Five generations may share a workplace and a love of veterinary medicine. What happens when they have different ideas about what the work should ask of them?

It is late in the day, and the schedule is already running behind. A patient needs more attention than anyone expected. The veterinarian stays. The technician stays. Someone at the front desk calls the next client to explain the delay.

By the time everyone leaves, the patient has received the care they needed. You might think the team would go home feeling good about that.

Some probably do. Another person may spend the drive home wondering why this happens so often. Someone else may be frustrated that a colleague asked whether they really needed to stay. From their perspective, the answer should have been obvious.

It is a small moment, but I suspect it captures something many of us are feeling in veterinary medicine. We care deeply about the work. We may have very different ideas about what caring requires of us.

I have been thinking about that difference as more generations work alongside one another. Purdue Global’s guide to generational differences describes broad differences in values, motivations and worldviews across generations, including themes such as loyalty, independence, growth and individuality. I can see traces of those values in conversations across our profession. I can also think of plenty of people who defy every description of their generation. A birth year cannot tell us who will stay late for a patient, welcome feedback or help a struggling teammate.

Still, the guide made me wonder how often we walk into the same workplace carrying expectations we have never said aloud.

Perhaps you learned that commitment means putting your head down, paying your dues and doing whatever needs to be done. Perhaps you learned that asking questions is how you become a better clinician. Perhaps you believe that protecting time away from work allows you to keep doing this work for years to come.

Those beliefs can live within the same team. Trouble begins when we assume everyone else shares ours.

Research on workplace values led by Suzy Welch, an NYU Stern professor, offers another reason to have the conversation. Her team compared responses from Generation Z participants in its Values Bridge assessment with priorities identified in a separate survey of hiring managers. Welch reported that only about 2% of the Gen Z respondents placed all three of the employers’ most-desired values – achievement, scope and workcentrism – among their top five values. In this framework, scope includes a desire for learning, action and stimulation, while workcentrism reflects valuing work for work’s sake. The Gen Z respondents placed greater emphasis on self-care, authentic self-expression and helping others. The hiring managers surveyed worked in knowledge industries, so this is not a measure of veterinary teams. It is, however, a reminder that employers and employees may enter the same conversation with different definitions of success.

Helping others is familiar ground in veterinary medicine. But even that shared purpose leaves room for disagreement about how we work.

Consider a new veterinarian who asks for more support before taking on a full caseload. One leader may hear someone taking patient care seriously. Another may wonder why a capable graduate is not ready to move faster. Consider a longtime technician who stays through lunch to help the team catch up. Some colleagues may see a generous teammate. Others may worry that the hospital has come to depend on that sacrifice.

I do not think we can settle those disagreements by declaring one generation right. We have to look more closely at the expectation itself.

Which of our expectations protect patient care, and which are habits we have mistaken for commitment?

I keep returning to that question because I know how deeply people hold on to what has worked for them. A veterinarian who built a career by being available whenever needed did so in service of real patients. A technician who learned to anticipate every need before being asked may have become the person everyone trusts in an emergency. Those experiences carry knowledge we should not casually set aside.

They also leave us with questions worth asking. If people routinely stay late, is that because patients occasionally need them, or because the schedule leaves no room for the unexpected? If a new colleague asks why we do something a certain way, is there a clinical reason we should teach them, or have we simply stopped asking ourselves?

A St. Matthew’s University School of Veterinary Medicine article lists calm under pressure, empathy, adaptability and communication among the qualities a veterinarian needs. We often think about those qualities when we picture a veterinarian with a patient or a worried client. I wonder what would change if we practiced them just as deliberately with one another.

That might mean explaining why a decision cannot wait, then making room for questions when the patient is stable. It might mean listening when a colleague says the schedule is no longer workable, even if that schedule looks much like the one we managed for years. It might mean being honest with a new hire about the difficult days instead of promising a culture we have not yet built.

Culture grows from those conversations. It is shaped by what a practice expects, what it teaches, what it praises and what happens when someone says, “I don’t think this is working.”

The generations working in veterinary medicine will not agree on everything. They do not need to. But if we want to keep caring for patients together, we need to talk honestly about what the work requires and where we have room to do it differently.

The next time someone’s choice makes us question their commitment, perhaps we can pause long enough to ask what they believe commitment looks like. Then we can tell them what it means to us. That conversation may reveal a responsibility we need to uphold, a habit we need to reconsider or a better way to care for the patient and the people standing beside us.

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What Does ‘Committed’ Mean in a Veterinary Job Interview?

By Stacy Pursell

Catherine raises an important question about what commitment means once people are working together. From my perspective as a recruiter who has spent nearly 30 years talking with veterinary professionals and the organizations that hire them, I would take that question one step earlier.

What does “committed” mean before someone ever accepts the job?

I have sat on both sides of this conversation thousands of times. Employers tell me they want someone who is committed, flexible, hardworking and willing to be a team player. Candidates tell me they want a healthy culture, reasonable boundaries, flexibility, mentorship and an employer who respects their life outside of work.

Those things are not necessarily in conflict.

The problem is that we often use the same words without defining them.

When an employer says, “We need someone who is flexible,” does that mean occasionally staying late because an emergency walks through the door? Or does it mean routinely working beyond the scheduled shift because the practice is understaffed?

When a candidate says, “Work-life balance is important to me,” does that mean they are unwilling to go above and beyond? Or does it mean they want a career they can sustain for the next 25 or 30 years?

When an employer says, “We need a team player,” what does that actually look like?

And when a candidate asks detailed questions about schedule, mentorship, workload or time off, is that evidence of a lack of commitment – or is that person trying to understand exactly what they are committing to?

These distinctions matter because the recruiting process is where expectations begin.

Mentorship is one example. AAHA’s 2023 Mentoring Guidelines state that successful mentoring relationships should define boundaries and set clear expectations. The guidelines also recommend discussing roles, responsibilities, mutual expectations, boundaries and accountability at the beginning of the relationship. That does not tell an employer what a particular candidate wants; it supports asking the candidate directly and defining what the practice will actually provide.

One of the biggest mistakes employers can make is hiring for the candidate they believe someone should be rather than clearly describing the job they actually need someone to do.

I sometimes hear practice leaders compare candidates with themselves at the same stage of their careers: “When I graduated, I worked five or six days a week.” “I didn’t need that much mentorship.” “I stayed until the work was finished.” “I was willing to do whatever it took.”

Those experiences are real, and they shaped how many practice leaders think about work and commitment today. But they do not necessarily define what commitment must look like for every veterinarian who follows.

AAHA’s recent work on retention and mentorship illustrates the attention these issues are receiving within veterinary medicine. Its Stay, Please research identified nine factors impacting retention and attrition in veterinary medicine. Phase 2 then examined how veterinary professionals defined those factors, how their day-to-day realities compared with the expectations they brought into the profession and how those experiences varied by role. That research reinforces a practical point for hiring: expectations need to be discussed clearly rather than assumed.

It means employers need to be much clearer about which expectations are truly essential to the job.

Candidates have responsibilities in this conversation, too.

If you want defined hours, say so. If mentorship is important, ask what mentorship actually looks like. If you do not want emergency responsibilities, weekends or frequent schedule changes, find that out before accepting the position. If an employer clearly communicates that certain responsibilities are part of the job, accepting the offer means accepting those responsibilities. Recently a veterinary practice owner told me he hired a veterinarian who started to complain about working Fridays even though working Fridays was in the contract she had signed six months prior. The employer was expecting her to work Fridays, and she was expecting to not work Fridays even though her contract said otherwise.

Work-life balance should not mean an absence of accountability. At the same time, employers should be specific about workload, scheduling, staffing and support rather than relying on a candidate to interpret broad terms such as “commitment” or “flexibility.” AAHA’s retention research found differences among veterinary roles in how retention factors are prioritized, defined and experienced, making clarity especially important.

That is why some of the most important questions in an interview are not about compensation.

Employers should be asking:

• What does a candidate need in order to be successful here?
• How does this person define support and mentorship?
• What are their expectations around schedule and flexibility?
• How do they respond when the team needs something unexpected?
• What does professional growth look like to them?

Candidates should be asking:

• On a day when appointments run behind, what is expected of the veterinarian and the rest of the team?
• How frequently do doctors and staff stay beyond their scheduled hours?
• What does “flexibility” mean at this practice?
• How are emergencies and unexpected cases handled?
• Once orientation is over, what does mentorship actually look like during a normal week?
• Why have previous veterinarians left?
• If I observed this practice for six months, what actions would I see recognized and rewarded?

Those conversations may occasionally cause someone to decide whether a job is not right for them.

That is a successful outcome.

A candidate discovering before accepting an offer that the practice’s expectations do not match their own is far better than discovering it six months later.

After nearly three decades in recruiting for the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession, I have learned that successful hiring is not about finding the candidate who gives the most impressive answers or makes the biggest promises during an interview. It is about understanding what an employer truly needs, what a candidate is prepared to contribute and whether both parties have an accurate picture of the working relationship they are entering.

Commitment should never be something an employer assumes or a candidate feels pressured to promise. It should be discussed openly, with both sides understanding the responsibilities, expectations and support involved.

When those conversations happen before an offer is accepted, employers are better positioned to make informed hiring decisions, and candidates can evaluate whether the opportunity is one in which they can succeed and build a lasting career.

The conversation Catherine describes in the workplace should begin long before a veterinarian’s first day on the job. It should begin during the job interview.

 

 

Sources and References

These sources support the research-based statements in the two articles. The commentary, examples and conclusions are the authors’ own.

For Catherine Haskins’ article

• Purdue Global. “Generational Differences in the Workplace [Infographic].” https://www.purdueglobal.edu/education-partnerships/generational-workforce-differences-infographic/
• Welch, Suzy / Becoming You Labs. Values Bridge research on Gen Z and hiring-manager values. Welch’s summary of the 2% finding: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7377074479081988096-oNus
• LearningWell Magazine. “Bridging Values with Suzy Welch.” Additional reporting on the Values Bridge findings and the 154 of more than 7,500 figure. https://learningwellmag.org/article/bridging-values-with-suzy-welch
• Matthew’s University School of Veterinary Medicine. “7 Important Qualities That Every Veterinarian Should Have.” https://veterinary.stmatthews.edu/blog/7-important-qualities-that-every-veterinarian-should-have

For Stacy Pursell’s companion article

• American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA). “2023 AAHA Mentoring Guidelines.” https://www.aaha.org/resources/2023-aaha-mentoring-guidelines/
• “Action Steps for the Mentoring Relationship.” https://www.aaha.org/resources/2023-aaha-mentoring-guidelines/action-steps-for-the-mentoring-relationship/
• “Stay, Please.” Phase 1 and Phase 2 retention research. https://www.aaha.org/resources/white-paper-factors-that-support-retentionand-drive-attrition-in-the-veterinary-profession/
• “Phase 2: Overview and Methodology.” https://www.aaha.org/resources/stay-please-phase-2/phase-2-overview-and-methodology/
• “Findings: Role-Based Retention.” https://www.aaha.org/resources/stay-please-phase-2/findings-role-based-retention/