Pros
Freedom to run your business as best as you can. No pressure to 'hard sell' or upsell - the pricing structure in the Opticians means you can comfortably provide whatever your patient needs. Culture of honestly and openness within the business. Mistakes and failures are treated like a learning opportunity rather than a stick to beat you with.
Cons
No/little support if needed - senior management in stores have little to no interest or experience in healthcare, and regional healthcare managers are spread over a massive area, so you'll be lucky to see them twice a year, and generally they have no healthcare experience - more interested in a 4 foot accessory bay because that's what they understand. Staffing levels are tight, which is understandable in a low cost business, but becomes dangerously short staffed if someone leaves or goes off sick - it can take months to get approval to recruit. Quality of support staff is massively variable, you're more likely to be forced to take on staff that can no longer lift and carry in a warehouse, regardless of if they are suitable and capable of working in an Opticians as it's seen as an 'easy' department. Hours are long. Very long. Full time is 45 hours a week, and you'll routinely need to do significantly more than that because you'll usually have to cover someone's holiday, sickness, etc. Only an illusion of career progression for the ambitious - annual appraisals and regular performance conversations but regional healthcare manager jobs are not advertised, they are given to well performing George or Home Shopping managers with connections, unless you want to be a supermarket manager, you can not progress, I am not aware of any Optical Managers that have been promoted in the last 4 years - maybe possible if you live near Leeds head office but I'm not aware of it happening. Promises of new technology, wage models, support structures, changes to policy, etc. are routinely just never mentioned again. PMS we do have is slow, buggy, crashes often and is locked down so tight it makes it difficult to do your job.