optician

Specsavers

While here I enjoyed a fast paced & busy work environment. The patients were generally very pleasant and I enjoyed helping them. I believe the volume of patients seen over time helped me develop experience, and learn through practice how to recommend relavent to lifestyle, or handle dissatisfied feedback. From this point of view it is a good place to grow.

First hour or so is spent welcoming customers into store, or helping the lab unpack the days delivery. From 10 through until 2-3 is usually the busiest and I'm primarily dispensing, doing collections, booking appointments, adjustments/repairs, handling problems/compaints/queries. There is a quiet patch in the afternoon I usually use to stock up cases, screw and nospads ordering more where neccassary. After 4 things pick up as the children arrive. Usually at this time I am dispensing/collecting childrens glasses, sometimes being called in the lab to check and verify the glasses are correct before the collection is done.

In my average day I will also take orders for contact lenses and handle setting up or changing of direct debit scheme for a contact lens patient. I usually spend time with patients frame styling them if they need help making decisions. Though usually this is limited to a patients with high prescription, specific visual requirements or an unsuitable initial frame choice.

The hardest part of the job is probably delivering bad news to patients with poorly managed expectations. An elderly patient with poor visual acuity who has a sight test that shows 'a change' will often be offered a new frame and dispensed relatively smoothly, but may come back in time dissapointed in the clarity of vision with the new pair. Turning around and explaining that this prescription may be better for their eyes but because of dense cataracts/AMD/ wear and tear they cannot see cleary no matter what lens we give them, is proabably my least favourite part of my day. This is never a fun conversation but when the list of patients to see is building, the situation has to handled tactfully and swiftly. I believe the dissapointment can often be avioided by clearly explaining things to the patient at every step of the way. Helping them to understand things from the start can be a big help in matching their expectations with results.

I joined the company to train as a Dispensing Optician. The opportunity offered to me was completely different to the reality of working in the store. There was 0 ongoing support, 0 training sessions and 0 reviews during my probationary period. After notifying management of this, I was assured I would have ongoing training more in place, with more regular reviews following those 3 months. The week after, 2 of my training sessions were cancelled so that I could assist with the general running of the day (we were not busy, no explanation or apology provided). The in store trainer was never free or had time to give to the staff, management seemed only concerned about the day running on the shop floor. 

All of this, alongside a terribly low morale and high demand for volume of tests and dispenses makes the store in desperate need of a management makeover. There was never any recognition for the GOOD things I did, I wasn't even informed when my name was mentioned on the customer review site. The team themselves were all great people, but the managers I had to depend on failed at delivering the job role I had expected to join. 

Also, please note there is no sick pay here. I had to deal with unprofessional behaviour from managers (disrespectfully leaving me with a customer issue without informing me how to fix it). 

As a health service, I feel the emphasis on quick dispenses and tests is at the compromise of quality of care, which did not sit well with me. 

I hope this store can improve, but the lack of communication I experienced working there concerns me that nothing I told my boss upon leaving would have been passed on, as some notes in my reviews seemed to conveniently miss out the negative experience I had had thus far. 

If you love having no work/life balance and working yourself until it makes you unwell this is the perfect place! Worked at a branch in Essex for around 7/8 months and was treated like dirt. Probation was extended twice in total due to attendance, first time if was because I'd had 2/3 days off in 3 months due to a disability. Second time round was because I had to isolate with covid symptoms for 3 days to get a test. But apparently because my test ended up negative it wasn't acceptable to them. You never know where you stand with management/directors, sometimes they'll act like a friend and sometimes they'll deliberately look for things to complain about. The store manager once sat the other side of the desk wall listening in on my dispense without my knowledge, then later on complained that I used the words "okay" and "so" too much. She'd actually sat there counting and writing it down. This is just one example of many. Directors and supervisors have a go at you on the shop floor in front of customers. They twist your words and actions, everything gets written in your file so it just builds up (they don't actually communicate with you). Constantly told to speed up dispenses but when there's a mistake it's because you're rushing. The resident optom/directors would worry a patient into having the additional 3d scan done, but would still charge for it. Half the time they claimed they'd have a look at it later once the patient had gone and I doubt they actually did. Wouldn't recommend specsavers as a company, they do not care about staff wellbeing at all it's just about the money. 

My role was a Service Desk Analyst, based in Whiteley Support Office. The company is a good starting point for career in IT due to the scope of the work as the job role covers retail and corporate side. There are opportunities to gain qualifications like ITIL, SDi and Customer Service for technical people. The atmosphere is sort of good, there are people who are willing to help, but they are others who don’t share knowledge and can easily ignore you. The salary is a little bit more than average for the area + bonus every three months based on performance. There are other perks like profit share, company meals, travelling to HQ in Guernsey. The management is the weak point as constantly puts pressure on you, not supporting enough and not organising the work process well. The progression is a hard task, unless you become closer to people who can push you forward. My advice is to grab the knowledge, gain the experience and find a job elsewhere for a quicker progression in IT. 

In this role, there was no typical day as, along with the 'core' tasks, based on Regional activities, needs and Training Centre requirements, each day consisted of a 'project' based day.
I learned so much not only about the role but also in dealing with and providing information to 93 Store Directors, how best to communicate and collate required information for disseminating.
My specific workplace culture was more of an individual, self managed role, knowing what needed to be done and progressing to complete everything required, based on priorities, urgency and Regional needs.
The hardest part of the job at times was the frustrations in having to continually chase the same persons time and time again for required information.
The most enjoyable part of the job was knowing that I was successful in completing all my tasks in a timely manner to very high standards and receiving repeated and positive feedback from the Directors on a frequent basis.

The contact with the store leading up to starting was pretty much non existent. Wasn’t told which store I was starting at, what time my shift started or even given a contact number for who would be doing my induction. Because no one contacted me between the job offer and starting, my pre booked holidays weren’t approved and I was made to feel as though it was my fault for leaving it too late. 

While the people I was working with were lovely for the most part, because of the small team and busy environment, I received barely any training. While I expected doing some computer based learning or shadowing for the first couple of days, I ended up being briefly showing how to meet and greet and then throw in the deep end. 

The same was said for pretesting patients, which is worrying in itself because I didn’t know fully if my images/scans were good. When I asked if I could have time to do some ilearn training, I was told there wasn’t time because it was busy, but if I wanted to do training at home I could. However this would be unpaid even though it is essential training. 

Massive red flags so didn’t stay for very long. 

Working at Specsavers has been a mixed experience for me. The workload can be overwhelming, and it feels like the staff is underpaid for the amount of work they have to do. It also seems that depending on the store, management and directors have favorites, which can create an uncomfortable work environment. Some staff members can be cliquey and rude, making it difficult for new employees to feel welcome. Proper training is lacking, with new employees often being thrown into the deep end without adequate support. Unfortunately, there is limited room for growth within the company, and other staff members tend to gossip and complain a lot which doesn't create a positive atmosphere. Additionally, the requirement to come in 15 minutes early for a "huddle" without being compensated for the extra time can be frustrating. The lab can be unorganised, leading to delays in job completion and missing glasses. Overall, I found the management to be hypocritical and toxic.

Work conditions are good and the job is as expected in a high street, franchise opticians. 

There seems to be a lack of differentiation between a dispensing optician and a dispensing assistant meaning that patients don’t understand the level of knowledge a dispensing optician may have and it also means that there is a higher likelihood of remake dispenses. 

Management, from my experience, came from a non-optical background on the most part and were more like salesmen. If you enjoy this element of dispensing then there is a lot in it for you as targets are available. 

The team makes the difference, if you have a good team who are willing to work hard then the job is easy however in my experience there were staff members who seemed to disappear or get given the easier jobs because they refused to do anything else and they just got away with it. 

the management in the FSSC office use to be so good, But since the changes in the past year everything has gone down hill. 
most employees are actively looking to get out. claiming the atmosphere has just gotten so claustrophobic. 

Regardless of your skills and education if your face doesn't fit or no longer fits you will not succeed.  

Specsavers does have some good qualities ie study support (when you can get it ) and perks and they have good communication around different departments but management do not care about their staff or hire their friends over more qualified persons and quite frankly discriminate against different people and will spend their time investigating to find something they can hold against you if needs be. no support given when asked

Specsavers, as a company, will do what they can to make your employment with them as comfortable as possible. There are a seemingly unlimited amount of training courses which you can go on and the company will send you on them during working hours. 

The management in Durham branch are conniving and will treat you unfairly in order to make themselves look better to the higher ups. You cannot trust them. 

Unless you are a director or an optician, then is no money to be made by working in a high street optic retailer.

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