Originally Posted by Johns
couldn't tell you as I don't know. And unless I heard it directly from the Pres., CFo or CEO back then I'd group that in with hearsay.
couldn't tell you as I don't know. And unless I heard it directly from the Pres., CFo or CEO back then I'd group that in with hearsay.
Of course what I said is hearsay, isn't it all?;)
So you're thinking that they got bought out, and Lux thinks the reason the company has been sliding is due to employee abuse of the commissions?
Yeah, I'll buy that. In fact, I'll buy you a drink at the Ron Paul Innauguation Ball!
:cheers:
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
I don't recall ever tying anything together.
Heck, As I don't know the poster I don't know if they worked for the cole side of things or the LC side. Hence the reason I asked about the spiff structure.
he usually is ......LETS VOTE JOHNS union President & chief steward !!
I worked for Cole back when I first got into the business. I paid for my wife's engagement ring with the commissions from my VIP sales. It was a great lesson in selling, but not much in opticianry.
I quit the day the DM pulled me in the back for not capitalizing on an easy slam dunk. It was an old lady that should have been sold the "deluxe" package of add-ons, but instead, I decided (yes, I should have been shot!) that she didn't need it. That was before the days of AR, and the big add-on was the SRC, light tint, and UV. This lady was 86 years old, and wanted the glasses for watching the birds out of her apartment window.
I walked out of the store at (right through the photo department, past the washers and dryers, through hardware, and out the back door) at 2:00pm, and left the DM to finish work my "shift" until 9:00 pm! What a liberating feeling!
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
:cheers::cheers::cheers:
Talk to any long term Lux employee and they will tell you that they made more money in comm. 3 yrs ago. The comm. is now based on if the store hits the company set goals. Most stores are planned at least 10-15% over last year but to hit the only decent payout on comm. the store must go 25% over the goal that has a 10-15% increase. And guess what? IF you are having an awesome year and your store is consistently hitting the max payout then your store goal gets raised again. I recently talked ( 2 wks ago)to a Sears Optical employee who said their comm. structure has been changed 2-3 times since Jan. 08. Each time he makes less. Sorry to disagree but the people I know that are still there are getting the shaft (keeping it clean ;)) BY the way I was a LC GM.
The comm. were all tracked and posted by eyenet payroll . I did very little spiffing in my store. So the people who were making $300 in comm. were all legit. There was no abuse until Lux starting abusing them by cutting their comm. I was once asked by my RM if I was the owner of the store if I would be happy with the payroll & comm or if I would try and reduce it. My answer. If a store that made $500,000 clear net profit after all expenses ( including the made up crap from corp) was a problem that I would be happy to take the "problem" store off the companies hands. He didn't like that answer but I sure enjoyed giving it.:D
If we had a union. would we have to have separate employees, to
Style & show frames
Take measurements for PD, Bifocal ht.
Would lens mounting be restricted to lab personell only?
Could an optician sweep the floor?
Would we have to call in Union personel to evaluate the responsiblity of breakages?
Would those in "management" postions be allowed to do dispensing or benchwork?
Would we have part of our dues donated to political parties with which we disagree?
Would we be allowed to do anything on the job, not specified in our Union Contract?
Would Physician or O.D. Owned dispensaries be exempt from having Union employees?
Would we meet at the Union Hall and be assigned where we would work today?
Just what the h--- would we gain, that the ability to say: "The Hell with this and walking off the job doesn't give us already?
Chip, thanks for bringing this back on track.
Most of that would be decided during contract negotiations.If we had a union. would we have to have separate employees, to
Style & show frames
Take measurements for PD, Bifocal ht.
Would lens mounting be restricted to lab personell only?
Could an optician sweep the floor?
Would we have to call in Union personel to evaluate the responsiblity of breakages?
Would those in "management" postions be allowed to do dispensing or benchwork?
Would we have part of our dues donated to political parties with which we disagree?
Would we be allowed to do anything on the job, not specified in our Union Contract?
Would Physician or O.D. Owned dispensaries be exempt from having Union employees?
Look, not all unions are bad. Firefighters and cops have unions (without the ability to strike), nurses and teachers too.
I do not feel that the opticians of the US are encountering such workplace strife that they would need union protection.
My friend, another OD, pays his head optician around $50k. Only a large practice could affort that in this area. $10 and hour with benefits costs us as least $14-15/hour when you calculate everything.
I have no doubt that opticians are worth a lot, but the market is saying something else. A private doctor can't compete when the internet and commercial places are low balling everyone with their poorly paid help and poor service.
Again, there just isn't much profit in materials anymore with all the vision plans and retail practices. Its hard to pay $$ to an optician when ODs are already averaging half the income of dentists who have the same length of training.
1. Agreed. The market will dictate the wage.
2. A private doctor can't/shouldn't try to compete with that! If you really want to, then start your own site and get in the mud with them!
3. Read the other post frmo your couterparts that don't really care about profiting from retail, and are settling on squeezing a few $$ out of the exams.
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
Johns, you stole the words right outta my mouth. The doctors that can't afford to pay the higher wages are trying to compete with the interent and low ball opticals. So they can't afford to hire well educated staff, they can't afford to invest in newer equipment, the can't afford to ................. Next week the low ball optical will have done so much more in volume because this doctor can't compete that their acuisitions department will have negotiated better terms with their suppliers. Now they only have to purchase half as many frames and sit on them, and they get them at a still better price so they decide that they are going to have a sale and offer buy one get 2 free. What's the best thing this doctor can do? Cut some staff, sell off half his frames to come up with capital to weather the storm. Batten down the hatches.
An entrepreneur is someone with a vision and a knack for taking calculated risks.
Don't take this the wrong way, but what does that have to do with anything? I worked on a sales team once where the guy with no high school diploma was making more than the entire rest of the team (including boss) combined.
Here's some tips fro making more money:
- Charge more money (crazy concept but I think it could work)
- Differentiate (don't compete with people that have deeper pockest than you and can afford to hre better Lawyers, Better Accountants, Better arketing Teams, Better Advertising Firms, etc.; than you)
- Go to school and become a dentist :D
I agree completely. I don't try to compete with wally and the others. However, it does bring down what people think is a fair price overall. Just like when they see a $45 eye exam sign right when they walk in the door. The dentist in our building charges $300 for a routine exam and 5 minutes doctor time! I didn't go through 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of OD school, and 1 year residency/fellowship to compete against wally world.
To be honest, I wish I could get paid what I should for exams and decrease reliance on materials.
People don't realize that by saving $20 on a $500 pair of glasses at wally they are giving up superior products and coatings, a real 1 year warranty (wally's is 30 days), superior optician services (fittings, lens advice, frame advice), and are investing in the local economy.
Hopefully the US will return to quality and service and get off the low price kick.
This is something that unions (in fact most people) forget. The cost of labour is not only the direct wages, but also Social Security, workman's comp, unemployment, etc, etc.
Couldn't have said it better. :cheers:
Interesting.
In all my years of work in the industry, I've had the option ONCE for health benefits or 401K. The insurance was so expensive that it was completely unaffordable (read: over 78% of my wage!!!) and the 401K wasn't available till after you vested 10 years in. So yes - the cost of employee wages is the single largest expense any private practice has I expect in almost every case. However, if staff can't afford to live or afford even basic health care on their wages, its likely they will leave for greener pastures...or worse, state assistance. I'm living check to check now, and hate it. No insurance, no retirement, nothing but the hourly wage.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE who I work with, we have an amazing practice. But for a career, the future is dim at best.
I highlighted this because recently teachers in a nearby district striked they were requesting a 22% increase, reason -- they were the lowest paid in the county. The district in question had repeatedly the lowest scores in standardized testing. So unions may raise wages but they will lower skill sets to the lowest common denominator.
Speaking of teachers, most people except teachers and politicians think Unionization is what's wrong with the education system. Most Teacher's Union members espouse to believe the education system can be cured with less work, less time on the job and having more money thrown at it..
Wouldn't hold them up as a shining example of how to cure anything.
Chip
We all dream of making good wages nothing wrong with it. We as opticians cannot dream of that until we have uniformity across the board as far as licensing and scope of practice. The training of opticians is so wide that really is an eyeopener trying to relocate fom a licensed state to an unlicensed state as far as wages and way of practice. I am sure many of you in unlicensed states would agree that specs are made the same way! But in an unlicensed states wages are lower, the chances are the caliber of optician is of a less qualified individual because there are simply no regulations to keep up and the retention of knowledgeable employees is simply not there forcing them to go to other industries.
The public suffers because it maybe that the specs are less than right or the specs are right but the adjustment part is not so good or the service is limited because the optician cannot duplicate lenses forcing the public to an unncessary steps in order to get a pair of eyeglasses.
Before unions, I think that the insurance will be the ones that will require uniformity of education for the dispensers. Medicare is a start, forcing the recredentaling of opticians and optical stores. Instead of unions we have at our hands the way of demanding to the insurance companies that payment is only rendered to qualified dispensers. It will level the playing court and eventually for everyone. No loop holes allowed and then you will see wages that are in relation to the service that we provide . The OD and OMD has its value in providing lifestyle improvements but eyeglasses, contact lenses and low vision devices properly made,properly fitted and properly dispensed enhanced the lifestyle of any individual. Once we accomplish the above everything will fall into place. The interesting thing is that we as individuals can make a difference in these areas since legislation is not required, there is no real opposition. It is already hard enougn to get money out of them (insurance) and they would love it to deny payment because the dispenser is not qualified or his staff is not qualified! I think we can start a campaign right here! Harry could you put a petition for this!
Dannyboy
Simple figure the costs of each job, figure the cost of rent, lights, etc. Then figure the number of jobs per week, Figure out if the "The Doc really can't afford to pay the help more than you are getting." Either way if the job doesn't pay what you think you want to earn, or should be earning and has no promise of paying what you want in the near future,
The answer isn't a Union.
Just find another job, in the same or another field (you remember how we been talking about supply and demand, if the price of your labor is too low we must be over supplied with optician) and Quit!
I have done this many times, it always worked out well, some times with a lucrative counter offer from my present employer, but always have another job lined up before your quit.
I hate this silly someone else needs to take care of me attitude! Whether, the government or a union, no one is going to take care of you, and no one should.
For the Whiner that origionally posted this thread, America, like God should always be capitalized.
Chip
For those of you that would say: "But I love the optical business and there are so many jobs in my field." I give you two quotes: One from Bruce Williams: "Don't love anything that can't love you back." The other from Lorena Pressly: "I was looking for a job when I came in this door and I can look for one when I go out."
Chip
Being unionized...................
I used to have an optical lab that got unionized.......................
What an horroi, every employe in the unionized lab changed his mental attitude.
I had to get an IBM punchclock to check arrival and departure. Then a little later I had to be there at 7.15 am to check that not one would punch the card of others that had not arrived at 7.30.
Out of 17 employees in the lab there were always a few that worked slow on purpose. If I would tell them to speed up a bit, the answer I would get, was........"boss you ain't pay me anymore if I work faster and boss you ain't pay me any less if I work slower, and furthermore you can not fire me before you fire the other 3 guy's that have less seniority than me".They would refuse do do overtime at 1 1/2 x the pay or come in the odd Saturday at double the pay. There was usually only up to 4 that would do overtime.
The 12 offfice and stockroom employees were not unionized but the union tried for years to convince them to join.
Furthermore the union rates were higher than competitive optical labs and therefore our only advantage was making the highest quality possible and just be better than the competition.
I have learned the hard way to dislike unions, whose only interest is to make money for themselves under the motto to help the poor underpaid worker.
I agree with whom ever said license aquisition is correct, in every state abo/ncle first then a state licence. Also if we could make the doctors licence just for him and not count towards his little helper with no experience. that would help as well.
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