Because of the economy and how the company is trying to squeeze every penny from each store, the working environment is not great. While there are some great coworkers and management, the majority are shady, loony, and downright not personable. Depending on your store, work can be heaven or hell. Management has a very high turnover rate, I have seen 3 managers, 2 retail managers, a EECA, sales supervisor, and three lab techs get the boot while I have been with my store for 1.5 years. Our "incentives" for both lab are retail have gone in the tank with the company's new system of pay. No more christmas bonus, no more monthly store meetings (company doesnt want to pay for the hours, sheesh), hours are slashed like freddy kruger (some of the FT workers in my store are in danger of losing their PTO because of the cuts. To make matters worse, we now have to serve more customers with less help. As a lab tech, I have to constantly go out on the floor to help dispense and act as a retail associate sometimes. Also the benefits are terrible for part time employees like me, management bones me by making me work just under the requirement for full time status. Also depending on location, your store may be antiquated. Mine is from the 80s and hasnt been updated yet. We got some old school machines in the lab and a while back they stopped bringing in outside ppl to maintain the machines, now we have to fix them ourselves when our machine hotline takes you in circles as to how to fix it. Did i mention the pay is a little above welfare? Unless your the GM or Managing Optometrist, your not salary and even if your management still, your making under 20 bucks a hour. I forgot to mention the stress can be INSANE, both for retail and lab.
