optician

associate

sales associate

optical assistant

optical manager

MEDICAL EYEGLASS CENTER

What is the best part of working at the company?
The role requires you to be able to think your feet and react quickly. If you enjoy a frenetic pace, this is a good choice. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Chronically short staffing is a major problem. In my region, employees have a tendency to call out regularly without ever really suffering repercussions. One employee has been currently out for a month, and will be out indefinitely, and no one has been hired to replace them. In this particular case, it causes one person to have to do the work of two, and can get very overwhelming. The practice that we are contracted with tends to run late, as well - I typically work a 9.5 hour work day as a result. The integrated systems used for ordering feel quite obsolete, as well - like something that was designed in 2010. I'm used to far more efficient systems for ordering. They also tend to go down somewhat often, which will put you in a difficult place with assisting patients and placing orders.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It depends on which aspect of the organization you are working with. The corporate leadership based out of Boca Raton can be somewhat crass and demanding, and oftentimes, you will be remotely micromanaged for even small entry billing mistakes that are easy to make. The staff in New Jersey (the primary corporate HQ) are more affable and friendly to work with, however, and I've not had a negative experience with them. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Days can vary from pure chaos and stress, to managable. There is no such thing as "down time", however - with offices running smaller staffs than typical optical dispensaries, the expectation to produce more will be placed on the employee. You will be expected to run your office from top to bottom - placing orders, phone calls, inventory, inspecting orders, dispensing orders, organizing contact lenses, scanning prescription signatures - and much more.

The company fails to tell you that your position is determined on whether or not the medical facility renews their contract with MEC.

Communication is poor with associates.  On Friday 1/8 a phone call was received and the information was recapped in an email stating:

Final day for transactions will be 1/14
Final day of employment will be 1/15
On the 15th - all product will need to be packed up 
One optician is being retained with the new optical mgmt company
The other 4 will not continue employment 

It's a shame, because the company has a great concept of managing the dispensary that doctors aren't interested in doing.  But not giving four opticians even a letter of reference, vacation pay or any kind of compensation is poor business.  Then asking them to clean up and send the product back for them? That's poor associate relations.

Be careful ....and ask questions:
How long is your contract with this office that we are working with you for?
When the contract ends (and your in another state) what happens to the associates?

It would have helped if someone from home office would have taken the time to explain the situation, thanked us for our services, given some compensation (at least vacation pay) and written letter of references.

Communication is poor between: 
-the company and the client
-the company and associates

Recommendation is to work directly with the doctors office as an optician rather than the management company.  Unless you have a firm letter of compensation when they loose their contract to another management company.

I was hired for an optical associate role. This position is not very optical orientated rather it is sales motivated. I was not given adequate training to do my job but rather enough to get sales. There is not a lot of room from growth unless you are willing to travel or take on significant responsibility while still being at an hourly rate. There is no Manager within Market. there is only Regional directors. Often times employees feel that MEC does not care about them as people but rather what they can do for the company. The work place culture is not strong. Often times I feel compelled to do work and take on responsibility without a pay increase because if not it will impact me and my work performance. I often feel like I am on my own.  Managers do not get adequate training. They do not strike preemptively or know how to have interpersonal relationships with their employees. Managers ( When there was one in market) show up without warning and instead of giving opticians adequate time to prepare questions or concerns they arrive and then just jump in to help immediate problems. There are no  staff meetings either in person or via a zoom like platform except a mandatory training that is an hour away from my location. There is not a lot of communication of what is going on within the company which leads to disorganization and miscommunications. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
There is nothing rewarding about working here.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Overall, this is a high-stress, mentally draining environment where employees are expected to tolerate unacceptable situations without real support. There is a serious lack of accountability, communication, and respect for staff.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Concerns raised to management and higher-level supervisors are consistently dismissed or minimized. Ongoing issues are brushed off as a “rough patch,” even when they’ve been happening since way before I started. Problems are repeatedly brought up, acknowledged in the moment, and then ignored with no meaningful follow-through.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Chronic understaffing is the norm. It’s not unusual for patients to be waiting over an hour. Employees are left to manage the front, handle orders, and deal with increasingly frustrated and sometimes aggressive patients alone. You’re expected to keep everything running smoothly in conditions that make that nearly impossible.

I have worked for many different types of optical employers during my years in the industry. I enjoy the structure at MEC. I also have freedom to provide my patients with the care and service they deserve with consistency. We provide quality products that I am proud to sell to my patients.

I have read some of the negative reviews on here, and I have a response for some of it. The relationship between MEC and their client has never affected my ability to do my job. I work directly with the doctor at the practice I work in. I built the relationship with that doctor to the point that we are a team. I feel like this is just part of the requirements of my position. This is a crucial component in being successful in this type of business model.

I would recommend working for MEC to any of my friends in this industry.

Supervisor during second week of training in Dedham;  invited an applicant interested in same role I was hired for to have a walk through and review of work day.  Never given any communication that she would invite an Applicant who wanted my position during my training for the role.  Poor training,  on many levels.  Training was short a few days to train Supervisors new assistant instead;  no communication.  Supervisor and assistant randomly drop by office to settle into your day to observe you work in the day and constructively criticize how you have your set up despite being a single optician and do well with your own way of doing things.  There are 10 ways to build a tray!  

The upper management of this company is the worst! They don’t know anything about the optical business. What they do know is how to push pencils,  manage numbers, and place blame elsewhere. Not only do they not care about you as an employee, they don’t care about their customers. As a matter of fact, the only thing that they seem to care about is $$$, which is funny because they don’t care about employee or customer retention. The area managers are a different story. They take a lot of heat from upper management, and every one of them that I have come in contact with seems to genuinely care about the people (because they have been there before). The hardest part about this job are these insane processes and redundancy that keep you from actually helping the customers.

Please do not apply to this company. First they try to sucker you in by saying you earn commission, they absolutely don’t give raises because they think commission is enough, when it’s sometimes hard to even get them to remember to add it on your check or even reach the high goals that are set to earn it.  Second, there is absolutely no work life balance. The managers that you have to report to give you absolutely no support, all they care about is sales sales sales and money! Everything is your fault, nothing is ever their fault. The individuals in home office are absolutely rude!! Lack of training if you don’t already have experience and they are absolute pushovers. 

This company took over my previous employer as an "optical management" company and is by far the absolute worst company I have ever experienced, heard of, or could even ever imagine. Lies upon lies, computer systems that are both archaic and not conducive for a heavy patient flow at all. When we were being onboarded, the insurance plans employees were told we would have available to us changed repeatedly, as did the cost.  Only gives 2 weeks PTO, even if you work there 10 years, 20 years, it does not matter. 2 weeks is all you will be getting.
I seriously did not think it was possible for a business to be this inept.



When I first started I was promised alot of things such as monthly bonuses, training, assistance, flexibility with family life. All lies! This job is very stressful! The lab ruins numerous jobs and the customers are constantly cursing you out.  Not enough help. Working long hours but not being compensated. Calls after hours about the job. Very annoying! During business hours noone is available to answer questions or help you with proper training. It has literally made me sick. The stress is so overwhelming that it has affected my health.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Optician 21 salaries reported	$23.48 per hour
Associate 8 salaries reported	$19.56 per hour
Sales associate 18 salaries reported	$20.68 per hour
Optical assistant 4 salaries reported	$21.38 per hour
Optical manager 1 salary reported	$22.00 per hour

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