‘I have to watch her get paid to do nothing’: Animal shelter employee is fed up with slacker coworker who refuses to pick up after cats and dogs

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
May 3, 2025 9:00 AM EDT

Working at an animal shelter seems like a dream job for most. You get to hang out with cats and pups all day, feed them good treats and give them even better lovin', all the while, beefin' up your wallet like there's no tomorrow. You'd think someone who doesn't want to or physically can't be around animals wouldn't apply for a position that works directly with them, but you'd be surprised at some folks' illogical thinking and audacity. We've seen more insane things here at Fail Blog, after all…

In this next story, an animal shelter employee rants about their slacker coworker, who, surprise, surprise, doesn't do anything in their role while on the clock. All employees are expected to clean litterboxes and pick up after pups do their private business, but instead, she follows folks around all day, talks nonsense, and does not do her job. We've all had a coworker like this, but the difference here is that this shelter is understaffed and can't manage to get rid of her. If she's not doing the work, she basically doesn't work there anyway…

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  • This role, though a bit down and dirty, seems like the perfect job. Additionally, if a company is paying you to complete tasks, then you do them. If you don't, you're exploiting all of your colleagues who do their best to be reliable, star employees. We're all in the machine and nobody is exempt (well, maybe higher-ups—but that's a story for a different day).

  • Cheezburger Image 10500033280
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "Coworker refuses to do her job and it makes me want to scream"

    So I work at an animal shelter and a bulk of the job is cleaning up after the animals and providing basic care. It's extremely simple, scoop boxes, feed, water, mop
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  • and sweep, change bedding, normal stuff. Stuff that you would just do at home if you have animals which all of us do.
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  • One of my coworkers though refuses to do her job. She's only there for about half the shift due to school which is fine. In that
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  • time though on average she does legitimately nothing. She walks around talking to my boss and other workers without doing any cleaning.
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  • Our boss has health issues and this coworker was hired so my boss wouldn't have to go into early retirement cleaning. If anything this coworker has caused my boss to clean more than usual to make up for her lack of work.
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  • My boss regularly has to threaten her job to get her to even scoop a few litter boxes. Getting her to clean an entire room (we are a room based shelter, not cage) is like pulling teeth.
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  • neokoso
    via Neakasa for Unsplash

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • We also sometimes have small dogs in the lobby that sometimes potty inside in where we just clean up the mess. This coworker has left sh in the floor for me to
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  • clean while I'm doing my job as dog handler elsewhere. Which can take an hour or two at a time. She claims dog sh is "too gross" to clean and has to be forced to do so.
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  • She constantly follows us around talking about nothing even after we tell her to go do something productive.
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  • I've brought up my frustrations to my boss many times and my boss knows but cannot fire her right now due to us being short staffed. So I have to watch her get paid to do nothing daily.
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  • Alice_wanders17 She doesn't help anyways, so I'm not sure how that affects you being short- staffed. They need to put up help wanted signs and post everywhere until they can find someone better. Ridiculous. You don't get to get paid for doing nothing.
    via Alice_wanders17
  • a-packet-of-noodles The main reason she's still around is because she can take animals to and from the vet and is great with customers. We are gonna start looking for new workers soon.
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  • tmach1 That girl ain't right for the job. I would LOVE that job, being around the kittehs and doggies all day and getting to see their cute faces. I really donmind cleaning the litter boxes and I always wear a mask as to not inhale all that dust. Give her a mask and a
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  • task sheet she needs to tick off the duties as they are done. That would just burn my a, like DO TO WORK! I bet another teen would jump at the chance to do the job, can you maybe scout friends and neighbours to apply? They don't have to say it was you who told them about the job. Sorry for spelling mistakes
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  • a-packet-of-noodles We are already gonna fire a different coworker who hasn't been here for over 2 weeks and we are hoping that maybe hiring a new face will get her to do more work. Maybe try to show off and impress the new person ya know
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  • Maleficent-Jacket256 Sounds like you need a new job
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  • a-packet-of-noodles Past this part I absolutely love my job and will gladly put up with her to keep it. The days she isn't there or she's quiet are some of my favorite.
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  • Winston3rd Give the role she is in... this is obviously very dangerously impactful on the welfare of the animals... Perhaps noting to your manager that would have some impact. Can you rely on a network of local voulenteers in the interim ???
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  • a-packet-of-noodles We have community service people in pretty regularly and she's basically been pushing all the work on them. The animals are being cleaned up after and done at the end of the day, we make sure of that, but she sure as h l isn't helping in that process.
    via a-packet-of-noodles

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