ophtalmologue

medical office assistant

registered nurse

ophthalmic technician

Alberta Retina Consultants

Typical Workday: Begin by clocking in and receiving floor assignments due to staffing shortages, which often disregard the scheduled arrangements. Experience close oversight regardless of the floor assigned.

The clinic handles a patient volume of over 550 individuals daily, despite being consistently understaffed. As a result, employees are required to carry the workload of two individuals without proper appreciation or adequate compensation. Furthermore, patient load continues to increase due to financial reasons, albeit without similar consideration for the staff.

During my time there, I gained valuable skills, including operating certain equipment, although the overall experience was less rewarding than anticipated. The prevailing favoritism within the workplace proved influential.

Remuneration, especially in relation to the amount of work performed, was noticeably low and not commensurate with a living wage. I faced financial difficulties during my tenure, although my request for a raise yielded the response that my presence was voluntary.

The management team, consisting of the clinic manager and leads, ultimately contributed to my departure. Their leadership engendered a toxic work environment that eroded my passion for the job. They failed to recognize the detrimental impact their actions had on employee retention.

Regrettably, I should have researched reviews more extensively before accepting the position as they largely corroborated my experience. I am disappointed by the seeming lack of concern the doctors exhibited toward the well-being of their staff.

The workplace culture can only be described as toxic and disheartening. Witnessing new hires lose their enthusiasm within a week was particularly distressing. A high frequency of stress leave among employees was also observed. Opportunities for advancement were limited, unless one was favored or connected to the management team.

The most challenging aspect of the job resided in the daily struggle to maintain composure and suppress tears during the unpaid 30-minute lunch break, as HR personnel often monitored staff in the lunchroom.

However, the most satisfying part of the job was the moment I could finally return home at the end of the day.

A typical day at Alberta Retina is VERY fast paced. Seeing 300-500 patients coming through the door daily. Typically days are very under staffed, as there seems to be a work culture of staff who constantly call in sick. I can only assume this happens due to burn out from working in a ridiculously busy environment. 

You will learn a lot about retina related eye disease, and gain the ability to use several different types of diagnostic equipment. Skills that once you have are helpful when you go searching for new work to escape this dumpster fire. 

Management is a nightmare. They have become sick with power and have are in the habit of firing staff without cause. There’s a pattern to this as they start choosing their next victim, they will beat them down, bully them for a few  months and inevitably discard them. Raises are unfair as it seems to be sort of a blanket policy….every employee gets the same (usually 3%) raise annually wether they work hard or not. Which is baffling because there’s seems to be no budget on discarding good staff.  Toxic management.

Staff, what’s left of them are tight knit abd there for eachother. There’s no real excitement or enthusiasm for the job in the hallways of Alberta Retina, as a toxic work environment has most employees scared for their security rather than excited for their job. People have bills to pay, and this is a means of making ends meet. Overall it’s nice to have a sense of community with people going through the same things, but the workplace it self is depressing. 

This job is physically and mentally very demanding. You will be on your feet lots and deal with people who have deteriorating vision, most of those people are grateful for the help….and some can be hard to deal with. 

Most enjoyable part of this job is when the day is done and you get to go home. 



Very demanding job. Office is extremely busy, with up to 400 patients a day. You go through 6 weeks of training. Learning everything is not too hard, but there are about 100 little things you need to remember, which at times can be overwhelming. Patients can be rude and difficult, sometimes making staff cry. Pay is way too low for what you put up with, and it would take close to 10 years to get to their pay cap, as you start at basically minimum wage. AHS wage starts at the cap that ARC has. As an MOA, you do the same thing a Unit Clerk would do, but with way less pay. NO BREAKS - just half an hour for lunch, and no 15 minutes in the morning or afternoon. Most staff are pretty great, but there are tons of people who are really fed up with everything, resulting in pretty high staff turnover.

There are opportunities to take on new tasks and responsibilities, which helps add to your resume. You learn a lot in this job about ophthalmology, with education sessions with doctors you can attend, and the senior employees are very knowledgeable, passing on what they know to you, which is nice. Benefits (which you get after 6 months) are decent. Overall takeaway is that this is a VERY customer-service oriented job, and one where you deal with hundreds of people a week, for very little pay (unless you're willing to wait many years).



Unless you are a friend of Management, you will never see any advancement. unprofessional, skirts labour laws, never follows thru on requests, questions and refuses to take responsibility. Inappropriate foundation for a business including a toxic environment, gossip, bullying, no sharing of info, entitlement,cliches. 
Prepare to be belittled and under valued. 

The cap is what AHS will start you at, and the pay is so wildly different between staff that do the same work, it’s disconcerting. (Don’t discuss pay with your co workers, that will get you a visit with management.) 
You will see anywhere from 350 to 400 patients in an 8 hr  day and for that you will be rewarded with a half hour lunch break, unpaid, no 15 min breaks and the pleasure of having 4 to 7 bosses all telling you something different. Which will be your fault if you can't decipher what it is they want/need.   
Whatever you do, don't recommend a possible better way to do things. It will be taken as insubordination or some insult to the management team.  
The environment causes stress, in fighting, divide, low morale and high turnover, which can cause subpar patient care. 


What are the good things you ask?
The skills you will learn, the benefits,(after 6 mnths) the patients you will meet and some of the staff. 

In a nutshell, this is a toxic work environment.  


.


My time at ARC has been short as personal circumstances have lead me to leave ARC. From the minute I stepped into ARC for an interview and meeting the managers and leads, I felt welcomed. My first day everyone welcomed me and were extremely approachable. The current team at ARC are wonderful and bring forth a culture that is collaborative and supportive and I was never afraid to ask for help if I needed it!

ARC is one of the two retina clinics in Alberta and so there are a lot of patients. Hence, the workplace is fast paced. However, the staff are so well merged that regardless of the situation, everyone is able to collaborate and be as efficient as possible!

Although I did not have experience in Ophthalmology before, the philosophy of ARC of bringing in people and training is amazing! The training team were insightful and made sure I was confident in my abilities before letting me be independent! In addition, the amount of opportunities you have to be involved in the patients care from the different tests you do for the eye and procedures, it makes everyday interesting!

The doctors at ARC are amazing as well! They are super personable and will help you out as well when you need help!



Very busy office as they take care of a large area. 
Doctor's are committed to what they do and are very caring. 

The problem is within the culture. I asked about these very  reviews and was told, in length, they were just disgruntled workers who were trouble makers. That should have been my first clue. 

This is a very toxic environment on the staff and management level.  Management is so unprofessional and it has leaked down to staff.

In training all I heard was how to cover any mistakes instead of taking responsibility and learning how to do them correctly. You can see there are favorites among the staff. Don't take any initiative it will just get you pulled into an office to be reprimanded.  That's Managements/Supervisors jobs, you are just there to be a worker bee with no insight.   

Apparently all the supervisors are friends of management and for some reason this has staff terrified to stand up for themselves.  

I would be very hesitant to recommend working here at all. My time was short, but if you talk to the staff you will learn the culture within 2 wks. its not pretty.

This company is a great stepping stone, but don’t get complacent and stay for long like I did.  

I learned a lot about the basic skills required for the role of being an ophthalmic assistant, especially tips & tricks you can’t learn in the class room.  But my desire to advance was treated as insubordination and squashed.  Management just hired friends (most with zero skills and some with zero experience in the ophthalmic field) and then when you approached the doctors for support they referred you back to the broken management structure they created.  It’s led to upper and middle management being run by what amounts to a bunch of “mean girls” that bully the people that work for them, including the HR department.  

There’s been several safety complaints that I’m aware of and every time anyone has asked for a health and safety committee we’ve been told “we’ll look into it” but nothing happens.  

Eventually I just started going through the motions and just “doing the job” like everyone else until I could leave.  If you’re in a pinch for some experience, get in & get out!  Otherwise avoid this place.  

This is a fast paced clinic with doctors who genuinely care about their staff and patients. Some days are demanding, however all co-workers are kind and supportive. A great place to work overall.

However there is only one 30min break and covid restrictions are very much still in effect. There is little to no workplace culture, staff eat in separate rooms, if you're lucky you may have a table otherwise you get a cardboard box or nothing at all. Wage and annual raises are lower than what should be paid based on the demand of the work.  Management are extremely busy and often not seen unless you are called into their office, which does not create a relationship or trust between management and employee. Often times information relayed to doctors, management, and staff are not the same and confusion occurs. 

In summary this is a job where you will learn lots and work along side fantastic physicians and co-workers. However the company as a whole severely lacks in workplace culture and trust in management. 

At this company there is some potential to learn new tasks, and you need no special training to work there.  It can be a good place if you are using it as a steppingstone for other jobs, to gain some experience. 
However, in the last couple of years they have let nepotism and favouritism run rampant. The manager hires close friends for several of the middle-management (some with no prior ophthalmology experience) and similar positions, setting the culture of the place. 
There have been safety complaints against this company within the last two years, they don’t have a safety committee.
People doing the same job do not have the same wages, and talk about wages can get you in trouble. Not a place to ask for a raise!
I’m glad I learned some specific tasks and gained specific ophthalmology skills, but knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t repeat the entire experience.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Wearing scrubs and some fellow staff

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Everything, no support from management or physicians, poor working conditions, new staff closing, lunch breaks if your lucky, no recognition of staff who bust their butts, and no reprimands for those who don’t. It feels like you’re hearing cattle… get them in and get them out (patients). Heaven forbid the elevator should stop working yet again. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic! Extremely toxic. If you aren’t the chosen you don’t stand a chance 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It’s a fast paced environment in which I have no problems with but it is filled with unwarranted drama mostly stemming from management. Making sure they are in good standings with the physicians at any cost.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Ophtalmologue 4 salaries reported	$20.26 per hour
Medical office assistant 2 salaries reported	$22.45 per hour
Registered nurse 1 salary reported	$45.00 per hour
Ophthalmic technician 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour

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