The reputation that travels everywhere except the job ad - ep. 276
There's a clinic not too far from you right now that everyone in the profession knows about. The vets know. The nurses know. The locums know. You can see it in the turnover — always hiring, always starting over. And nobody says publicly why. In the first episode of a new series — The Elephant In The Room — Julie South talks about the reputation that travels through private chats and late-night conference conversations, but never makes it into the one place it might actually do some good. And ...
There's a clinic not too far from you right now that everyone in the profession knows about.
The vets know. The nurses know. The locums know. You can see it in the turnover — always hiring, always starting over. And nobody says publicly why.
In the first episode of a new series — The Elephant In The Room — Julie South talks about the reputation that travels through private chats and late-night conference conversations, but never makes it into the one place it might actually do some good.
And about the clinics that have done the hard work to change things — and are still being judged for who they used to be.
If either of those sounds familiar, this episode is for you.
Episode notes
This episode explores why veterinary clinic reputations circulate privately — through WhatsApp, Messenger, and word of mouth — but never surface publicly where they could inform a hiring decision.
Two kinds of clinics are examined:
- Clinics where the reputation is earned and nothing has changed — where high turnover is the visible signal and toxic behaviour continues to be tolerated
- Clinics that have genuinely changed — new leadership, new culture, fixed rosters, addressed after-hours loads — but are still carrying a reputation that belongs to a version of themselves that no longer exists
The episode argues that the only thing that shifts a reputation is evidence: real voices from current team members, captured and published in a form that travels as far and as fast as the original reputation did.
This is the first episode in The Elephant In The Room — a series examining the things everyone in veterinary knows and almost no one says out loud.
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons.
Struggling to get results from your job advertisements?
If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic.
The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs
Veterinary Voices — Episode 276
Elephants in the Room: Bad Reputations
[00:00]
Right now there's a clinic not too far from you that everyone in the veterinary profession knows about.
The vets know, the nurses know, the locums who have done a stint there know.
You can see it in the turnover. Staff come and go, come and go, and continue to come and then go. The job ad is a semi-permanent fixture. They're always hiring, always starting over, and nobody says publicly why.
Welcome to Veterinary Voices — culture storytelling conversations for forward-thinking vet clinics. I'm Julie South and this is Episode 276.
This is the first episode in a new series called Elephants in the Room.
Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs — helping vet clinics get applications from their kind of people.
Stay to the end, please, because I want to talk about something that almost never gets talked about.
I'm going to do it respectfully — because naming the elephant in the room is the only way to do it. And it's the only way to do anything about it.
[01:20]
A reputation travels.
It travels through private messenger chats, WhatsApp groups, and conversations over coffee or beer at veterinary conferences.
Through the locum who did two weeks there and said never, ever again.
Through the practice manager who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone else.
It travels everywhere except the one place it might actually do some good — the job ad.
[02:00]
There are two kinds of clinics sitting with a reputation right now. The elephant kind.
The first kind knows the reputation is earned. The attitude is: this is who we are — if you don't like it, there's the door. Close it on your way out.
Toxic behaviour gets tolerated because that's how whoever it is gets, and always has been.
They get away with it. And continue to get away with it.
The turnover is high. The elephant is real, very large, and still very much in the room.
No amount of well-worded job ads will paper over it. The profession already knows this.
[02:55]
The second kind of clinic has done the hard work.
A new owner came in. A new CEO, lead vet, head nurse, or practice manager — someone who wanted to turn things around.
Someone who wanted everyone who works there to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings. For all the right reasons.
They changed the roster. Addressed the after-hours load. Built something that actually functions.
They invested in their team in ways the previous owners or management never did.
They put the brakes on the toxic behaviour that some people used to get away with.
And yet these clinics are still carrying a reputation that belongs to a former version of their clinic — one that no longer exists.
[04:00]
Quick interruption. If you're wondering what a vet or nurse finds when they search for your clinic right now, book a one-hour consult with me. We'll look at it together and you'll see what's showing up through fresh eyes. Email me: julie@vetclinicjobs.com
[04:20]
For that second kind of clinic — the ones that have earned the right to a different reputation — silence has become their enemy.
The only thing that shifts a reputation is evidence.
Real voices. Current team members describing what it's actually like to work there now, today. Not five years ago.
Not the clinic saying it's changed. Not management saying it's changed — because management has to say that.
I'm talking about the team saying it. In their own words.
That's what travels. That's what the profession listens to. Peer to peer. Colleague to colleague. In a good way.
[05:20]
The elephant remains in the room because no one has the courage to name it publicly.
To talk about what's changed. And how it's changed.
That can only happen by telling the story. A brave and courageous story — one that resonates with the kind of vets and nurses who want to work in that brave new world, alongside the people making it happen.
If your clinic is carrying a reputation it doesn't deserve anymore, email me: julie@vetclinicjobs.com
It's time to tell a better story.
And if your clinic is the first kind, and somewhere deep inside you know it — that's worth sitting with. The door swings both ways.
The profession notices when things change. But change has to come first. And evidence is required.
[06:30]
julie@vetclinicjobs.com — I reply to every single email. Please get in touch. I'd love to help.
Next week in the Elephants in the Room series: the gap between what the job ad promises and what the role actually delivers — and why that gap is getting harder to hide and further to bridge.
This is Julie South, signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self — because you're working with your kind of people.
The elephant only stays in the room when no one has a better story to tell.
If you've done the work, it's time to tell your story.
Until next week.