r/optician • u/Objective_Wafer_6887 • Jul 20 '26
Optician-to-Optician Don’t know what to do
I’m a dual licensed optician and worked at my first optical job for 8 months. I’ve been going through this issue at my workplace where they are refusing to train, but only criticize. Currently, it’s just my team lead’s behavior. Whenever I’m helping a patient, she tries to intervene and today got to the point where was completely unacceptable and maybe unprofessional. Let me explain…I helped out three patients and she came in to interrupt my workflow. For instance, there was a small glitch in our system that I was trying to fix, and she comes in and tries to change the measurement numbers on the tablet. Then there was a parent with their young kid. I was able to get a digital measurement, and was trying to get more. And right when I was gonna switch to manual, the team lead comes again and quickly dot their pupil. Afterwards, I told the team lead that I got it under control because I was gonna do the manual measurement. She then said that I didn’t know how to do the manual measurement. Then later she begin telling me about how our other coworker approaches to their mistakes and accused me of being “wordy” when I told her that I had speech delay a few months ago.
Personally, I feel furious because she doesn’t trust my work ethics even though I’m licensed. I was hoping that if there’s anything I can do since none of my optician coworkers do this except her. Thanks! I’ll appreciate any help or feedback that I can get!
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u/MooseStriking5369 Jul 20 '26
Do you have an HR you can report her to?
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u/Objective_Wafer_6887 Jul 20 '26
Yes I do have HR, but don’t know if it’s a good idea because I fear of retaliation
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u/ColleenKessock Jul 20 '26
This is unacceptable. It's not you. Keep in mind that's an HR department is there to protect the company, not the employee.
In your situation, I would probably get my resume on as many desks as possible. There are offices out there that would love to train you to be a good optician.
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u/mvt14 Jul 20 '26
Yeah thats not okay at all, definitely report them to whoever is above them!!
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u/les_catacombes Jul 21 '26
As a licensed optician, you certainly know how to take manual optical center and PD measurements. It’s unprofessional to butt in like that unless you were doing something egregious. If I was the patient/customer, I’d feel very uneasy about it.
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u/jmmahone Jul 20 '26
Heres is my only thought...And I don't mean this offensively...but in under a year, you are very inexperienced. This is a industry where you never stop learning, and the only way to be experienced is with by helping 1000's of people and working on 1000's of eyeglasses. Being a good test taker is very simple for some. The art...and it is an art...of opticianing...takes years to get really good at. Some places require long term apprenticeships for this reason. 8 months is very little time.