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Antiwork

When r/antiwork collides with my hobby.

I got into the aquarium hobby over the past year, and it's been rough, it's a lot harder work than most people would imagine. There is a stigma in the aquarium community (just check over at r/Aquariums) where big chain stores like PetCo and PetSmart that sell aquariums and fish have staff there have *NO* idea what they are doing and are beyond incompetent and in being so, are promoting animal cruelty through misinformation. That wasn't true for the PetCo I went to, the manager there had been an aquarium keeper veteran for 20 years, there were two others in the department with equal or more experience (one was a young lady who's father was an aquarium keeper and she upheld that tradition), needless to say, these people were exceedingly knowledgeable and I learned a lot from them. I come in one day to buy some more supplies and see…


I got into the aquarium hobby over the past year, and it's been rough, it's a lot harder work than most people would imagine. There is a stigma in the aquarium community (just check over at r/Aquariums) where big chain stores like PetCo and PetSmart that sell aquariums and fish have staff there have *NO* idea what they are doing and are beyond incompetent and in being so, are promoting animal cruelty through misinformation. That wasn't true for the PetCo I went to, the manager there had been an aquarium keeper veteran for 20 years, there were two others in the department with equal or more experience (one was a young lady who's father was an aquarium keeper and she upheld that tradition), needless to say, these people were exceedingly knowledgeable and I learned a lot from them.

I come in one day to buy some more supplies and see if they have some of the fish I had been looking for and the manager was there, we get talking and turns out virtually everyone in that store up and quit, and she was going to be quitting herself within a couple weeks. I asked what happened, and she said they had hired several new employees, fresh out of high school with no job experience and at a significantly higher rate than anyone else. When she and the others at the store requested raises, citing that her and the others at that store had been there for 6+ years, they were told there was no budget for raises. After they left, literally no one at the store knew anything about aquariums or fish and they held a huge sale on all their live fish and plants and had to close down that section entirely. I support them and their decision. It was a huge blow to me, as I have no one in real life in which to ask questions, and there are no other stores within a 50 mile radius of me I can get fish or aquarium supplies, but I don't blame the employees, I blame the corporation, and it boggles my mind that a corporation could throw away the entire staff with that much seniority, knowledge, and experience just like that. I seriously applaud their decision though, and I hope their company suffers even more for policies like that.

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