Bad Experience stories

Things went downhill from there, I don't like eggs and when they had some friends around the wife made a huge scene about the starter as it contained eggs, this was in front of the people and frankly embarrasing

You're in their house and sitting at their dinner table - a lot of people would probably call it rude. Unless you phoned up in advance before the placement with details about dietary allergies/intolerances/issues or helped out on the cooking front you haven't really got any comeback.

We were explicitly forewarned to help out around the house (eg; with cooking, with washing, etc) and perhaps eat/do things we weren't sure about just to keep everyone happy (within reason).

It is a very stressful time of year. If you make a mistake (or even if you didn't) it is best to apologise and work doubly as hard to make up for it.

I've had stockmen shout and swear at me before, sometimes it was due, and sometimes it wasn't but I apologised, I put my head down and continued working. At the end of one 'bad' placement I got an excellent reference and the stockman even apologised to me saying that it was an extremely stressful time of year and that I was welcome back any time.

You've got to have a thick skin and you've got to be able to work in challenging environments.



It's a small flock, depending on the breed, the system and how well they're looked after it isn't surprising that you didn't see much action.

On a lot of your work experience placements you're not going to have much contact with animals, a lot of it is going to be centred around bedding down, feeding, cleaning, etc - even into vet school.

You were lucky to be paid at all.

He didn't have to take you on for work experience, he didn't have to put you up, he didn't have to feed and look after you and he didn't have to pay you. The vast majority of sheep farmers can't pay students properly even if they wanted to, and given that it was a small flock that almost certainly was a contributing factor.

In my year some of the students didn't get paid at all - that was for 3 weeks work, sometimes doing night shifts and often on much larger flocks than yours. The vast majority were paid a nominal sum (eg; £50-100) and/or were paid in kind (eg; sheepskins, lamb, etc).

It's part of the journey. Out of all of my placements, before and during vet school, I've only been paid once. I've been on placements where I have literally spent £100+ on petrol over the course of 1-2 weeks and I haven't been paid a single penny. I needed the experience, they were willing to give it and I got an excellent reference at the end of it. Beggars can't be choosers.

If you are to become a successful vet you're going to have to sort out your attitude - you've got to become a damn sight more tolerant and understanding.

I see what you're saying RE the fact that beggars cannot be choosers, and that the OP did at least get paid and get put up, but there has to be some give and take here. It doesn't matter if you're on work experience, a non-contract job or a paid-up employee- allowing people to shout and swear and blame you for things outwith your control or something you could not have reasonably known how to do, regardless of the profession you are in, is quite simply not on. A lot of what you say is fair, and people need to be thick-skinned to get places in any job, but at the end of the day you're still dealing with kids at school who are novices and looking to find their way in whatever they want to do with the rest of their lives. Being put down, sworn at, talked about, blamed and generally made to feel two inches tall is not part of that- whether it's a placement on a farm or in a library. Just because it's happened to you and you got on with it does not mean that everyone else should be excluded from sympathy as a result. Everyone doesn't react the same way to the same situations- for some it's a daunting experience to move in with a stranger for two weeks, especially when their future career could ride on it. Some people need to be told to get on with it, some need encouraging, some need to be told they're the best thing since sliced bread and helped to feel good about themselves, otherwise those that think it's alright to shout and bawl at kids for not being at their level will drive otherwise good people out of the profession. Your response smacks more than a little of insensitivity to me.

As I said earlier, lambing and calving is an incredibly stressful time of year, throw in some sleep deprivation and even the most well intentioned people can crack. As you said yourself there has to be a degree of give and take between the employer and the student. Sure he may be younger than most but he can't hide from it forever and one day he needs to learn to work with problematic people - we all start somewhere.

Invariably we all form our own opinions of someone depending on what they do or say - from the looks of it I came to a slightly different conclusion to you. Who knows whether he really deserves all of our sympathy, but he still needs to deal with his naivety and learn how to work with people better. Wrapping him up in cotton wool simply isn't going to improve his predicament and it is going to disillusion him further.