More of a salesman than anything. Expected to have medical knowledge and explain to patient how glasses work but we get horribly trained on it. There are some things I don't know till months later in my job because no one cared to tell me, Patients do not have readily access to the doctor, so if there's no manager on the floor, it's up to the Optician, which in the end gets some abuse from patients or can say incorrect medical information. My coworker had a patient that put on her new glasses and then tossed them rudely, "I cant see. What are you going to do about it?" Yelling , etc. It's common that people doubt the doctor's ability to write prescriptions and it's inappropriate. There are always terrible people in customer service, but you'd think you get away from this kind of thing working at an Optical. Quite degrading. Pay is awful even as a full timer 9-5. Receptionists make more hourly than opticians! The commission is only 1% of the sale and does not include contact lenses or exams. You'll maybe make $100 extra on a check. Optician's bonus is just .5% commission increase. Only management and receptionists get majority of the bonuses from the sales OPTICIANS make! See how that makes no sense?. I make 2k a month...Not sustainable! Feels like humiliation ritual needing to meet constant expectations with low reward. I'm not sure if every location does this, but there are weekly morning meetings on Saturdays the managers have to do and they're meant to regroup about weekly goals. Again, very numbers based, but not really any effort in a reward system or making the workload easier. Little room to move up in the industry unless someone quits, very corporate. Assistant manager position requires 3 separate interviews--again, high expectations, awful pay. Reminds me of working in food service. The company is cheap and does not hire janitors, so you will be expected to take out trash to the dumpster, mop, sweep, wipe counters and clean the toilets. That's if you have any time at all.. The store remains filthy majority of the time because of how little time there is to do it and some employees can't care enough to do it.
