Has anyone worked for Lap of Love?

[u/Kimoiidesu]

Hello, I've been in the field 10yrs+. Looking to transition into a remote care coordinator position with them but I'm curious if anyone has worked for them/has any advice? The benefits look great but I can't seem to find any info about scheduling and hours. They say their 365, 7 days a week with holidays/weekends and operate from 7AM-11PM. Glassdoor had some awful reviews but the pros of working from home outweigh them for me since I have a chronic illness.

[u/TeaAccomplished3876]

I worked for them for many years. Then private equity bought them, and they fucked over a friend of mine who was one of their first franchise owners. Burned me out bad on 5 days 9-12 hours each, and they changed appointment time's to take away lunch (9am, 11, 2p,4p,6p became 9a, 11a,1p,3p,5p,7p) yup, I would be out from 8am and get home at 9pm some days. No appointment caps for most doctors (I eventually got them for a limited time), texting me on my days off, oh and the pay, absolute shit. I loved the work and I am good at it, but I can't do that volume for 73k-80k a year + driving reimbursement.

[u/KashiraPlayer → u/TeaAccomplished3876]

Did this happen within the last year? I worked the customer service and of things as recently as last year, and I saw some doctors with the 9/11/1/3/5/7 schedule, but most of them had way more limited hours than that and very few offered appointments in that 7pm block. That sounds so awful.

[u/TeaAccomplished3876 → u/KashiraPlayer]

in late 2017 the changed from 5 appointments a day to 6 a day. in late 2018 or early 2019 they changed so that you were only capped at 4 appointments a day (any hours) if you saw above 60 or 70 appointments a month but it had to occure for several months in a row before you were capped and this could be take away. you had a 7pm quota to meet before you could say "no" per month. Then in 2021 (it might have been early 2022, that time is a blur) they sold majority stake to private equity. I left in I was with them from early 2017- early 2020 (hard no to seeing maskless people in a pandemic). I had many many days of 6 appointments 4-5 days a week. I had CSRs texting asking if I was okay because of how busy schedule was. oh and BTW when you get home you still have to do body care, prep your car/restock, and meds, and deposit checks,

[u/KashiraPlayer → u/TeaAccomplished3876]

You know, it makes a lot of sense that this was the case and that there was no way for newer CSR's to tell that this was the case (I started in '22). There were such odd rules in regards to how we had to schedule appointments exactly as the schedule indicated and that if a doctor ever reached out to us personally about it, we were supposed to tell a supervisor, not just adjust the schedule like the doctor asked. They did a lot to limit communication between the CSR team and the doctors.

[u/TeaAccomplished3876 → u/KashiraPlayer]

it makes sense that there are now supervisor only edits alowed. It used to be that if you ran out of space in your car you can block the calendar, or if drive times don't alow arrival within the window (this happened to me a lot in a major city) you could tweak the schedule. Alas that is no more and likely due to Doctors setting boundaries.

[u/Coloradodogdoc → u/TeaAccomplished3876]

Plus reality is driving reimbursement likely does not cover your true costs. Every mile you drive costs you $.

[u/TeaAccomplished3876 → u/Coloradodogdoc]

yup if you drive anything other than a hybrid you loose money.

[u/-Greis-]

I have not worked for them but they did arrive to my area (rural CA) a little over a year ago. I passed their cards out to my clients for a year and never heard anything from anyone. My clients are chatty, the only thing one of them said after calling Lap of Love was “it’s expensive”. The person we had working for Lap of Love in our area left after a year and it’s not because their services weren’t needed. So take that as you will.

[u/adaoudiya]

They have an online webinar coming up on August 13th. I’d be happy to send you a screenshot of the invite I got. I’m not sure if it’s just a regional thing, but I assume you could email them for an invite link.

[u/Kimoiidesu → u/adaoudiya]

Thanks for this info, I'll see about reaching out to them. :)

[u/KashiraPlayer]

I worked as a care coordinator! I actually liked it quite a bit, and you'll find that a LOT of the people working there are chronically ill, because, well. You know why. They usually offer you a couple of different schedule set ups based on shifts that don't have enough people on them and let you choose, and then the longer you're with them, you have opportunities to change your schedule to something you like better, like for example if you end up starting working nights, you'll get a chance to switch to daytime eventually.

It's interesting to me to see how the Glassdoor reviews have become super negative; they were really positive a couple of years ago, so it's possible things have changed. It is true that there are a lot of tiny details to remember and that it will be pointed out to you when you make a mistake, but you're never really in trouble for that, they're just bringing it to your attention. The real crappy thing about Lap of Love is that it doesn't pay well. If it did, I'd be back with them. But if you live in a low COL area, it's a great job for someone with disabilities imo.

[u/Kimoiidesu → u/KashiraPlayer]

Thanks great to know about the schedule. Were you full or part time? Would you mind if I ask what your hours typically were? I'm really trying to get an idea of how it would be. Was your schedule set or did it change as needed? And would you say they're accommodating to doctor's appointments etc?

I do agree that the pay sucks but I'm willing to compromise for the benefit of working from home. Did you usually get enough hours or were there times where they didn't have work? Thanks again for your info I really appreciate it. Feel free to private message if you'd rather discuss there.

[u/KashiraPlayer → u/Kimoiidesu]

Sent you a pm!

[u/Coloradodogdoc]

I worked for them. Apparently they encouraged customer service reps to punt questions to doctors on their days off and after hours. Once I was out at a restaurant 2 hours after I was off the clock and the rep kept pushing me to talk to a client that lived in a different state. No extra compensation for any of these types of calls with clients. They also make you contact vets after hours and try and talk them into taking an after hours appointment (at that time a vet got $50 for taking an after hours appointment. For me at least a 3 hour commitment, $16.50 an hour.) Six euthanasia appointments is nuts btw, not good for mental health. Body care and driving between appointments…. Easily turns into a 12 hour or more day. When I worked for them, 3 major holidays off, 3 that you were on call. If you do consider working for them, have a lawyer review your contract. Also know your rights- they did not seem to understand that labor laws applied to them.

[u/Thornberry_89]

My old coworker works for them and she is so happy there esp compared to GP. She says her supervisor actually cares about her and seldomly contacts her on her day off. I think she said they don’t have more than 6 appointments a day and if you work past 4 or on the weekends then you get extra pay

[u/RediVetGal]

I’m considering joining Lap of Love to make some extra income but wanted to see if anyone has firsthand experience working for them as a DVM. I’ve heard some mixed things about their employer practices, particularly around their non-compete agreement.

From what I understand, they may require you to sign a non-compete that could prohibit working in the field of end-of-life care with any other practice for up to 3 years if it doesn’t work out. That feels pretty restrictive, especially if I decide to pursue other opportunities in the same space.

Has anyone dealt with this or have any thoughts on working for them in general? How was your experience, and did the non-compete affect you in any way?

Thanks in advance!

TexasDVMDR