There are days in optics when everything seems to happen at once.
The clinic is running behind, a patient needs more time than expected, somebody has called in sick, the diary is full, a pair of glasses hasn’t arrived when promised and there is already somebody waiting to speak to you about something that apparently cannot wait. By lunchtime, you may find yourself wondering why you ever chose this career in the first place.
If you’ve had one of those Mondays, you are certainly not alone.
Whether you’re an Optometrist, Dispensing Optician, Optical Assistant, Practice Manager or working elsewhere within an optical business, there will be days when the job feels considerably harder than it did last week. When that happens, it is surprisingly easy for a difficult day to become a much bigger conversation in your own head.
Perhaps you need another job. Perhaps you need another practice. Maybe you should leave the company completely. Before long, one frustrating Monday has somehow turned into a five-year career plan.
Sometimes those thoughts are telling you something important. But sometimes you’ve simply had a terrible day.
Knowing the difference matters.
A Bad Day Doesn’t Automatically Mean You’re in the Wrong Job
Every optical practice has difficult days.
Even a great practice with a supportive team, sensible management and happy patients will occasionally have a clinic that doesn’t go to plan. Equipment causes problems, appointments overrun, deliveries are delayed, customers become frustrated and colleagues have bad days of their own.
That is working life.
It can be particularly noticeable in optics because you’re dealing with people throughout the day. You can be technically excellent at your job and still finish a shift mentally exhausted because you’ve spent eight hours concentrating, communicating, solving problems and giving each patient or customer the attention they need.
One difficult day doesn’t necessarily tell you anything significant about your career.
The question becomes more important when difficult days stop being occasional.
If Monday feels terrible, Tuesday feels much the same and six months later you’re still having the same conversation with yourself, that deserves a little more attention.
Look for a Pattern Rather Than a Moment
If you’re thinking seriously about changing jobs, try to understand whether you’re reacting to an event or recognising a pattern.
Perhaps you had one particularly difficult conversation with your manager. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to leave. If communication with your manager has been poor for twelve months and nothing improves despite conversations about it, that’s different.
Perhaps the practice has experienced an unusually busy period and everybody is under pressure. That can happen. If excessive appointment volumes and constant understaffing have become the normal way of working, you may reasonably start asking whether the environment still suits you.
The same applies to progression. Missing out on one opportunity can be disappointing. Feeling that you’ve reached a ceiling with no realistic route forward is a different career question.
Before making any decision, ask yourself something simple: if today had been an ordinary day, would I still be thinking about leaving?
If the answer is yes, your bad Monday may have simply brought an existing concern to the surface.
If the answer is no, give yourself a little time before doing anything dramatic.
Work Out What Is Actually Making You Unhappy
When somebody says, “I need a new job,” that can mean many different things.
An Optometrist may still love clinical work but feel uncomfortable with the testing times or commercial expectations in their current environment. A Dispensing Optician might enjoy the profession but feel there is nowhere left to progress within the practice. An Optical Assistant may want more responsibility, training or the opportunity to work towards a qualification.
A Practice Manager may enjoy leading a team but be frustrated by a lack of support from above. Somebody working for a large multiple might be wondering whether an independent environment would suit them better, while somebody in an independent practice might actually want the structure and progression a larger organisation could offer.
Those are very different problems, and they require different solutions.
If the problem is your commute, changing career probably isn’t necessary. If the issue is a particular working pattern, perhaps another practice could offer something that fits your life better. If you have simply stopped enjoying the work itself, then the conversation may need to go deeper.
Try to identify what you would actually like to be different.
It is much easier to find the right next job when you understand what the current one is missing.
Don’t Let One Difficult Patient Decide Your Career
People who work with the public know how much one interaction can affect an entire day.
You can have twenty genuinely pleasant conversations and then one extremely difficult patient or customer manages to occupy your thoughts all evening. You replay the conversation, think about what you should have said and begin questioning why you put yourself through it.
That reaction is human, but it is worth keeping the situation in proportion.
Patient-facing work involves dealing with people who may themselves be worried, frustrated or having a difficult day. In optics, somebody may be concerned about their vision, unhappy with a prescription, anxious about the cost of their eyewear or simply disappointed that something has not happened as expected.
None of that means poor behaviour should simply be accepted. Good businesses should support their teams when situations become unreasonable.
But don’t allow the worst twenty minutes of your week to convince you that the previous ten years of your career were a mistake.
Be Careful About the Job That Looks Perfect From a Distance
A difficult week can make every other optical job look fantastic.
You see a vacancy offering a higher salary, fewer Saturdays, longer testing times or a more attractive location and immediately imagine how much better everything would be.
It might genuinely be a great opportunity.
But slow down enough to investigate it properly.
Every practice works differently. Independents, multiples, franchises, domiciliary providers and specialist environments can all offer very different experiences. Even two practices belonging to the same organisation can feel different because teams and managers matter enormously.
Salary is important, but so are testing times, patient expectations, team support, working hours, equipment, development opportunities, commercial pressures and the way the practice is managed.
If you are considering moving because your current job is frustrating you, don’t become so focused on escaping that you forget to understand what you’re joining.
A good recruitment conversation should help you explore both sides.
The important question isn’t simply, “Can I get out of here?”
It is, “Will this actually be better for me?”
You Might Not Need to Leave to Fix the Problem
Before deciding that another job is the answer, consider whether the thing frustrating you could realistically change where you are.
If you’d like more clinical development, have you discussed it? If you want additional responsibility, does your manager know? If working Saturdays has become difficult because your personal circumstances have changed, have you asked whether there is any flexibility?
It is possible that the answer will be no.
That is useful information too.
If you’ve made reasonable attempts to improve the situation and nothing changes, you can begin exploring the market knowing you have given the current position a fair chance.
However, many people start applying for jobs before ever properly explaining what they need.
Businesses aren’t always good at spotting that somebody is becoming unhappy, particularly when that individual is reliable and continues doing their job professionally.
A conversation won’t fix everything.
But sometimes it fixes more than you expect.
Don’t Make a Career Decision While You’re Angry
If something happens at work that makes you want to resign immediately, try not to make the decision while the emotion is still driving it.
Go home.
Give yourself an evening. If possible, give yourself a few days.
You aren’t losing anything by thinking.
If the job is genuinely wrong for you on Monday afternoon, it will probably still be wrong for you on Thursday morning. The difference is that by Thursday you may be able to explain exactly why.
That clarity matters when you start talking to recruiters as well.
There is an enormous difference between telling a consultant, “I had an argument with my manager yesterday and I need anything else,” and saying, “I’ve been thinking about this for some time. I want a role with greater clinical development, more suitable testing times and a clearer long-term path.”
The second conversation gives a recruiter something useful to work with.
At Inspired Selections, that is an important part of the recruitment process. Finding another optical vacancy is one thing. Understanding why somebody wants to move and what would genuinely make the next opportunity better is far more valuable.
Don’t Apply for Every Optical Job You Can Find
Once you’ve decided you’ve had enough, it can be tempting to open a job board and start applying for everything within twenty miles.
Try not to.
Being frustrated with your current employer does not make every other employer right for you.
Think about your priorities before beginning the search. What sort of practice would you like to work in? What hours would suit you? What level of responsibility are you looking for? Is salary the biggest priority, or would you accept a similar package for better working conditions or stronger development?
If you’re an Optometrist, perhaps clinical freedom matters more now than it did earlier in your career. If you’re a Dispensing Optician, perhaps you’re ready for management. If you’re an Optical Assistant, you may want an employer prepared to invest in your development.
There isn’t one correct answer.
The purpose is to make your search deliberate.
You are not simply looking for another job in optics.
You are trying to find a better next step.
Think About the Career, Not Just the Salary
Money inevitably becomes part of any conversation about changing jobs.
It should.
People work to earn a living, and if your experience and skills have developed, it is perfectly reasonable to want your remuneration to reflect that.
But be careful about using salary as the only measure of whether a move is worthwhile.
An extra few thousand pounds may look very attractive, but what are you trading for it? Longer travel? More weekends? Shorter appointments? Greater pressure? Less development? A working environment that doesn’t suit you?
Equally, don’t automatically assume that the highest-paying position must come with the worst working conditions. The point is simply to understand the whole offer.
Sometimes the best career move pays more immediately. Sometimes it creates a better route to earning more later because you’re gaining responsibility, qualifications, clinical experience or management exposure.
Ask yourself what the new role adds to your career, not only what it adds to next month’s payslip.
Remember What You Still Like About Optics
When you’re unhappy in a particular role, it can sometimes affect the way you feel about the whole profession.
Try separating the two.
What parts of your job do you still enjoy?
Perhaps you love the clinical side of optometry but dislike the current environment. Maybe you’re a brilliant dispenser who still enjoys helping somebody find exactly the right solution but has lost enthusiasm because you’re working somewhere that no longer values that service.
Perhaps you enjoy mentoring younger team members and have realised that management might be your next direction.
Understanding what you still enjoy is just as important as identifying what you dislike.
Your next job should ideally contain more of the things that give you energy and fewer of the things that repeatedly drain it.
You may discover that you don’t need to leave optics at all.
You simply need to find a different place within it.
Sometimes a Bad Monday Is Telling You the Truth
There is another side to this advice.
Sometimes the Monday isn’t the problem.
It’s just the moment when you finally admit what you’ve known for months.
Perhaps you’ve stopped developing. Maybe the culture has changed, the working environment no longer suits you or promises about progression have repeatedly failed to materialise. You might simply have outgrown the role.
If you’ve been having the same thoughts every week, don’t keep dismissing them because you think you should be grateful to have a job.
There comes a point where staying can become the bigger career risk.
Optics offers many different working environments, and moving doesn’t necessarily mean that your current employer is terrible or that you’ve failed. Sometimes a job has simply given you everything it can and you’re ready for something else.
There is nothing wrong with recognising that.
The important thing is making the move because you understand where you want to go next rather than because you desperately want to get away from where you are today.
Talk to Somebody Before You Decide
One of the advantages of working with a specialist optical recruiter is that you can have a conversation before deciding whether you actually want to move.
You don’t necessarily need a CV ready. You don’t have to be committed to resigning and you certainly don’t need to start applying for jobs immediately.
Sometimes you simply need to understand what else exists.
What are practices offering people with your experience? Are salaries different elsewhere? Could you find the working pattern you want? Are there opportunities to progress into management, develop clinically or move between different types of optical businesses?
That information can change the way you see your current position.
You may discover that you’re actually better off staying where you are for the moment.
You may discover that there are opportunities you hadn’t realised existed.
Either conclusion is useful.
Good recruitment should not be about persuading somebody to leave a job they are perfectly happy in. It should help people make better career decisions.
A Bad Monday Can Still Be Useful
Even if you decide not to move, a difficult day can teach you something.
Perhaps it has shown you that your current workload is becoming a problem. Maybe you’ve realised that you value supportive management more than you previously thought. Perhaps you’ve discovered that you want greater clinical responsibility or that the working pattern you accepted three years ago no longer fits your life.
Pay attention to those things.
A bad Monday can provide information without making the decision for you.
Use it as a reason to think, not simply a reason to react.
Have the conversation you’ve been avoiding. Look at your options. Speak to somebody who understands the optical market and work out whether the frustration you’re feeling is temporary or whether something genuinely needs to change.
Don’t Make a Five-Year Decision Based on One Day
A career in optics can last decades.
During that time, you’re going to have difficult patients, busy clinics, frustrating managers, disappointing days and periods when you wonder whether somewhere else might be better.
Some of those moments will pass.
Others will tell you that you’ve reached the point where a change makes sense.
The skill is learning to tell them apart.
If Monday has been awful, don’t ignore how you feel. But don’t assume you need to resign by Tuesday either. Give yourself enough distance to understand what’s actually bothering you and whether it is an isolated problem or part of something that has been building for months.
If you still enjoy what you do but need a different environment, there may be an optical practice where you’ll feel far more at home. If you’re looking for greater responsibility, different hours, better development or simply a fresh challenge, those opportunities may be available too.
Just make sure your next move is taking you somewhere.
Not simply taking you away.
Your bad Monday might be forgotten by Friday.
If it isn’t, and the same feeling keeps coming back week after week, perhaps it is time to start a conversation about what you want the next five years of your optical career to look like.
At Inspired Selections, you don’t have to wait until you’ve decided to leave before talking to us. A confidential conversation about your experience, what you’re looking for and what opportunities are available can often be the best place to start.
You may decide to stay exactly where you are.
Or you might discover that there is something better waiting.
Either way, that’s a much stronger career decision than one made during a particularly bad Monday.
