production associate

laboratory technician

maintenance technician

customer service representative

warehouse associate

Essilor

I started as a Assemblers' Helper, running parts/products to Assemblers.  I was transferred to Packer after 2 months.  Promoted to Inspector 1 year later.  Was promoted to Anti-Reflective Coating Operator/Inpsector 2 years later.  Was promoted on manager recommendation to Group Leader after 3 months.  Was promoted to Supervisor after 2 years of GL. per Management peer group. 
At peak employment, I supervised 65 employees in 3 departments on 2 shifts. I was responsible for everyone & everything within the Inpsection, Packaging and Shipping Depts.  I had the responsibility of hiring, training employees as well as insuring employees safety was a first priority.  
IDaily interaction with our QA, Engineering and Assembly departments was critical in assisting to produce high quality lenses to our customer specs.   
I was also afforded the opportunity to spend several weeks in Manaus, Brazil at our facility in training local hires for our Inspection and Packaging lines. 
I learned so much about the optical lens business.  Essilor was SO GOOD to it's employees, offering continuing education, very good communication from Senior management to the newly hired employees. The company had a wonderful policy and mission statement. They invested in their employees to be #1 in the world and stay there. They strived to produce the best high quality optical lenses in the world
I was on the Safety Team; was a writer for our company's monthly magazine, The FOCUS, interviewing employees and their special achievements, community work, etc.  
Essilor was associated with one of several Pinellas County's community services called DOORWAYS. This was a mentoring program, such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters, which allowed me to sponsor 2 at-risk female teenagers over the course of several years.
I made many long lasting relationships that are active to this day.  
I can truly say that I cannot remember this position being hard for me after I moved to the Packaging Dept.  The first 2 months were the hardest, running and supplying the Assemblers and delivering monomer, the liquid polymer used to produce the lenses.  I broke out in a severe rash after a couple of months caused directly by the liquid in it's virgin state. What I thought was the the end of my employment at Essilor turned into the most wonderful work experience of my life.

There are two buildings Creekview and Omega. The Creekview is where all the sales, HR and marketing works. Its a nice fancy building with free food, marketing events and other fun stuff.

Omega building is the old building right across the Creekview building. This is a sweat shop for IT and Lens lab. You will hardly see any American in this building. You will see a lot of Asians in IT and a lot of Latinos in lens workshop labs. This building always smells so bad because of the heat released by surfacing the lenses in the lab.

Jobs are consolidated in IT, so the work is heavy. Requires a lot of unnecessary unpaid overtime just to meet some management "deadlines". Although this is a 9 billion dollar company it feels like you are working in some third world country. Very poor work culture.

Pros
They contribute additional 3k when employee contributes 6k every year in stocks but you have to wait for 2 yrs or leave the job or a have some life event to sell the stocks.

If you are committed to work off hours and weekends you can get WFH one or two days a week.

6% 401K match. All benefits start after 90 days of employment.

Cons
There is no Diversity. IT is dominated by under-paid, low skilled Asians.

No Sick leaves, No Paid time off. If you are absent for work for more than 2 days you need medical documentation. THIS IS HOW MUCH THEY VAULE YOU.

Unlimited vacation is not more than 2 weeks at a time but most probably your leave request will not be approved even for a week citing some excuses.

Job roles are heavy consolidated.

Not a typical 08:00 AM to 05:00 PM job.

Health insurance is very expensive. It is $250-275 per month for 1 individual.

Free pair of lens every year and $75 of frame every 2 years but the frame are not less than $250. You will end up paying $175 anyway.

Irony is company does not offer any Vision insurance because of the clash with vendors.

This place is a hostile environment to work at and I wouldn’t recommend it. The best part of the job is pay/benefits but the work environment is so hostile you’ll rarely be able to make time to use your benefits. At least that’s been the case for me. I work in one of the MN based labs and the lab is ran poorly from what I have experienced so far. 1. People make mistakes but nobody wants to own up to mistakes made so everyone would rather just point fingers than actually solve the issue and help our consumers receive THEIR medical devices in a timely fashion. This company seems to have a hard time recruiting and keeping talent (due to their hostile work enviroment). Employees are allowed to say whatever to other employees with little no involvement from their manager. I’ve witnessed an employee scream “Shut up.” across an entire building for everyone to literally go back to their day like “Oh that’s just so and so!”. They promote people to management positions from within when they are clearly unqualified. This company promised raises to us and instead remodeled our break room. Oh corporate at it’s finest. Ps: raises were originally scheduled for January and now put off until June Or maybe by June it will be put off even farther. All and all if your willing to sacrifice your mental health for benefits and decent pay this may be the work place for you. If your looking for a happy career where you have potential to grow under great leadership, run away.

If you are considering a job with Essilor, particularly at the corporate level or in the labs, keep an eye out for warning signs as you go through the interview process and definitely ask to speak with some current employees.  

EssilorLux is a French and Italian company.   The US operations are nothing more than a number on the financial statements, and as proven by multiple large scale layoffs in the past few years, American workers are expendable even when the operational and financial challenges within the organization are in Europe.   The more you make and the more expendable you are, the more likely it is that you are going to get let go within 2 years.  

Management (C-level) has its head in the sand and refuses to address the root cause issues within the organization (shoddy customer service and support, no integration between business units, unskilled Finance staff).   The labs are overworked and understaffed with extremely high turnover and error rates that are 3x the industry benchmark.   Customers are raising heck and it makes for a chaotic and toxic workplace.  

On the plus side, there's a "come to work if you want to" culture which means virtually no accountability or set hours.   As long as you look busy and get your work done, the bosses are far too busy running around to redundant meetings to notice you.    

Do your homework, it's a trap.

Employer doesn't care about you. They make it out like safety is everything but theirs constant collisions between carts. Their isn't enough trainers so they might walk you through a few things in your first week but after that you're basically on your own. I had new people asking me how to do certain things on my 2nd week of working there. Along with hearing people bad mouth the work place so I learned pretty quickly that the morale of Essilor was low. 
I don't know if I was there at a bad time or if they're always so disorganized but their was constant overtime, every single day, mandatory after six weeks of "training". 
2nd shift is paid a little more than any other shift, though I don't recommend it. T
You get 2 15 minute breaks, though they're picky for you to work until the bell so if you're sorting contacts you'll be late, therefor not getting your full amount of time, Their's a huge lack of clocks, only 3 throughout the warehouse so you have to decide if you want to give up time to constantly check the clock. (Hope you'r eyesight is better than mine) (I suggest getting a watch, though you'll constantly have people interrupting you to know the time) 
Essilor was suggested to me from someone who worked there a long time, though management doesn't remember him. (Of course) The company has definitely gone downhill. 
You can get your check deposited or use a pay card. Pay is biweekly,

I am a road warrior, up early to review accounts and to print out their monthly Job Analysis.  I have 3 goals in my work, grow doctors ASP, (average selling price), gain more business from my SoW (Share of Wallet) accounts and Prospect new accounts with the right message and the right frequency.  
I have learned building relationships and asking pain/gain questions is key. Using the APEX selling method allows me to move the doctor through the buying cycle.  
I work best with a management team who has my back.  At Essilor, they believe in their people and give sales as many resources as needed to be successful.  
My co-workers and I work as a team.  We play to eachothers strengths and share wins.  This took time to create a "tree of trust", but worth the effort.  
The hardest part of my job is balancing the office work with my time desired to be infront of my doctors.  I get it, Essilor needs my time for Webinar, reports and emails, but it takes away from my time to build my accounts.  
The most enjoyable part of my job was winning Presidents Club 2 years in a row and traveling with Essilor's Executive team.  The exposure for me as a sales consultant was extraordinary.  Also, it is seeing my accounts grow and make money, adding jobs in my laboratories and to make top money for my family to enjoy and build for our future.

I did not have a great experience as an HR professional with this company. I was forced to leave at my 90 day mark because I did not build enough relationships. I was told that this decision had nothing to do with my work performance; however these company bread and butter are relationships. From the short time I worked for the organization I noticed that they have a tendency to lay people of quickly. Within the 90 period I worked for them, I had three different HR managers. The headquarters which is in Dallas, TX is very nice. However if you work out in the fields your work desk has tables, chairs and printers that people bring from their homes. Every effort is made to keep the cost of running the business low. Also, there are a lot of people that have been working for the org. for 20 years or more so they are very stuck in there ways. Most people are not very acceptance to CHANGE. If you try to make effort to employee engagement activity, create flow charts; recommend background checks in certain labs send to many emails, etc. Just the littlest thing will get you coined as NOT A GOOD FIT and you will be out the door.

Responsible for daily production  throughout the department. Develop and implement training procedures and plans to train employees on new processes and equipment for the purpose of improving skills. Analyze problems that arise and determine actions that will minimize issues, decrease costs, and improve yields. Perform regular audits within department of responsibility to ensure correct procedures are being followed. Lead Lean/Six Sigma projects within department for the purpose of improving productivity and quality. Monitor department labor hours. Maintain performance records on employees, and routinely communicate performance to employees regarding methods and techniques for improving performance. Evaluate performance of employees, and coach employees according to company policy as needed. Schedule employees work time and vacation time to ensure proper coverage for department. Provide analysis and recommendations to management for improving processes and production flow. Ensure that all safety and cleanliness standards are maintained in the work area.

A typical day at work consists of making sure we get as much eye glasses and lenses ready to go out the door. My experience it was more of a quantity over quality because of the amount of work that were rushed out the door which caused customers to complain because the job was not done right the first time. 
Management and supervisors had bad leadership skills, communication and had a lot of favoritism. It was certain employees that could get a raise or get away with saying and doing anything because of management not holding the employees accountable. On the other hand it’s some employees if they didn’t care for you they will find a way to get rid of you.
Management have favoritism on employees they hire for regular jobs and for leadership roles like team lead and supervisor. It’s not about what you know it’s who you know.
Most of the employees that work at the job are family members or friends.
The job is ok if you need something for the moment or you want to learn more about eye glasses and lens but I wouldn’t recommend long term.


I enjoyed my time as a contractor.  I was treated like a full-time employee with limited employee discounts on eye wear.  First week of work team took me out to lunch.  I was included in company events there employee specific.   The team even had surprise team birthday party at work. And the team gave me a Christmas Amex gift card and brought me a gift back so I wouldn't feel left because she got her core team gift. She gave us all personalized key chains with our name.  Not the cheap key chain.

Great place to work.  I wasn't able to be hired full time because the budget for marketing operations support was reduced.  And I was the only contractor on the team.  And when the day came to tell me the lead was very upset to see me go.  I was allowed to go to my desk alone to retrieve my personal items.  I was allowed to use my corporate laptop to save my personal files without any oversight. And team lead personally walked with out.  And she was in a sad and shock state of mind because she was informed a few hours before the decision was made.

In the end she wrote me an outstanding job performance evaluation and a flowing letter of recommendation.

And the agency that placed me was shocked as well.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Production associate 13 salaries reported	$18.38 per hour
Laboratory technician 25 salaries reported	$16.72 per hour
Maintenance technician 1 salary reported	$30.00 per hour
Customer service representative 2 salaries reported	$16.00 per hour
Warehouse associate 9 salaries reported	$16.69 per hour

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