There is a particular kind of tiredness that comes with knowing a job is no longer right for you.
It isn’t always the obvious kind. You can still turn up on time, look after your patients, get through the clinic and have a laugh with colleagues. From the outside, nothing may look particularly wrong.
But you know.
The Sunday evening feeling starts arriving on Saturday afternoon. A 25-minute sight test somehow feels twice as long. Little frustrations that you once brushed off start following you home. Conversations in the staff room become more cynical. You find yourself looking at job adverts without really admitting that you’re looking for a job.
And eventually you start asking yourself a difficult question.
Is it the practice that has changed, or have I?
Sometimes, the answer is both.
Not Every Job Is Supposed to Last Forever
One of the things I’ve noticed through years of speaking to people in optics is how guilty professionals can feel about wanting to leave.
They tell themselves they should be more resilient.
Perhaps they need to give the new manager more time. Perhaps the staffing situation will improve. Maybe the testing times will change. Maybe things will settle down after Christmas, after the summer, after the next recruitment round.
And sometimes they do.
There is a lot to be said for not making career decisions based on one bad week.
But there is also a difference between going through a difficult period and spending years trying to convince yourself that you’re happy somewhere you aren’t.
Not every role is supposed to be permanent.
Some jobs give you exactly what you need at a particular stage of your career and then, eventually, you outgrow them.
That isn’t failure.
It’s a career.
Sometimes It’s the Fit, Not the Person
Optics is a particularly good example because two practices can offer the same job title and provide completely different working lives.
An optometrist who loves clinical autonomy and complex cases may struggle in an environment built around shorter testing times and high patient volume.
A dispensing optician who gets enormous satisfaction from detailed frame styling and lens conversations may become frustrated somewhere that prioritises speed and transaction.
An optical assistant who is naturally brilliant at building relationships with patients may struggle in a practice where every conversation feels rushed.
None of these people is necessarily bad at their job.
They may simply be in the wrong environment for the way they work best.
I’ve seen this repeatedly in recruitment. Someone can spend years believing they have lost confidence or enthusiasm, then move practices and seem like a completely different professional six months later.
Their ability didn’t suddenly return.
They found somewhere that allowed them to use it.
Loyalty Can Keep Good People in the Wrong Jobs
Optics is a relatively close-knit profession, and loyalty matters.
You build relationships with patients you’ve seen for years. Your colleagues become friends. You know that if you leave, somebody else will have to cover your Saturdays or pick up part of your clinic.
That makes leaving emotionally difficult.
I’ve spoken to practice managers who remained in chaotic businesses because they felt responsible for holding the team together. I’ve met optometrists who tolerated working conditions they were deeply unhappy with because they didn’t want to let patients down.
And I’ve spoken to dispensing opticians who knew their skills weren’t being used properly but stayed because the job was familiar and secure.
There is nothing wrong with loyalty.
But loyalty should work in both directions.
If staying somewhere requires you to become increasingly exhausted, frustrated or disconnected from the professional you want to be, eventually you have to ask what that loyalty is costing you.
There is a difference between perseverance and simply enduring.
Pay Attention to What the Job Is Doing to You
One of the more concerning signs isn’t necessarily that somebody hates their job.
It’s that they stop caring about things they used to care about.
The optometrist who was once enthusiastic about developing clinically stops looking for new opportunities.
The DO who loved learning about new lens technology can’t be bothered anymore.
The practice manager who used to arrive with ideas has learned there is little point suggesting them.
CPD becomes another thing to get through rather than something interesting.
That change can happen so gradually that people don’t notice it.
They simply start believing, Maybe this is just what work feels like now.
It doesn’t have to be.
Sometimes a role has taught you everything it can teach you.
It may have made you faster. More commercially aware. Better with difficult patients. More confident clinically. Better at managing people.
Those lessons still matter if you leave.
Moving on doesn’t erase what the role gave you.
Optics Gives You More Choices Than You Might Think
One of the advantages of building a career in UK optics is the variety of environments available.
A busy multiple and a clinically focused independent can feel like two different professions.
Then there are hospital roles, domiciliary work, specialist clinics, management, regional positions and opportunities to develop particular clinical interests.
Different environments suit different people.
They can also suit the same person at different stages of their career.
The environment that was perfect when you qualified may not be what you want ten years later.
Perhaps you once wanted volume because it helped you build speed and confidence. Now you want longer appointments and more complex clinical work.
Perhaps you enjoyed being part of a large organisation but now want greater autonomy.
Or perhaps you’ve spent years in an independent and would actually welcome the structure, development opportunities or scale of a larger business.
Changing what you want doesn’t make your earlier decision wrong.
It means you’ve learned more about yourself.
Before You Leave, Ask Yourself Better Questions
I’m not an advocate of walking away from a job because you’ve had a terrible Saturday.
Every practice has difficult patients, staffing problems, frustrating weeks and decisions you won’t agree with.
Before deciding to leave, try to separate temporary frustration from a genuine mismatch.
Ask yourself:
Am I still developing here?
Are my skills actually being used?
Have I raised the things that are frustrating me and given the practice a reasonable opportunity to respond?
Do I respect the way this practice looks after patients and staff?
If nothing changed over the next two years, would I genuinely be happy staying?
That last question can be particularly revealing.
Because people often remain in jobs based on what they hope the role will eventually become rather than what it actually is today.
Moving Jobs Doesn’t Automatically Mean You’re Unstable
Candidates sometimes worry that changing practices will make them look unreliable.
Context matters.
Moving every few months without being able to explain why will understandably raise questions. But thoughtful career movement is completely different.
A newly qualified optometrist might start in a busy multiple and later decide they want a more clinically focused environment.
A dispensing optician might realise they want to move towards bespoke dispensing.
A practice manager might leave an environment where they have limited authority and join a business where they can genuinely lead.
Those moves can tell a coherent career story.
The important thing is being able to explain what you learned, why you moved and what you’re moving towards.
There is a big difference between constantly running away from jobs and deliberately building a career.
You Are Allowed to Outgrow a Good Job
Perhaps this is the part people find hardest.
A job doesn’t have to be terrible before you’re allowed to leave it.
Your manager doesn’t have to be awful.
Your colleagues don’t have to be difficult.
The company doesn’t have to have done something wrong.
Sometimes a perfectly decent job simply isn’t the right job for you anymore.
You can appreciate what a practice gave you and still decide that your future belongs somewhere else.
Optics can be a career spanning several decades. It would be strange to expect the same environment to suit you throughout all of them.
Your priorities will change. Your confidence will change. Your personal circumstances may change. The kind of professional you want to become may change too.
That is why I don’t think a successful career should be measured by how long somebody can tolerate being unhappy.
It should be measured by whether they continue making thoughtful decisions about where they can contribute, develop and do good work.
Sometimes that means staying and working through a difficult period.
Sometimes it means recognising that you’ve reached the end of a chapter.
And when you genuinely know that time has come, leaving isn’t necessarily giving up.
Sometimes it’s simply moving on.
