Pulse - September 2021 - 21

Here's How Five Staff Members
Moved into Management Jobs
Here are the stories of five practice managers and how they got their jobs. Four are RVTs or have
worked as RVTs. All have a strong interest in the business side of veterinary medicine.
Jessica Speas has worked at her
father's practice, Crescenta Canada
Pet Hospital in La Crescenta, for
nearly 20 years.
" I worked Saturday mornings growing
up, " she said. " I was around for that
total-bonkers-busy four hours for a number
of years. Then I transitioned into helping
out with different projects and doing
some light bookkeeping and helping my
dad out on some of the business stuff. He
was trying to do the business side and be a
full-time practitioner but he had a few too
many things to do. I started helping him
and it snowballed into a full-time management
job. "
She has been a practice manager and the
hospital administrator since 2005.
" I was lucky to see how the practice
ran and I also had really good insight into
how my dad wanted it to run. In some of
those early years, it was more figuring out
how we wanted it to be. It was just kind
of chaos and we knew it had to be better.
We were able to form a really good working
partnership. My dad then could focus
on the medicine and I took on the management
stuff.
" We came together often and shared our
thoughts and it was really fun. It still is. "
She said that every day is different. Some
days I can have a really intense, seriousbusiness-focused
day where I'm stuck in
my office and doing nothing but juggling
important tasks and taking care of things.
The next day it can be a really light admin
day and I could be on the floor with the
team doing silly kinds of projects.
Max Mendez has served as Nordhoff
Veterinary Hospital's practice
manager for 10 years - a decade in
which he never took a vacation.
I'm a Type A person and a workaholic, " he
said. But he paid a price: an illness he attributed
to overwork. He worked from home for
a time before returning to the practice but is
considering making changes in his life.
PULSE
SEPTEMBER 2021
" It ebbs and flows. That's the best part.
There are days when I'm a juggler and
putting out fires but those are fewer and
fewer. I have a really awesome team so I
get to pull back a little from some of the
oversight and do things like exploring new
technologies, working on team development
or the direction we want to take
the practice. So many parts to this job are
really fun. "
Jessica said that the practice has " developed
a value as a workplace family. That's
unique to our business because we are
family owned. I think that value comes
through in a lot of what we do. "
She said that the practice hires people
" who align with our values. And we focus
on keeping the workplace fun, upbeat and
playful when we can. There wasn't a lot of
fun during the worst days of the pandemic
so whatever I could do to bring that to the
workplace I did. "
The practice celebrates employee birthdays.
It also has team lunches and weekly
parking lot yoga after work. " We want to
do anything we can to have fun as a team
and celebrate the good. "
The practice was recently certified as a
great place to work by the Great Place to
Work organization.
Jessica was certified as a practice manager
in 2010 and is a member of the board
of directors of VHMA. She currently
serves the organization as vice president
and expects to become president this fall.
She has participated in local managers
groups but is not as active as she is in the
national organization.
" I threw myself into my work. I was
going too fast and too hard and trying to
do too many things. Family things came up
and I was unwilling to let go and step away
from work, " Max said.
" Outside work, I didn't have much to do
besides video games but I loved the lifestyle.
That's changing now. My wife and I
have a baby on the way. I would like to go
con gtinued
21

Pulse - September 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pulse - September 2021