer help shouldn't be given that responsibility when you have dogs that are sick or injured. He failed to properly train his employees, and he eats the cost accordingly. If I was her, I'd quit. She's only going to get more of the same all summer.

 

$80 is a small price to pay for a teenager to learn some responsibility. Her actions, or lack thereof, regarding her care/control of said-large dog caused damage to someone else's property (small dog). An 18-year-old should not need 'training' to walk a damned dog!!! What if small-dog-owner had retained council and sued the vet for damages? Somebody is getting off 'lite' for $80....

 

Pretty harsh view, given the circumstances. The girl didn't act irresponsibly, the dog simply broke free from her. Someone told her to take the dog out and she did it. It would be different if she put two dogs together on purpose and one of them bit the other.

Who would be on the hook if that happened? Yep, the vet. Why should the vet get to shift responsibility onto the girl just because he didn't get sued?

 

If the girl were walking a Pit Bull, and the dog broke free and mauled a child, you'd be singing a different tune. The girl had a responsibility to control the animal at all times, and she failed to do so. There is no 'grey area' here. The responsibility lies with the person at the end of the leash - the 'buck' stops there.

 

Too hard to come to come down on the kid without really knowing what happened. Did the actually leash break? Was she goofing around? Was the dog too big for her to handle? Sometimes the buggers react quickly and they slip out of your hands.

Either way, it is piss weak that the Vet is stinging her that $80. Id tell him to stick it AND his job!! Get Dad down there to have a talk to him. Thats what I would do.

 

+1

 

"Pass the buck... to me."

Instead of charging full retail for the Meds, he could have given her an Employee Discount, if not actual cost. The latter being most fair, amicable and reasonable solution to a problem which the small dog owner had no quarrel with.
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Hey, 8 Snake - How's your dog doing?

 

Vet needs an @ss kicking.

 

The beauty of working for someone else is having your mistakes on someone elses dime.

 

IMO, unless the vet has a belief that the incident was deliberate misbehavior or negligence (in which case the correct action is termination for cause), then the other reasons are: poor training, inadequate work conditions (such as insufficient room to walk the animals separately), inadequate supervision, etc - all of which are the vet's responsibility. I'm sure the vet is thinking he's a nice guy for waiving the labor and only charging what he's out of pocket for meds (and was that $80 cost or retail?), but he might as well charge $50 a month for the electricity to light the worker's corner of the clinic. Incidents/damages in the course of doing business is a cost of doing business.

 

She's actually doing quite well now but that was easily the worst experience of my life! Nothing like meeting with the vet and hearing that your (less than 2-year-old) dog has .01% chance of survival. We spent three days straight in the lobby of the animal hospital with her. They were kind enough to clear an area in their atrium and made a bed for Bailey so that we could stay with her while hooked to her IV's. Man those were some looooong days of waiting, hoping and praying. I don't want this to get moved to P&R, but I will say that prayers were definitely answered that week.