:(

Why did you not clean it out for them

Hey man, I'm local and a hobbyist crested/gargoyle gecko breeder, sucks to hear what happened but if you are looking for help I know it's an odd place to offer it but you can hit me up.

Does you're hair grow? It's been years and never seems to change. Your*

@@pimplyface64 wtf

Fellow equestrian here - and that's shocking. Actually *dangerous* too. If you think that horse is supposed to be less green in a particular area because of its training and you get on and challenge it...

How horrible!! There are shockingly so many awful horse people out there. I hired a trainer for my rescued mustang, and felt like a weirdo for sitting in on the training sessions and watching. Now, I'm glad I did that... though I know it's not an option for everyone.

What the hell I'm so sorry

One of them straight up starver/died of dehydration, completely unacceptable imo

I wouldn't even call it a mistake, with how bad it got

That's not a mistake the lazy cow straight up committed murder!!!

Some people are just miserable

Good

People see the internet as a free ticket to be nasty. 😑

It’s funny

Now your comment is the first

I've had mold like this in my American Banded Geckos food, never elsewhere, and in my hermit crabs food, never elsewhere. I just don't get how it would be SO bad it got ON THE GECKOS?? I have no idea. Horrible.

I've had a little bit of mold on some blueberries my rats stashed that I didn't find until cage cleaning day. I do not understand how something can get so out of control!!

I have bio active tank where these tiny bugs eat the mold

@@stinkyrattie4478 Unchecked mold, or and unknown strain can spread fast, especially in a humidified environment a crested gecko usually has. its unfortunate but it can and does happen

I used to work with cats. Sometimes I would take breaks, and they were admittedly longer than they should have been. But I always made sure each animal was fed, watered, and clean. It was my damn job, if I wasn't doing that then why was I there?

Ive also worked in pet care businesses, my own pet sitting business primarily, but also for a big box store, rescues and dog daycares. IME, when animal care suffered it was most often because the employee was given too many tasks and not enough time, or they were dissatisfied with the job for some reason and then slacked off. The businesses I've seen give the best care were ones where theyre either run exclusively by the owner (and even then, its not always perfect or ideal) or where employees are happy and satisfied with workload, wages and their treatment.

animals are a commodity & source of income. u can't expect people to work overtime with no pay.

@@BeckyS these businesses definitely threw way too much onto employees and bordered on hostile during interactions. Ultimately, they are still unable to keep employees more than two months and refuse to take any responsibility. The owners are burnt out and taking it out on employees which causes an endless cycle of people leaving the business and them resenting new hires because they hate the training process.

@@zeezoo9391 agreed, it’s ridiculous to expect anyone to work long and often tedious and laborious hours and then not pay them properly if at all

Honestly most people go numb after enough incidents

@@GoHerping that's even sadder :(

@@GoHerping I still would've cried 😢

Depends on which form of numbness being felt in my mind. The apathy kind, where you lose any care or concern for the well-being of the living. And another where you care but move on quicker from loss to keep focus on the remaining animals.

@@allared9008 As someone who has worked a lot in a similar atmosphere, you never stop caring about the animals you just fall numb to the loss it's self.

Exactly. Makes me wonder if they really left their job just to do irresponsible work at emerald scales or were they really fired. Dont know how they thought they would get away with being lazy an endangering the animals at a place where the owner cares.

More than days. At least weeks

@@chazdellwalker6912 she prob thought it would be a breeze and a job she wouldn’t have to work hard for or anything and be lazy

Exactly, it's the same for *all* pets, you give them clean dishes to eat out of. There's no way someone shouldn't know this. I'm yet to own a reptile but I can say with confidence I'd not need to be *told* to clean a food dish between meals.

@@chazdellwalker6912 good point. They were probably fired and lied about that too. Smh

Ive had understandable mistakes where ppl just miss a task, but the fact it was marked as complete was the most confusing part

@@GoHerping I know at the vet clinic we have a chart on each kennel where you mark when you feed, water, give meds, clean, and then spots for other notes. For the meds we have to put our initials by each med on the chart to prove that we did it.

@@GoHerping This person can't have checked the enclosures right?, i mean the alarm bells should ring when you see snow forming in there.

@@GoHerping I agree, if I looked in and saw that mold…. Well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that’s not acceptable or healthy 🥴.

From the pics I wonder if the employee was taking shortcuts. Like she emptied this mushy food out but didnt wash and dry the dish before putting it back in. Cuz how else can you say you cleaned when there was obviously something the mold was feeding and growing on there? A not responsible person could say taking the food out or even rinsing it a bit was cleaning and then say a miscommunication happened cuz they didnt realize they had to actually wash and dry the bowl. If the person cared then like someone else said...they'd have checked and seen the mold early on and think I should remove this and clean it again and/or let me report this to the boss and ask what I did wrong and what to do.

This was in 2020 so I've had a couple years to chill lol

@@GoHerping I was gonna say.. I would be in jail if this happened to me .. you’re composure is amazing ..

Agreed! I just posted something similar as a business owner myself.

thanks!

I agree! Im a vet tech in training, and while we dont study with reptiles much, its like common sense to clean there food? When i worked at a pet shop, i was the only one who ever did which made me quite mad, but i think it just comes down to who the person is helping out and if they have a passion for it! And good luck getting your assistant degree!!

That’s exactly what they do, but the employee failed to do so

There’s no teaching common sense. She lied about tasks she was doing, that’s simply it.

The dishonesty and lack of communication is on her and her alone, so I am glad she was terminated. When you have clear outlines of what to do and fail to do them - even to the point of lying about having them done - you shouldn't be in that position anymore.

Yes and the one that died from no water!? Surely anybody knows an animal needs access to fresh water daily?! It’s crazy. She didn’t know what “ deep clean crested geckos” meant I reckon and just ticked she’d done rather than asking! But still doesn’t explain why the lack of water for them?! Surely anyone knows they need water?!

My ex best friend (key word ex) was someone who claimed to love animals and that they are great animal parents. I am good with training cats and dogs but I am better with cats. I have been around cats my whole life and when I was six I was introduced to being around newborn kittens from the barn where we leased our horse from. I have a lot of experience with cats. All of my cats are indoor cats. But my friend on the other hand had indoor outdoor cats who did jot get proper vet care. One summer he manipulated me and my mom into taking in his pregnant cat assuring us that she was fully vaccinated. We had five cats at this point (that was the maximum amount of cats we ever had), two where mine, two where my sisters, and one was my moms. Due to the five cats we wanted to make sure that the foster cat was not going to risk any of ours. She was never vaccinated and I could not let her free roam the house because she could be dangerous to our cats. The other incident was when my friend told me he was going to put his other cat down because she was peeing outside the litter box. I was horrified and I told him that he needed to give the cat to me so I could surrender her to my local no kill shelter. Turns out that the reason why she was peeing outside the litter box was because it was not cleaned in a MONTH. Some people should not have the privilege of owning animals and he is one of them.

For real though. I used to work at a commercial pet store, thinking it would be a fun job. Ya know get to take care of animals all day, talk to people about animals. But oh boy was a wrong. There were a few good employees who genuinely cared about the animals. But I had to quit after telling my manger and 5 other coworkers that a panther chameleon we got in had mouth rot. Like super visible mouth rot. No one listened to me or did anything about it till the poor dude was nearly dead. It took a whole month just for them to listen to me and take the chameleon to the vet.

I do think if I ever end up with 2 employees again for the same work, have them cycle through and check each other's work

I think it would be good to have either you or your partner do the checks initially, and still occasionally after that. That way you can feel more confident that any newbies know what your expectation is. Additional documentation might be useful. I know that’s another ‘thing’ to do, but it could help with the communication element. These could act as a reference sheet for the person and a way to absorb the information. It also would be a good perpetual resource that would go beyond any individual employee. Like for ‘deep clean’, it would itemize the process step by step, specify what materials are needed (and where they could be found), cautions (things to be careful of for safety of animal and staff, and observations (“Is the animal eating/drinking? Is the temp/humidity ___?” As well as assuring them that they can always ask questions and get a second opinion from either you or your partner. While this might be a silly-seeming excess, I think it could genuinely help. You could even get help outsourcing the process. Many folks can assist with assembling this kind of documentation (I do process documentation in my work so I know many have this experience). You could have an initial meeting about what your needs are, and then perhaps provide them with a video of you narrating the process. They can then break that down for you into documentation you can review for correctness and completeness. If happy, the same process could be repeated for other species. Another option might be hiring someone in the reptile community to use their own experience to generate an initial care guide itemized and suitable for an employee. They could then review it with you and make needed changes to have it better reflect your business, preferences, and supplies. I’m sorry this happened - both for the loss of the innocent animals, and the managerial frustration of having a new hire process end so frustratingly. Best of luck in finding solutions moving forward.

@@GoHerping __

This is a good point

I'd honestly just quiz them on different reptiles.

This! How can you determine by the interview who will be a good employee? It's impossible.

he has so many reptiles he can’t check in on all of them 24/7 that’s why he has employees

Bruh she didn’t work 7 days a week, who was supposed to be giving them their daily care when she wasn’t there?

@@Anavirable what does that matter? A work week is five days which is still enough time for one to die. They live in a humid climate they heavily rely on their environment to keep them hydrated. For humans it only takes 3 days of dehydration to kill us imagine an animal thats always surrounded by humidity and water they aren't built to be without it long they had no reason to evolve that way

That’s the wrong curb

we haven’t all lost pets because of wrong doings and that certainly shouldn’t be the expectation…😬

@Birdman69 lol you are correct. I'll fix.

@@user-tm3wn7rj1g Okay not ALL of us, my point was sometime things happen. Even when we provide what we think is the best care. Thing happen…. What happened here was not okay. Don’t take everything so literal.

@@user-tm3wn7rj1g this comment could just make someone feel worse :/

Mold is crazy bro

He said he went through with them and showed them how to clean everything and ultimately they were doing a good job at the start so he left them to it.

@@SohiHien sure but a run through of what to do and just feeling they knew what to do really isn't thorough. I'm not giving an excuse to the person he hired, but learning a new job can be an overwhelming amount of new information that you may remember one day and slip your mind on exactly how things are done before you build a solid routine. He's also upset he interviewed a lot of new people and this person lasted about 2 weeks before firing them. Working in vet clinics, and other managerial roles training staff over my life the easiest and best way to truly find good workers and build a solid team is how I mentioned and I know Alex has said before he's never really worked any other job over than emerald scales so he may find this suggestion helpful. People can be great on paper, and people can be genuinely enthused for the job but no one will walk into your business knowing the small ins and outs of how you like it done. A week working alongside someone will give you an opportunity to see if the person has holes in their training or if they are cutting corners and what their work ethic is ,are they absorbing what you're teaching and also you need to ask is there holes in your training methods. Do you say "clean the gecko food bowls" , which leaves a lot of room for error. Will they grab the closest cloth that has harmful chemicals on it and use dirty water to clean them because they're not sure exactly how to do it and what they can and can't use? Or do you show them "it's important we clean the geckos food bowl with a reptile safe disinfectant found in this bottle, a small brush to get into crevices, or steam clean them as well as any bedding that could grow mould" and show them step by step. A new person in a role no matter how much they say they know what they're doing needs to know not just how but the importance of why you clean things a certain way you do. A week gives you a good gauge to see they're paying attention, you clean a cage while they clean a cage so you can see they are building the correct work habits. And if after that week of training you feel confident then put them on trial. A trial they are operating by themselves but you should still inspect they've done everything correctly daily when unsupervised. A person's true work ethic shows when they are in a probation period and good workers with a strong work ethic are hard to come by. The probation period alievates Alex of the guilt that he's upset the person quit their other job for him. If you're on probation and it's not guaranteed that you sign a contract that you have the job until you successfully finish your probation period you're not going to quit your other job just yet. And the worker has time to decide "is this what I want to do as a job, is it all I thought it would be". It gives both parties a chance to find out the position is correct for them. This will make hiring easier and less messy. And always before an interview in person have done a background check and know the person's legal details because you're allowing strangers to come into your home. If anything ever goes pear shaped and you have a messy termination with an employee you want to know how to provide information to the authorities if you have to about who this person is and their address. Etc.

then she should ask 😰 i had to ask about a billion questions at my first job but it meant i did everything exactly as it had to be done which was important, it prevented animal surgical infections. even if your boss doesn't communicate well it's very easy to ask clarifying questions to make sure it's done right.

@@huekanosedot I'm like that too. But not everyone has the same work ethics sadly

He did say that for the first several days, he showed her how the job was done. She definitely was educated as to the scope of her job! Edit: spelling

It doesn’t say to feed them, only to clean them-on a list that specifies “spot clean” and “deep clean” for other species. From the perspective possible failure points, I can see how that might confuse someone. The biggest failing is not specifying feeding-even with a great work ethic something like that can fall through the cracks if you aren’t told/reminded to do it. A daily spot check by another employee or dividing cleaning and feeding tasks between two employees could have completely prevented this.

@@willowashe no offense but i don't know if you can tell that that's the problem from just the perspective of a viewer. it's certainly possible but being trained for the job and qualified for it should make something to this level Always unacceptable.

I've only experiences it in food bowls, I'm not sure what would have happened with a snake

This has happened to me once when my snake was in a plastic tub and I spilled some water when I put the water dish down on the fibre. The water got beneath the bowl and after a day or two the whole underside of it was thicccc with mold

If you were using a dry substrate and water got on it, sometimes it can mold. Not saying that's what happened, just the only thing I can think of. I'm sorry about your snake :(

Probably, but the time and money investment is always higher in small court cases

@@GoHerping small claims might be a good option

@@GoHerping small claims for sure. Animals died. Animals worth money.

@Reptile Innovations hmmm all true. She was new and not being checked after. I know it’s usually the employers responsibility but I was thinking with something this scale he could recoup costs. Maybe if she had been there longer without issues, then suddenly quit caring for the animals?

stop with the pitchforks people make mistakes, if you could sue employees for making one mistake in the first 2 weeks nobody would work lmao

theres no negative coments.

@@logand9190 there's a few actually

and there will be more, it’s the internet

@@goldensenshi4828 not really towards him that I’ve seen

Its possible there weren't labels on those tubs so maybe she cleaned some and didn't know about the others or didn't have the right animal ID. Who knows.

If you ever get a crested gecko remember this take them out when they are old and dont post about sick animals on r/crested geckos

@@quempire2656 Thanks!

Yeah, I feel like we’re missing part of the story. What was her side of the story exactly?

@@Anavirable I don't know what she could say that would explain why she thought she didn't have to give the animals fresh food and water every day, and why she didn't see a problem with the animals having literal mold growing on them. You'd think that'd be something that would make you go "Hmmm, that's not supposed to happen."

@@Anavirable there doesn’t need to be one cause it probably would’ve been bs. The evidence speaks for itself. This is clear negligence and just her thinking sje could get away with being lazy

@@zamiaramirez1390 But was she negligent in her other tasks? How well did she care for the other animals? Does Alex even know? Or did he not bother to check on any of the animals his brand new employee was caring for until he stumbled across the crested geckos? Alex keeps saying she tricked him with her amazing interview. But after she was hired, he trained and presumably monitored her. She was there for what, 2 weeks? Was she just deceitfully competent for her training period? Enough so that Alex gave her *complete* responsibility over his animals? Or was she genuinely trying her best, and there really was a miscommunication? Either way, it’s not a great look on Alex.

Deep cleaning aside, those enclosures can't have been even regular cleaned 😅

I adore this channel, but I have to agree with you. I work at a grocery store, in a deli. If I was negligent about my job and the food spoiled, and it just stayed that way for quite a while...and the food never gets replaced, subsequently destroying it, sure. I'm gonna get fired eventually. But that's why there's a manager to me and a boss to the manager, to ensure that everything is done correctly. My continued failures are also THEIR continued failures. Fortunately, this is an experience he will likely learn from and be able to do better in the future. Although I'm certain he realize all of both of our points on this.

A lot of people tend to put things off and go its not my problem or someone else can take care of it. At my job i was the only one who bothered to put out the careful wet floor sign and door mat and the day i wasn’t there to do it someone slipped. Its sad how often people just wont take things upon themselves.

@@jaystergator the lawyer fees for all that aren’t worth it. Honestly i wouldn’t be surprised is she was being fired from her other job and just lied about the whole leaving thing.

I completely disagree with all of you. He hired this person to take care of living things, he trained this person, and then he never checked to see if they were properly following through. He didn’t hire this person to stock shelves, they were hired to care for animals that could not care for themselves. I have 35 reptiles and I own 2 businesses. I have never let anyone care for my animals without checking to make sure they were properly feeding and watering them because I care about my animals. That gecko did not starve to death in 4 days this had to have happened over a longe period of time. This entire thing was completely avoidable.

Hello

The training program is a good idea, it will help long-term when hiring a manager as well. That means the manager can ensure everyone is trained the same way, and properly, as per Alex's standards.

Hey maybe don't blame someone when he's busy and hired/paid someone TO DO THE JOB??????? bruh. Alex has a lot to take care of

@@bugskgk626 I am not blaming him, but a new hire needs managing and Alex seems to also be managing Emerald Scales. People make mistakes or are just lazy, the boss is there to make sure the work gets done. A friendly startup vibe with trust and mutual respect is nice but a lot of people need some time to shift into a position and require some work to get them on the right track. I needed to be put on that track and put people on it, its not bad but normal.

You are right. Not checking on the business for that long is inexcusable.

Anyone with common sense would ask why he didn't have someone helping or checking her work since she was working with live animals. This was his responsibility. Makes no sense to sue for something that should not have been able to happen in the first place.

Sorry, was for the comment below yours. I don't know how I always reply to the wrong comments. My bad.