Has anyone worked in Wal Mart Optical? If so, hows the pay (for licenses). Is it really bad or good? I guess that depends on the city. Any info would help thanks. I just dont want it to be like ECCA, talk about stressful and scary patients! :hammer:
Has anyone worked in Wal Mart Optical? If so, hows the pay (for licenses). Is it really bad or good? I guess that depends on the city. Any info would help thanks. I just dont want it to be like ECCA, talk about stressful and scary patients! :hammer:
Well....I make more at wal mart than I did working for Doctors....HOWEVER:
I feel like I sold my soul to the devil. It may depend on the location of your store, but the people I have to deal with...:angry: Every 5 min. its like, "You take medi-cal? (medicaid) You speaka Spanish??" and they are for the most part very rude. That could be CA though. I am an NC native so I am still not used to the way people are out here. Also, they are always on your *** about sales and remakes. I'm sorry to say this, but I have a hard time believing in the product we sell sometimes. I have to either cut down or add a lens liner to half of the stuff I get in from the lab, or I am forced by my manager to let a scratch pass my inspection to "see if the patient notices" because when we do too many remakes, HIS boss yells at him. Needless to say I am a bit disgruntled, I was very weary of coming to work for WM, and now I know why.
I have to struggle to get 38 hours in a week, yet I only get one day off a week.
Now, National vision on the other hand, I enjoyed working for. No wal mart nonsense to put up with. Hope I provided some insight! let me know if you have any more questions!
$22 per hour.Originally Posted by RNPSRJ
You did...but hey, you're making the big $$ now !:D
Are you serious?
In Jersey they are paying upwards of 25-30 an hour. The higher end of the scale being management. They pay a lot, but there is a lot of bs you have to deal with. I know of several getting paid crazy money who left because of all of the nonsense.
Opticiansfriend.com guy.
Do this, or if for any reason you should prefer not, then take your choce of these: Get Out, or Get in Line. You have got to do one or the other - now make your choice. If you work for a man, in heaven's name work for him.
If he pays you wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him - speak well of him, think well of him, stand by him and stand by the institution he represents.
I think if I worked for a man, I would work for him. I would not work for him a part of the time, and the rest of the time work against him. I would give an undivided service or none. If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.
If you must vilify, condemn and eternally disparage, why, resign your position, and then when you are outside, damn to your heart's content. But I pray you, as long as you are a part of an institution, do not condemn it. Not that you will injure the institution - not that - but when you disparage a concern of which you are a part, you disparage yourself.
More than that, you are loosening the tendrils that hold you to the institution, and the first high wind that happens along, you will be uprooted and blown away in the blizzard's track - and probably you will never know why . . . Get Out or Get in Line
From Love, Life & Work, essays by Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft, 1906:
You're right though about having to put up wit a lot of bs though working for a chain. I did. I took a paycut to work for a private OD, but it was the best thing I ever did. I have no regrets. The money wasn't worth it at all.
I know an Optician, working part time for Walmart making $22 an hour in NC.
I live in a very tiny town, and the opticians at our Walmart make between eight and fifteen an hour, higher end being management.
I was very tempted to go there, but decided not to...just didn't feel right to me. It seemed they were concerned more about thier bottom line and less about patient satisfaction...but again, that's one walmart in one town
Too bad but if you work for someone else, that's their #1 priority. Do you live in a lisense state. That would be a factor. If Walmart had their choice, there would be no lisense states.
I worked at Wal-Mart, then LC and then back into private practice where I belong. Wal-Mart was okay until(and I believe they did this in several states, if not all) they removed the finishing lab. So instantly, they took away some control of lenses. Most are on a trace and transmit system and from what I've heard, it takes an average of 10 days to get a job back from the lab. They paid well, but essentially you are just sitting there selling glasses and not maintaining any other skills.
I have heard in Western N.Y. since they can't find anybody they are paying $23 to 27 to get people on board. I also heard it is ticking off a number of regional
managers of large chains because Wal-Mart is forcing them to raise there wages if they want to keep the help. :D
Well, I'm not sure if NY is a licensed state but what's wrong with rasing wages. A friend of mine (non licensed) has said that in Florida, licensed opticians are our own enemy. Why? we are licensed and we should set the bar as far as wages go. We earned the license, why shouldn't we dictate what we earn. 23-27 an hour sounds reasonable to me. In Florida the range that I've heard is 16-24 per hour, maybe higher in large metro areas. If we stuck together, maybe we could stablize our rate of pay at a respectable level. As far as I'm concerned, we are as important to the public as a pharmacist.
What some here on the board forget to remember is that you are paid what you are worth, in the long run. That is achieved by building a reputation and being able to back it up with facts and figures.
I can guarantee you i am one of the highest paid opticians here in the state of north carolina, because of my past track record of what i can produce and do so.
What some fail to think about is that as soon as you get your license your not automatically worth 60,000 a year,until you can prove why you should be paid that wage.
I agree with that wholeheartedly and I should have stated as much. NO way should a beginning optician make as much as a seasoned professional.
And the level of responsibility should also come into consideration.
I've been with Wal-Mart for about 6 months. I'm the vision center manager and am paid pretty well. My biggest complaint is with the quality of work I get from the lab. A simple CR39 job will be back in 1-2 days. But a AR job can take 10 days to 2 weeks or longer. Most of the jobs I get back have not been safety beveled on the back of the lens. This is one of my biggest pet peaves. True, I do have a hand edger in the office but its a pain in the butt to have to take glasses apart and safety bevel them myself. I called the lab last week to tell them I needed to rush a job for a customer. Well, its been a week and a half and still don't have the job.
FYI-
I beleive most chains monitor this site to see what you're saying.
Do you have to work crazy hours and weekends?
I guess the old adage applies " you get what you pay for " or in this instance not. I have heard the prices are all low so you have to make it up somewhere. :bbg:
I worked as a vision center manager for 5 years. It was great in the beginning, but things took a turn about 6 or 7 years ago. It suddenly became more about the bottom line, than about the patient.
The quality took a nose dive too, because none of the stores wanted to lose money on remaking jobs.
I thought it was great when I was there, but I see how brain washed I was now. It was like being in a bad relationship. Once you get out you see how bad it really was.
So happy to be working for private practice again!!!
The money wasn't worth the stress and frustration. I also felt my ethics being comprimised when I was basically forced to sell children AR coating.
So if you don't mind all of that, sign up!!!!!!!!!
"Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss
What is any person actually worth?
I have worked for the other man, I have worked for myself, but I have not ever sold my soul to the DEVIL!
My idea is to give the customer what he pays for- not less but more!
When he pays your salary plus the profits and expenses of the organization you work for , it still boils down to keeping the customer satisfied. Provide him with a good quality product, good customer service, and he will be yours forever.
Your salary will depend largely on keeping that customer repeatedly seeking your expertise every time they need you!
If WALMART, or any other chain operated enterprise would only hire people that are customer oreinted then they would make a lot of money. Funny though when you fail to see the difference then you might as well close up shop and go home.
Money, $$$$ is it really everything?
Better if you open up your own shop. Then you yourself will determine the kind of wage and service that you demand.
:)
I have a good friend who works at Wal-Mart he's been there about 8 months and he does work most Sat.'s but only has had to work a couple of Sunday's.
At LC I was told everybody must work if not all Sunday's they have to work every other Sunday and every Sat. He is compensated very well. ;)
Seem's I'm always reading that ex employees of Wally World and LC have been so mistreated and they whine and cry. Some go to the "private sector", DOCTORS, who are well known in most cases to under pay opticians. Some say "I would rather work for less and look better to my peers", DUH. If most of you were half the optician that you think you are you could build a good following anywhere and be well paid. I could open in a phone booth and work 2 days a week and do better than most of you whinners. This business is digressing into a bunch of immature cry babies. Grow up, shut up and work wherever you are getting paid. If you feel you are worth more go get it, it's out there. These companies did not get where they are being run by a bunch of sobbing idiots.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks