optical assistant

optometrist

optician

customer service representative

store manager

Specsavers

The downside to working there is that I have witnessed a lack of compassion, empathy and understanding during difficult times and unfortunately I was treated in such manner, which is shocking for a place that highlights how understanding they are.  This is the reason  why I left this company with immediate effect!

I am writing to share my experience regarding how management handled my situation during a period of bereavement. Following the recent death of my grandfather, I came in to work the day after his death as we were short staffed and felt like I needed to support my colleagues despite it being a challenging time.  In hindsight, this wasn't a wise  decision  due the emotional toll it took on me and I was unable to focus on my tasks . 

 I was  disappointed by the lack of empathy and genuine support shown. When I requested  one day off, management, fully aware of my circumstances, offered me a shift swap instead of granting the day off outright. This response felt cold and it felt like they were unwilling to extend genuine support. While this approach may have been seen as sufficient from management’s perspective, to me, it signalled  a lack of real care and understanding. It left me feeling as though my well-being was not a priority, which was particularly disheartening during a period of personal loss.

The following day, I took the day off to grieve and organise things for the funeral; I received a phone call from management and I  was reprimanded for going into the staff room to take essential phone calls related to my grandfather’s passing, even though I had a supervisor’s permission to do so.  To be told that the team were under pressure and that they had to take on the workload ,under these circumstances was not only shocking, but very unfair. To be told that handling my personal problems was a problem for the team, was deeply hurtful. 
 CCTV would have shown the emotional state I was in when I went into the staff room to compose myself. This response from management left me feeling distressed and unwelcome at a time when understanding and compassion were most needed. 

Additionally, the supervisor who let me use my phone regarding my grandfather's passing  may be facing reprimand despite trying her best  accommodate to my needs during that difficult period. I understand protocol needs to be followed but my concern is that she may now encounter issues with management. This has left me with the impression that, the company choose protocol over personal well- being when a staff member is going through a difficult time. 

It is unfortunate that I had to resign to prioritise my well being and help my family, and I really looked forward to progressing, learning new skills and making a difference.  When I handed over my uniform and items, I had a quick chat with the optometrist and  received an apology and he was deeply embarrassed with the way management handled my situation. That is something for which management themselves should be apologizing, not the optometrist.

To improve staff support with similar situations like mine, I would recommend:

1) Compassionate policies: allow employees to take compassionate time off for personal difficulties, without the need to negotiate or swap their shifts. 

2) Empathy and sensitivity training- staff and  management should take part in courses like that so they are better equipped with handling sensitive situations and be able to offer support. 

3) Proactive Support: Encouraging management to check in on employees who are visibly distressed, offering support and understanding rather than reprimand.

4)Clear Supportive Policies: Establishing policies that prioritize well-being and clearly communicate the organization’s commitment to its employees during times of loss or hardship.


Hi all so working in the lab for over four years for me was probably the most difficult and hardest part of my career and life. Depending on where, working in the lab can be terrible and almost impossible as the directors (Bosses) set unrealistic targets due  to having high customer volume but low staff , poor lab equipment and resources and no support. It is very hard to manage due to this making the experience very stressful and upsetting. There is no help or support from management, you are often unfairly criticised for not meeting these targets or getting the work done in time which as mentioned can be impossible and sometimes bosses will threaten or even dismiss you over this so job security isn't great. 

The biggest issue I want people to be aware of is there is a massive problem in Specsavers as a whole with poor pay and staff working a lot of unpaid over time. Not to give out too much information but the pay isn't enough to live on and often you want get much more increase even after a few years service, it kind of sticks at one point and doesn't go any higher. Although to be fair there are very few times where someone will get a good pay package but this is often rare and is more down to stores being desperate for experienced staff.  The unpaid over time is honestly unacceptable, I do not believe that in the 21st century we still have people working for no pay at times but sadly we do. Now it is common for employees to maybe not finish exactly on time, you may leave after 5 minutes or so at the end of your shift but at Specsavers there are people who finish or start their staffs hours before their contracted to without any paid overtime. As this happens most days some people end up working weeks worth of unpaid overtime each year as it adds up over time. Before you think it is the employees fault, all bosses are aware of this , it is very very common in Specsavers but they do not act upon it as there is no pressure on the bosses to pay these poor members of staff overtime as due to the fact it is considered acceptable within this company, it is honestly ridiculous. To concur with my earlier point of unrealistic targets, this unpaid over time is a result of these targets as staff members feel pressured into staying back hours each day to get the work done their just unable to do within their contracted time as there simply isn't the people power or resources to do so. Many people will feel they could lose their job too if they do not stay back to finish off work due to the poor job security and lack of understanding from the bosses.  Every department is a affected by these issues but none more so then the lab as due to the high demand of getting glasses ready in time and just not being unable to do so in your working day. 

I will say some of the people I worked with are incredible, and these are the staff members you work alongside, some have great work ethics and are great people and I truly feel for people like this and Specsavers should be treating them better all round. On the other hand management are not great , they are not approachable, helpful , considerate and do not value their staff. 

Overall Specsavers is not a great career choice in my honest opinion, the only people who gain from it are the directors.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I worked here for a period of time and unfortunately had a very negative experience.

I felt there was a lack of support from management, and at times the workplace environment felt intimidating and dismissive. This had a significant impact on my wellbeing and contributed to anxiety and panic attacks, including an occasion where I had to seek medical support.

Communication from management often felt belittling rather than supportive, and I did not feel comfortable raising concerns. During my time there, several members of staff left, which made the environment feel unstable and lacking in progression or encouragement.

In my experience, there was little focus on staff wellbeing or development, and I felt easily replaceable rather than supported, particularly towards the end of my apprenticeship.

I would encourage the company to take staff wellbeing and management communication more seriously to create a healthier working environment for future employees.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part was raising concerns and feeling they were not taken seriously. After submitting a complaint, I felt my experiences were dismissed, which increased anxiety and made the workplace feel unsupported.

I also felt uncomfortable with boundaries around privacy, including situations where management accessed or looked through my personal phone, which added to the stress and lack of trust within the workplace. Overall, the lack of open communication and respect for staff wellbeing made it difficult to feel secure or supported at work.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Morale among staff was very low, and many employees appeared to feel similarly about the working environment. Management communication could be harsh at times, with situations where staff were spoken to in a raised or belittling manner. This created an uncomfortable atmosphere and contributed to stress and a lack of confidence within the team.
The work environment felt very stressful, with a strong focus on targets and business needs rather than staff wellbeing. At times it seemed that management priorities were centred more on financial performance than supporting employees, which made the workplace feel pressured and lacking in understanding. This contributed to low morale and made it difficult to feel valued or supported as a member of staff.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I often felt on edge while at work and anxious about interactions with management. There were times when communication felt raised or critical, which created a sense of worry about being confronted or spoken to harshly. This ongoing tension made the environment feel stressful and impacted my confidence and overall wellbeing at work.

The work itself is relatively straightforward & interesting. However, it just never felt like I was in a real team. Although many staff are lovely people who look out for one another, that did not reflect the overarching negativity within the workplace culture that at times felt oppressive. A few colleagues would make it very clear they could not be bothered with you. At its worst, there can be a tangible and visible lack of civility and common courtesy among staff and management alike. 

You will be looked down upon by some for not having a clinical background. The clinical leads rarely even give you the respect of eye contact during conversation. They're more likely be on their phones while speaking to you (would you do this while speaking with a customer?) and generally have chronic problems with the way they treat people. The aloof, supercilious and disdainful attitude they present to colleagues leaves you feeling small, unimportant and patronised. They want *their* lives to be easy and are not interested in working as part of a team, or taking any time to get to know, value and appreciate their co-workers. One of the store directors didn't even acknowledge me in any way on my final day in the business. I will never understand why the most basic principles common courtesy, respect and decency that most 6-year-olds can grasp and practice were lost on these people.

Staff welfare is rarely considered or discussed, with empathy and understanding hard to come by in difficult times. In fact if you do have issues regarding your wellbeing, I would not recommend this job for you, as very little assistance is provided to those in need of adjustments and additional support. Rather, you are made to feel like an inconvenience to the business. I was particularly disappointed when regular one-to-one meetings were replaced with a monthly Teams message containing your sales KPI statistics in the latter months of my employment. The rationale was the business no longer had time for 121s. I would contest they simply did not want to make time for them. In any case, it took away a precious opportunity to raise questions and concerns, make suggestions and receive feedback. 

Overall, I'd perhaps recommend working for another Specsavers as the work itself was fairly engaging and rewarding. I believe my negative experience to be reflective solely of the environment in which I found myself working, not the nature of the work itself.

Do not work for any specsavers stores, they claim they value their staff and customers, yet all they do is rip them off. They will work you into the ground until you are both physically and mentally drained, they expect you to run around all day working yourself into the ground doing a 45 hour per week contract, including working every weekend. The opticians are lazy and very bossy, making you do most of their job all day for them as well as your own, you are required to do multiple tasks and practically carry out a supervisors job all for a measly minimum wage, while people in supermarkets such as aldi or lidl or even making pizzas at papa johns pay more and offer more opportunities to progress. The directors oversell and will tell customers they need the very best when they don't, or they will tell a patient they need new glasses when there has been little to no change. To further oversell they will offer you a bonus scheme which only benefits the store, they claim you're not on minimum wage due to this, when the highest bonus i have ever been paid is £40 a month, they claim it is not about sales and hard selling, but every month they will check your figures and ask you why you are not doing as much as other staff. Due to this bonus staff are almost competing against each other which can make it a very hostile environment to work in. The opticians are on a massive bonus and will also question you along with the management if one of your customers doesn't buy glasses or even have a certain coating on their glasses and due to this bonus it is very rare an optician will say to a customer that they don't need glasses and will always recommend the most expensive product. They have a very high database of courses and learning available to you, however they will never give you time to do this and will throw you straight into the deep end, expecting you to just know. Due to all of the above mentioned, specsavers are finding it very hard to recruit quality staff, so they will just employ most people with little to no experience, so if you have common sense and are a fast learner and hard worker, then please apply elsewhere as you will be surrounded by idiots, who can not do their jobs properly and cannot do simple tasks so you will find yourselves doing twice the work for the same pay.

I started as an administrator and worked my way up to HCA.
No argument could be made that elevation and rising through the ranks exist as every member of my team bar one all started at the bottom (even the director) and were raised through the company so there is definitely a good work practice of promoting from within.
The worst part was moving between three different stores with guaranteed weekend work. When travelling to the further store it often meant arriving half an hour earlier than required, as a minimum, just to be able to park somewhere near whilst avoiding all the traffic and school runs. Commuting is of course par for course with any job but factor in an hour of unpaid breaks and suddenly a 7.5 hour work day becomes 9.5 - 10 hours for what is really an underpaid job for the level of qualification needed.
Management were very friendly and all the team were very approachable which did make the job and any issues much easier to handle and on the whole the entire team was one of the reasons I stayed for so long as everyone is friendly.
One thing I learned to be wary of though were empty promises with regards to team exercises. We were regularly told we would have celebratory meals, team building events etc but nothing ever materialised. These were what I initially considered to be perks of the job but become nothing more than empty promises.

Whilst I sound quite negative above its always the negative that is easy to focus on however whilst hours did include a guaranteed weekend day and quite often only 1 day off at a time (not 2 together as a "weekend") I will say that our team were very flexible and when hospital visits were needed moving hours around or just taking the team was very easy and the management were happy to do what was best for the individual in these circumstances, its also worth mentioning that whilst bonuses were available we were not sales driven, focus on the individual customer was important not just how much you could get out of a person.

I worked every Saturday and Sunday on lates. Saturday's were extremely busy and stressful. It was awful, the director wasn't friendly and was often rude to me - whether it was because I was new and one of the youngest I don't know. It was a horrible place to be on a Saturday because everyone was stressed and snappy with me. Management were awful, in my first two weeks I got taken aside and he told me that he didn't like my personality which I'm not certain is even allowed as it's insulting me as a person. I tried my hardest to pick everything up, everyone just expects you to know everything straight away. Some staff were impressed with how quickly I was picking things up and many of them were so helpful whereas others were rude and seemed annoyed when I asked them to help me. I asked someone to help me and they rolled their eyes to another member of staff which made me extremely uncomfortable as it was my second week. No matter how well I thought I was doing the managers always had something negative to say to me. I had NO training which is why I struggled so much, I was technically left to teach myself how to do things. I shadowed someone for the first 2/3 days and then I just felt like I was left to get on with it. I was told I looked miserable because I wasn't smiling all the time - I smiled a lot more than most people there! There were some people there who I hadn't seen smile once! The hardest part of the job would've been being left to serve customers when 90% of the time I didn't know what I was doing because I hadn't been trained. Customers always seemed to get on well with me, I could have a chat with anyone and a lot of the time I was thanked for my services as I tried my hardest to keep every customer satisfied even with my lack of knowledge. The most enjoyable part of the job would've been meeting other staff, some were so kind and helpful I can't thank them enough and being able to have conversation with friendly customers. 

Overall I'd say I learnt that this is an awful company to work for, especially for a first job!

I believe that my skills and experience will make me a very competitive candidate for this role as I have experience of providing a high level of customer service at all levels within my present role. I have a passionate commitment, hardworking and a constant desire to help define and build an industry leading team in a professional environment.

I can demonstrate to customer's relevant products which would benefit them and have always done this by having good listening skills to relate to their needs with open questions. I always influence the customers by getting them to do the calculations for themselves so they can see the savings that they will be making where necessary.

I always use my product knowledge to identify and cross sell additional products and services to grow the value of the customer base through my excellent negotiation skills. My outstanding customer service skills have motivated me to enable me to build beneficial and profitable relationships with my customers with good work ethics, therefore allowing me to build customer loyalty and aim to completely eliminate complaints as a reason for customers to leave in a courteous manner.

I feel that I have outstanding communication skills and able to interact with various individuals with confidence and adapt to different styles of communication such as face to face, telephone, letters, faxes and emails. I have experience in maintaining a continual focus on achieving challenging targets for customer satisfaction by going the extra mile each time.

Whilst working for Specsavers I have consistently used my commercial acumen, deep insight into the products and propositions offered by Specsavers and knowledge of my customers to offer the best suited product.

I am result driven as I always go above and beyond to gain the best outcome for the customer and ensure 100% customer satisfaction and retention. I thrive on busy environments as I work very well under pressure while getting on with everyone.

In my experience, the role was more demanding than I initially expected. A typical day could be quite stressful, particularly as I felt the training provided to new starters was limited. Although there was an in-store trainer and a large team, I often felt that I was expected to work independently before feeling fully confident in the role. During busy periods, this could feel overwhelming.

I personally found the workplace culture challenging. At times, it felt as though responsibilities were not evenly distributed across the team, which made certain shifts more pressured. Communication and support from management could sometimes feel limited, especially during peak trading hours.

The role is also physically demanding, as the store operates across three floors, requiring frequent movement throughout long shifts. Break times were scheduled, but I found the timing occasionally difficult during longer days.

There is a strong commercial focus, with sales targets and performance expectations alongside customer care responsibilities. While this is understandable in a retail setting, I personally found the balance between sales pressure and patient-focused service challenging, particularly given the level of pay.

That said, I did enjoy helping customers and gaining experience within optical retail. Some team members were supportive and kind, and assisting customers with their needs could be rewarding.

Overall, for someone who thrives in a fast-paced retail environment and is confident working independently early on, this role may be suitable. However, I personally would have benefited from more structured training and consistent support.

The work is constantly busy which I like- but there is no support from your team/co-workers. Everyone is doing their own roles but as a newcomer, you feel as though you're just thrown into the workload without the proper training and guidance given. Once the managers finally give you the training, you've already picked up 70% of the knowledge and stuff you already know. I wish new employers were given the proper foundation training first or be paired with a person to explain the basics. And if they are paired, the person they are paired with be nice and decent instead of thinking it is burdensome. As the person being trained, you feel as though you're not wanted/ disrespected.

The worst part of this role was I found the environment very catty and everyone had their own little clique. If you don't like gossip or found it hard to get along with some employees (most likely because they were closed off to you, or you weren't part of their 'clique') you will struggle and realise everyone will talk rubbish about you yet for some reason be nice to your face. The managers were no better either, some of them would chime in the gossip or belittle your skills if you were a transfer from another Specsavers store. As an employee and human being, you notice the unfair treatment and if you bring it up, others will 'label' you as problematic or ignore your pleads when you need help. 

As an ethnic minority, the worst question I got (out of nowhere) was "Where do you originate from?" from the managers. Personally, I didn't see a need to be questioned since I am a British born citizen. I found it completely unprofessional and invasive, and the manager could have worded it better.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Optical assistant 892 salaries reported	£18,388 per year
Optometrist 163 salaries reported	£62,528 per year
Optician 27 salaries reported	£32,685 per year
Customer service representative 66 salaries reported	£17,659 per year
Store manager 4 salaries reported	£36,793 per year

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