Lyndie K

Review of Burton's Total Pet

I really hope that I can protect other people. I w...

I really hope that I can protect other people. I worked at this place and it was a terrible experience. The general manager, Steve is a bully to the female employees in particular. Burton condones this behavior and does not care. Burton made excuses and allows this behavior to go on even after being notified, in detail. The day after I was hired, every single female that worked there warned me about Steve and his lack of patience, respect and stability. Steve is very condescending and does not hesitate to hurt someone's feelings. Employee or customer. He does not train his employees, they have to figure it out on their own. Then he talks to you like you're stupid because you don't know what you're doing when in fact he is the one that is supposed to be training. He doesn't seem to understand what a general manager actually does. Managing people is not something he should be doing. When I contacted Burton after I quit, he was very nonchalant and said that Steve does not have patience. He blew me off in a very unprofessional manner. I previously worked as an in-home dog trainer for over five years and I dealt with some difficult people to say the least. Some where almost impossible to deal with. It was very hard work but I never had a problem helping individuals, communicating with them and teaching them. Burton was aware of my previous work experience and when I told him what Steve had been doing he turned it around on me and said that, "It's not as easy working for people instead of dogs." Burton claims to be very educated when it comes to dogs and dog training. If he was as educated as he claims to be, he would be aware that dog training is more a training of people instead of dogs. Most of my time was spent specifically working with people. I guess it was easier to just blame it on me, the new employee. Steve made me feel very uncomfortable and said insulting things to me in front of customers. I had customers tell me that it was OK and ask me if he was always like that. I had customers comforting me. I witnessed Steve insulting other employees that were female in front of customers and those customers were comforting those women as well. Burton is aware of all of this but chooses to not do anything or reassure me that he would look into it. It is so disturbing and ridiculous that a general manager would treat females in such a fashion and not only get away with that but get paid to do it. That speaks volumes about Burton himself as a store owner and as a human being. I have never experienced such a harsh and volatile work environment. The other females in the store walk around on eggshells and put on a smiling face. I lost count of how many comments were made to me, in private, regarding the negative impact that Steve has on the employees and the customers. I did my part and reported the behavior to Burton. It is extremely disappointing that the employees are treated so poorly for such hard work. When we grow up we are told that bullying is wrong and that you should always tell someone if you you're being treated badly or harassed or you are seeing other people being treated badly. Burton does not have empathy in this regard and would prefer his employees to keep their mouth shut while Steve walks all over them. It appears that the other female employees are too afraid to speak up. I'm not afraid of Steve or Burton so I will speak up. Nobody deserves to be treated the way that Steve and Burton treat people.