Specsavers
Specsavers Employee Reviews
Found 579 reviews matching the search See all 681 reviews
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Not brilliant
Collections (Former Employee) – Birmingham new st – 14 January 2019
Did not get on to much with management had to work bank holidays and weekends ok pay just minimum wage though probably could have advanced if I got on better with people there.
Pros
Clean work
Cons
Pressure
Hectic
Optical Assistant (Former Employee) – Salisbury, UK – 3 December 2018
management are all over the place and only care about making money no matter the amount of stress they put their staff through every other member of staff are middle aged women smack talking one another customers constantly think they know better despite the "training" you've had, which is very minimal you get a trip over to another store where you have no idea what's going on. the amount of staff i've seen arrive and then go is insane for good reason, if you're after a real easy way into optics this is the job however prepare to hate your life for the duration you can tolerate
Pros
less then generous discount on glasses
Cons
walking into the shop know you're there for the remaining 9 or so hours
Avoid.
Optical Assistant (Former Employee) – Somerset – 30 October 2018
I can't speak for every store, just the one I had the misfortune of working in. I was never treated as part of the team and felt like I wasn't wanted there. In fact I was often ignored completely. The training was pathetic, in fact one of the people working there said that when she started the job she 'just winged it'. Really??? This is someones eye sight we're playing with. The Director was nice enough and I got on well with one member of staff. But the rest couldn't care less about me and I felt the same way about them. NO prospects, NO chance of promotion and NO point in wasting your time with this company.
Pros
Days off.
Cons
Being there in the first place.
Disorganised and Poor Management
Optical Assistant (Former Employee) – Keighley, West Yorkshire – 28 October 2018
Toxic place to work. Management belittle staff and I would go as far as to say they are bullies. The director knows this happens, and does not care, only wants you to push OCT and UCSC to get more money out of customers. Never have your full dinner break, being accused that you’ve been longer than you have. Would not work there ever again, extremely poor management. Majority of customer complaints are towards management and they just shake it off and try and get staff on their side to implicate that the customer was wrong. I saw many of times customers being spoken to like rubbish by two managers in particular.
Pros
You make great mates from shop floor staff
Cons
Poor management, bullying.
Lovely people but rubbish pay
Dispensing Assistant (Former Employee) – Northamptonshire – 11 November 2018
Worked at specsavers for a year and a half. Money was rubbish from the get go. Was promised more money would follow once trained and that never happened as was never trained. Can be a very two faced environment to work in. Constantly asked to be moved higher in the business and for the training to progress and never received it.
Pros
Good hours of work
Cons
No training and staff are disregarded
Has potential to be a long career but pay is too poor.
Dispensing Assistant (Former Employee) – Middlesex – 15 October 2018
I worked for Specsavers part-time for a number of years and loved it. I worked for a big store, 4 testings rooms, was trained by a number of lovely staff members and left to go to University. Whilst at university I moved to a store with one testing room. After I completed my Masters I worked full time for Specsavers and was unimpressed with their lack of care for staff, 'platinum employer' who offered no sick pay or reasonable salaries for staff. This store was particularly bad at having a high turnover of full-time staff for obvious reasons. Living off the salary proved miserable and I left to focus on better work, life balance with more money.
Pros
Transferable job
Cons
long hours, poor pay, overworked
Understaffed, poor wage, awful hours
Optical Assistant Apprentice (Current Employee) – Cornwall – 15 October 2018
You are expected to learn on the job with out any guidance (I am doing an apprenticeship yet still get no help) they hire trainees to do on the job training for full wage i.e. the exact same as an apprentice yet they get paid double what you’re on. They’re understaffed and you work Saturdays and Sundays and work all hours literally having no life. Only positive is the people.
Pros
People
Cons
Everything else
Varied and Interesting Role
Apprentice Optical Assistant (Former Employee) – Birmingham, West Midlands – 10 January 2019
A varied role, meeting and greeting customers. Dealing with enquiries in person, by telephone or via email. Arranging prescription glasses, hearing aids and advising customers on various spectacle frames and lenses. I also dealt with deliveries, displaying items in store and taking payments by cash and card.
Pros
Interesting role
Platinum employer. Joke
Assistant (Former Employee) – East Anglia – 2 October 2018
The directors are unable too communicate properly with staff. The retail director could barely talk and was an embarrassment when on shop floor. staff with any sense have left to get away from him.
Directors lie to get platinum employer, saying they meet certain criteria but never do. Area managers never sense check information as they want another box ticked on their kpi's.
Directors lie to get platinum employer, saying they meet certain criteria but never do. Area managers never sense check information as they want another box ticked on their kpi's.
Pros
Leaving
Cons
Poor directors.pay benefits.respect
Only if you was career progression.
Optical Assistant (Former Employee) – Newport, Newport – 9 December 2018
It’s only worth it when you strive for career progression, however this needs to be pushed to management. The management are quite unfair, unaware of what goes on on shop floor most the time. You’re always put on one department, you have to ask and push to be put on others.
Pros
Staff discount
Cons
Long hours, pay
great place to work and learn new skills
Optical Assistant (Former Employee) – Edinburgh – 9 January 2019
I loved working in Specsavers enjoyed dealing with the clients helping choose frames and them leaving happy and confident with new glasses, learned so much about eyecare .
Pros
Good atmosphere
Cons
early week then a late week, played havoc with family life, I left to go to a 8 till 4 job due to the kids
Want to know more about Specsavers?
Ask a questionDepends on the store
Optical Assistant (Current Employee) – Dudley – 19 September 2018
Each store is run by their own management. Management are hardly understanding on any circumstance and usually depends on if your face fits. Wage is rubbish to say what we have to deal with on a daily basis (minimum wage). Breaks are hardly taken on time due to how busy the store can be and management roll eyes..... upping your sales are a must as you get a commission based bonus which gets deducted if you haven’t met your targets or if the store hasn’t met it’s targets based of customer surveys. Always made to stay over in the store if customers are still in and aren’t encouraged to leave which often leads to leaving very late at times (latest is 50 minutes for me) and time is not given back to you.
Pros
Discount glasses for friends and family, 1 pair of glasses for £10
Cons
Lack of support, long hours, very busy
Productive, professional, and fun environment
Hearcare receptionist (Current Employee) – Grantham – 7 September 2018
My normal day at work starts at 9 and ends at 6, with an hour lunch i have many tasks throughout the day that need to be completed to the highest standard and to the best of everyones ability, from working at Specsavers, i have learnt how to cope working under a lot of pressure, i have learnt how to work within a team and independantly and how to work with difficult cutomers.
Poor management
Optical Assistant (Former Employee) – Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire – 31 August 2018
I was on probation for 3 months and in which time I was only given a 4 week review. So I was left 8 weeks without any feedback or room for improvement as I didn’t know what was going wrong. This led to the failure of the probation. I was very disappointed as if I was given more feedback and another review then the outcome would of been different. Plus the reason for leaving was because I wasn’t fitting in. I thought people are there to do a job and meeting friends was a bonus?. I was more than capable of the job and all of the positive things that happened never even got a mention which I think is wrong! This just shows a lack of attention to staff members and wanting the best outcome from them.
Pros
Free eye test
Cons
My being appreciated enough
Understaffed and poorly run
Optical Assistant (Former Employee) – Wolverhampton – 13 October 2018
Imagine having 8-9 opticians testing eyes and only 4 or 5 dispensers available. That is this place. Leaving customers waiting, sometimes for up to 45 minutes because money is everything to them and customer service is not, yet moaned at colleagues because customer feedback was bad...
Pros
1 hour lunch
Cons
Minimum wage, politics
Hectic and bullying
Optical Sales Advisor (Former Employee) – Worcestershire – 27 December 2018
Was there for almost 3 years. Management was almost bipolar. Would go from bringing lunch in for everyone and treating us as family to threatening to fire everybody about 20 times in 1 hour. Never felt any job security because of this.
If management or optom made an error the dispenser was giving warnings for it. Most of the feed back was negative about them and still the dispensers were told off, even though they had done nothing wrong.
Lots of pressure to hit sales targets, which if not met your job would be threatened (even if you had holiday and didn't work a full week)
Organisation was very poor with days off changed without notice or even letting you know, which made planning your life almost impossible. If you had made plans for a day off and was then put down to work it, again your job would be threatened if you didn't work it. People working 6 day weeks or 9 days plus in a row were not unheard of
If management or optom made an error the dispenser was giving warnings for it. Most of the feed back was negative about them and still the dispensers were told off, even though they had done nothing wrong.
Lots of pressure to hit sales targets, which if not met your job would be threatened (even if you had holiday and didn't work a full week)
Organisation was very poor with days off changed without notice or even letting you know, which made planning your life almost impossible. If you had made plans for a day off and was then put down to work it, again your job would be threatened if you didn't work it. People working 6 day weeks or 9 days plus in a row were not unheard of
Pros
You get paid
Cons
See review
Shocking
optical assistant (Former Employee) – Northamptonshire – 11 November 2018
Worked there and it is one of the worst places i have worked, training is poor and the management skills there are none, do not support their staff and convince them take on extra rolls and dont pay them extra for it, expect you to stay late and dont get paid for that neither.
Pros
None
Cons
Too long to name them all
fun working environnment
Optical Assistant (Former Employee) – Reading – 16 August 2018
Recently I have completed four weeks of work experience at the Reading optician, Specsavers. From the few weeks of work experience I have learned many new things and gained a lot of knowledge about the importance of eyes and wok in the optician. I managed to carry out all the pre-tests such as field test, photos and etc. Taking part in these duties has also given me more confidence on talking to patience and meeting different age people. Overall this work experience has given me more interest in working at an optician and caring for eyes health.
Pros
long lunch time
Cons
hard job
Disorganised and Stressful
Optical Assistant (Current Employee) – Keighley, West Yorkshire – 14 August 2018
Minimum wage, no sick pay or benefits.
A typical day sees you fitting or measuring glasses once the patients have chosen frames then you have to push extra coatings and OCT tests to increase the price and earn bonus. The workplace culture is a bit weird and unprofessional. The store is unusual in that it is not owned by Specsavers but instead by the optician director so we don't have to do all the things that the other Specsavers stores do but the downside is there is less money for fixing broken things like the air conditioning. There is a lot of sickness and leavers so we have to work really hard to make up the numbers.
A typical day sees you fitting or measuring glasses once the patients have chosen frames then you have to push extra coatings and OCT tests to increase the price and earn bonus. The workplace culture is a bit weird and unprofessional. The store is unusual in that it is not owned by Specsavers but instead by the optician director so we don't have to do all the things that the other Specsavers stores do but the downside is there is less money for fixing broken things like the air conditioning. There is a lot of sickness and leavers so we have to work really hard to make up the numbers.
Pros
Nice customers
Cons
Not enough staff and poor training
productive
Optical Assistant (Current Employee) – Brighton – 12 November 2018
As my first job, I enjoyed working at Specsavers. The job itself seems complicate at first but it was easy to pick up. I was encouraged to always learn more.
I have always worn glasses so it was possibly easier for me to pick up things than some.
many people I work with have worked there for 10+ years.
I have always worn glasses so it was possibly easier for me to pick up things than some.
many people I work with have worked there for 10+ years.
Shocking place to work for
Contact lens advisor (Former Employee) – Telford, Shropshire – 16 October 2018
Worked there may until now. Management is shocking! No opptunities and get rid of you for doing your job! Do not recommend at all! Forever having messages about work 24/7 a day even when not at work and there was clearly favourites within the store. I would recommend to stay away!
Pros
None
Cons
Everything!