Your Clinic Says “Respect.” What Happens When a Client Starts Shouting?

What do lived values look like in a veterinary clinic?

[00:00]

Hello and welcome. You’re listening to Veterinary Voices, culture storytelling conversations for veterinary clinics that want to be found by Their Kind of People: vets and nurses who want to work there.

Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs, helping clinics give vets and nurses the answers they’re looking for before they apply for a job.

I’m Julie South, and this is Episode 287. It’s the fourth in the series about the REAL•CULTURE•STORY framework.

R makes sure that clinics’ Real Stories are being told. E is about Everyday Evidence that makes those stories real. A makes sure we’re hearing from Actual People.

Do your veterinary clinic’s stated values match its culture?

[00:48]

And today, L asks whether a clinic’s stated values are genuinely Lived Values.

If this is the first episode that you’ve heard in this series, I’ll put links to those first three episodes in the show notes so you can hear how all four parts of REAL fit together.

And please stay to the end because I’ll give you one question that’ll help you recognise where your clinic’s values are already being lived.

Let’s face it, anyone can put the word respect on a website, or get it laminated and stick it to the wall at reception or in the lunchroom. Or maybe even the back of the washroom door.

The word may have been chosen by a team who spent hours debating which value best describes their clinic. Or maybe it was chosen because someone decided it was time the clinic had an official set of values, just like other clinics seemed to have.

Either way, there it is: respect.

But how does a vet or nurse—someone who’s considering making their next career move—know whether the respect that’s pasted all over a clinic’s website was unanimously chosen by the team because it’s real, or whether someone in management simply thought that having values was a good idea?

How can vets and nurses tell what respect genuinely looks like and feels like inside that clinic?

What happens when a client abuses a veterinary team member?

[02:31]

Over the years, I’ve heard versions of this story from more than one veterinary team.

Maybe you’ve been there yourself. Maybe your bestie has.

Out of nowhere, you can hear that something’s happening at reception.

There’s yelling. As in yelling.

Everyone out the back stops and looks at each other all at once. It’s one of those “what the—?” types of moments.

A client has lost it. And they’ve lost it at reception.

They’re shouting at the receptionist, or perhaps it’s one of the nurses—whoever’s there to hear them—including everyone sitting in the waiting room at the time.

If it wasn’t so serious, it’d be a bit cringeworthy.

How does a veterinary clinic protect its people?

[03:14]

And then someone from out the back heads towards reception and steps in front of the person being shouted at.

In this particular clinic, it happened to be the lead vet or the head nurse. But it could have been anyone, because stepping forward and protecting a colleague is simply how people in this clinic behave.

The lead vet or head nurse takes over because they have the delegated authority to take the next step.

And they stay calm.

They make it clear that speaking to a team member that way is not acceptable.

And then, politely and respectfully, they tell the client that the clinic will no longer be able to care for their animals.

They protect their colleague.

They draw a firm line.

And they still treat the client with dignity and respect.

Why living your clinic’s values may cost something

[04:06]

Nobody needed to stop and read the laminated values on the wall—or the back of the door—first.

Everyone already knew how people behaved there.

That is what a Lived Value looks like in real life.

Respect on the wall, or on the back of the door, is a claim.

Respect when a client is shouting is culture.

And the clinic’s response carries weight because living that value costs something.

Ending the professional relationship may mean losing the client’s ongoing revenue. It may lead to a complaint or an angry online review. Someone has to have a difficult conversation.

The clinic accepts those consequences because protecting its people matters more than keeping that particular client.

That’s when the word respect becomes believable.

It’s no longer simply something the clinic says about itself. It’s something that prospective vets and nurses can see is being lived.

Everyday Evidence vs Lived Values: what’s the difference?

[04:58]

And this is where Lived Values differs from Everyday Evidence.

Everyday Evidence—the E in REAL•CULTURE•STORY—asks:

What happened here?

A client shouted at someone at reception. A colleague stepped forward. The lead vet or head nurse took control and ended the clinic–client relationship.

Whereas Lived Values asks:

What does that response reveal, show, demonstrate or evidence about what matters here?

In this clinic—the one I just talked about—it means:

We look after each other, we protect our people, and we can hold a firm boundary while still treating someone with dignity.

The event is the evidence.

The way people instinctively respond reveals the Lived Value.

Where do Lived Values appear in everyday veterinary work?

[05:44]

Lived Values also show up in smaller moments.

For example, a new graduate is given enough time to work through a case, even though a more experienced vet could have handled it—and would have handled it faster.

A nurse raises a concern and the senior vet listens.

Someone sees that a colleague has come out of a difficult euthanasia and gives them a few moments to gather themselves.

Or the team recognises that the day has become unmanageable and closes the appointment book.

Each of those moments tells someone outside the clinic what words such as support, respect, wellbeing and teamwork, for example, mean there.

Why “supportive” means different things in different vet clinics

[06:52]

And this matters because the same value can look very different from one clinic to another.

Two clinics may both say that they’re supportive.

In one, support means someone’s always close by and ready to step in.

In another, support means that people are trusted to work independently while knowing help’s available whenever they ask.

The word is the same.

But the lived experience is completely different.

And that difference helps vets and nurses recognise which clinic feels like Their Kind of Clinic.

The Lived Values test for veterinary clinics

[07:44]

So here’s the Lived Values test:

When one of your clinic’s stated values is tested, how do people instinctively respond—because that’s simply how people behave in your clinic?

Start with a real moment.

Ask:

Can you think of a time when someone here stepped forward for a colleague?

Or:

What happens here when a client treats a team member badly?

Or perhaps:

When has the clinic made a difficult or inconvenient choice because it was the right thing to do?

And then listen for what happened.

Listen for how your team responded—the answers that they gave to those questions—and listen for what that response tells you about what matters.

How to turn your veterinary clinic’s values into credible culture stories

[08:27]

Number one: Spot it

Find a moment where one of your clinic’s values was visible in the way the people responded.

Number two: Source it

Ask the person who experienced that moment what happened and what it meant to them.

Number three: Share it

Tell the story in their words, with their permission.

Share a short version of that on LinkedIn. And then give the full story a permanent home in your Culture Story Centre.

That’s a dedicated, discoverable home for your clinic’s culture evidence, where vets and nurses—and the search and AI tools they use—can continue to find, understand and cite it.

Spot it. Source it. Share it.

How do Lived Values help vets and nurses choose a clinic?

[09:33]

A job ad catches someone’s eye.

What they find when they do their due diligence affects whether that clinic feels like Their Kind of Clinic.

Or not.

And during that due diligence, your clinic’s stated values are claims.

But your people’s real experiences show vets and nurses what those values look like and feel like when they’re being lived.

If you want the right vets and nurses to see what your clinic genuinely values and recognise it as Their Kind of Clinic, then please email me: julie@vetclinicjobs.com.

Wrap-up and what’s next

Thank you for getting to the end.

Next week, we’ll move into the CULTURE part of REAL•CULTURE•STORY, beginning with C for Clarity.

This is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self—because you work in Your Kind of Clinic, with Your Kind of People.

Until next week.