patient services coordinator

optical

optician

store manager

opticien

Bonlook Inc.

I no longer work for Bonlook in a management position and want to share the insight I have about the company with others so that they are well aware of what they should expect when being employed by the company. If I were to sum up the company culture I would say that they expect you to drive yourself into the ground for the benefit of the company, while receiving absolutely no recognition for achievements and extremely minimal compensation. With regards to compensation, I was tricked into taking a lower level management position with the clear promise of an increase in salary/compensation after a set period of time. After meeting and exceeding the stated targets that were required for an increase in compensation, Senior management lied to my face and told me that they had never promised any sort of increase in either compensation or a promotion of my position. The original role and responsibilities that were laid out for me are only a small fraction of what is actually required of the job. Given that the company is in the optical industry there are extensive responsibilities that pertain to the optical industry which ultimately means that any employee working for Bonlook will likely have double the workload compared to most other retail categories. Despite the extensive responsibilities and workload, the company offers compensation well below the average that other companies operating in less technical areas of retail offer. If you feel it is important to be appreciated and recognized for your achievements, this is not the company for you. Senior management is toxic and they’re attitude towards staff is that nothing is ever good enough. During my time with Bonlook I more than doubled my store location’s numbers but only received scrutiny, negative feedback and extreme pressure to perform beyond what any human could reasonably do. When my store incorporated an optometrist in the location, which resulted in a massive increase in my responsibilities and duties for no increase in compensation, Senior management told me that I should be honoured to have an optometrist at my location despite no increase in pay. I could go on and on about how poor of a company Bonlook is to work for. No work-life balance, brutal pay, no recognition of achievements, constant scrutiny and pressure from senior management, lack of honesty and transparency, and unreasonable expectations. If you value your mental and physical health and want to join a company with fair compensation and ample opportunity to grow within the company, I would strongly suggest you avoid Bonlook! Keep in mind this review is coming from manager who recently left this toxic company will on my own terms.

Things started out good enough but quickly it became clear that this wasn’t as described. Coming into the store I expected some challenges but nothing as bad as what it was. 
Leadership is based on the other side of the country and very east centric. There was little done to address the differences in markets despite the regular feedback and pleas. Regional leader offered little in the way of support and remained very hands off. Very limited support was provided when asking for help with any issue including recruitment. You will have to try to decipher what is actually wanted from the instructions you receive as the instructions you are given are usually veiled with an ulterior motive. Very little is done to improve morale within the business. 
HR is a nightmare and very little regard is given for respect of provincial legislation. The lack of availability of a representative at most times makes it challenging to get support when you need it, and it is typically not available during most of the operating day in western Canada. At various points in time it was a requirement to have the regional manager make contact with HR based on their decision of whether or not the matter required HR. This was often forgotten or took several days to be addressed, making it difficult to handle situations in a timely manner. 

I have worked for BonLook two times now. I had to move locations and was unable to stay on the first time I worked for the company. I found my way back as soon as I could! The upper management always has your back and are a great support, this being the main reason I was so eager to come back to the company. I am satisfied with my pay to responsibilities ratio, this is such a fun brand and always evolving work place! Change isn’t for everyone but if you enjoy positive change and innovation BonLook is an amazing workplace for you. I have had great work life balance, flexibility in my schedule it’s all about give and take. 
I have been so impressed with the positive changes made to this company and was lucky to see where we were to where we are now almost a year later! The improvements are endless, new IT systems and apps, new updated sales trackers and constant new collections being launched. I truly enjoy working for this amazing company and look forward to working here long term!!

My store’s management has always been supportive and helpful. 
The company started off really well, until it got a lot more strict and very corporate feeling. 
Head office can be more organized and more fair to their in store workers, who actually keep their company running... 
Raises are hardly given.  
Head office only cares about those who are higher up - hundreds of free trips to visit stores, events, all paid, meanwhile the rest of staff can hardly move up. 
Stores weren’t given a Christmas budget to do somethingu nice, but they can fly out all the managers to head office for a big holiday party! 
They really do need to stop expanding, and focus on their current stores and listen to these reviews. They expect a lot from their workers, for non-competitive pay. 
There are also far too many blackout periods where we cannot go for vacations. 

My store has a good environment, can’t say much for other locations.

Very little possibility of growth within this company as a programmer. 

You will quickly realize after a couple of months that you won't learn anything new in there since they lack senior programmers. They like to hire unexperienced programmers or students and pay them cheap.

Uncompetitive salary-wise. 

There's a high chance, depending on what you work on, that you'll end up bug fixing existing stuff that's very poorly built and programmed.

Management is very unexperienced and lacks leadership skills. 

You might, unexpectedly, be needed to work during weekends or holidays for an hour or two, again, depending on what you work on. Those hours will not be considered as extra time but rather as time that you'll be able to deduce from the next week. Making the job and life balance very unpredictable.

Some directors try very hard to be on the good side of CEO's then lash out every problem mentioned by them on their respective teams. Witnessed this on several occasions in different teams.

Personal observation (not that it concerns me), but after working there for a while I noticed that some directors are good at pretending to be working. I would not really care if I did not know... However, it is painfully obvious.

At one point in time, I have learned that someone would be licenced a few months in advance, and then it did not happen! Yikes! 

There' frequent gossip (without much discretion since I knew about it even if it did not concern me) between management about employees "bad" or "weird" behaviour... Which I really do not consider appropriate.

Do not expect that the fact that you stick with them and give your 100 % will be rewarded... It will not be worthwhile for you on the long run.

They are all about money.

this company never ceases to amaze me at how awful they treat their employees. While other companies have been compensating their employees during this unfortunate epidemic, bonlook decides to temporarily place ALL OF THEIR EMPLOYEES ON LEAVE. Shame on the upper management team and CEO who decided on this. Don't make awful excuses and tell us that only large Canadian companies can afford to pay their employees sick leave when you guys continuously open up new stores. Don't even get me started on your store openings. You train your employees zero to nothing and expect them to just learn all of the complicated terms related to eye health. You rely your employees to take on all that responsibility, you also blame them for when things go wrong, and now you've abandoned them. I'm ashamed to work here but more importantly you guys should be ashamed.

Used to be a decent place to work. Quality and affordable glasses, however following company expansion, inexperienced upper management pushes nothing but numbers. No consideration for work life balance. This is optical, not clothing, they don't seem to understand that. 

If you're hired "full time" this means 25 hours, and part time means you'll usually get 3-10 hours, oh and those will get cut on a weekly basis as well. Management doesn't care about anything except great sales. They should really stop opening stores that can't be supported and focus on expanding what's there.

Save your time, energy and find somewhere positive to work.

Schedule fully booked and Customer service adding in more appointments
Customer service not trained properly and having patients come in for their glasses when Optician is not available. Causing rude and angry customers with the staff on hand.
Being the only Optician and Bonlook wanted me to work every Saturday. When I was hired I was told that a part time Optician would be hired and that I would be able to work every second Saturday.
Bonlook made promises that it didn't keep. 
Helping out customers that are upset with the Optician's hours, I worked 40 hours a week and it still wasn't enough.
Customers don't understand that there are legal regulations that we must follow.
I enjoyed the coworkers that I worked with

I was very excited to be with working with a young Canadian Optical Corporation. Unfortunately BonLook was restructuring at the time. BonLook’s style of opporations made it very difficult to fulfil my role. BonLook employees were very encouraging, as well as friendly environment to work in. Be aware of shortages in Opticians. But I can’t say enough about how nice everyone was.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Patient services coordinator 23 salaries reported	$19.55 per hour
Optical 17 salaries reported	$21.10 per hour
Optician 9 salaries reported	$28.39 per hour
Store manager 1 salary reported	$71,900 per year
Opticien 4 salaries reported	$28.13 per hour

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