TLDR; Emailed the owner of the gym I work at about a bunch of public health and commerce violations I found out the gym was breaking on Thursday, the regional manager and the owner have basically ghosted me this weekend and my position has been posted back on indeed.
Hello everyone! I'd like to share an interesting story developing in my life. In mid March I was hired at a recently opened fitness facility as assistant manager. This is both my first time in any “management” position, and at a gym no less. I've been employed there for 6 months as of last week. The regional manager (She manages 1 other fitness facility) is basically the most negligent mix of incompetence and indifference and the guy who owns the two gyms is basically a fish out of water when it comes to the fitness industry and chose to do no research of his own, essentially just trusting the regional manager to run the gyms so all he has to do is collect a check. About 3 months ago I was the sole person responsible for LITERALLY EVERYTHING in the gym for an entire week! The manager was out for a week (I say manager and assistant manager because it's on our nametags, it's just us and we're glorified staff essentially) so I had no support. This gym is located in one of the largest cities in the Midwest, so I had to deal with everything from breaking equipment, regular customer complaints, waste disposal, and even the regional managers problems as well! Everything! Suffice to say I was a bit fed up with her “Call if you need anything,” when I can't get a text back as to why the new membership promotions aren't in the system (I can't edit the membership plans myself, only she can). I started to look around at the facility and think about what some of the real issues are around here.
The facility opened back in early 2022, and the regional manager claimed she was basically the only person who showed up to work there during 2022, and if she is too busy to text me back for an entire week, what could she have been doing when the gym opened? I checked our emergency defibrillator, the safety tape that stops the battery from connecting hadn't even been removed, the spare paddles and battery were completely gone, and there wasn't a single marking on the maintenance tag. No one had checked the defibrillator at all until I looked at in in June, nearly a year after the gym opened! I was freaking out! If anyone had a cardiac event we wouldn't have been able to help them. Then I realized, no one had informed me whether or not I was supposed to get CPR/AED training myself or if that would be provided by the company. I emailed the guy who owns the gym that day, basically saying we needed to have a meeting and go over everything that's gone on since the gym opened to make sure we are legally in the clear. From the owner and the regional management I was assured some changes would come. None did, to this day the defibrillator is still missing paddles and a battery, and no one who works there is CPR/AED certified.
Fast forward to Thursday. I was looking up city and state laws regarding fitness facilities and such, as well as the franchise disclosure document the owner had to sign in order to become a franchisee of this brand. To summarize two very important things:
- The gym could be facing over $6,000 in fines from the Defibrillator and lack of trained staff.
- The gyms combined have illegally charged (Essentially stolen) over $15,000 from insurance members who were unlawfully charged fees to sign up.
I emailed the owner outlining all of the city and state laws we were breaking to my knowledge under the regional's management, as well as mentioning the illegally obtained monies from insurance members 15 mins before the end of my shift on Thursday. I told him I wanted his help to fix these issues or I would have to go to the authorities to get it fixed. As of today I have yet to receive a response. I love that gym and the people who go there, but there's a lot of illegal shit going on that's not only illegal, it puts people at risk. I didn't have work Friday, so I went on indeed to apply for other jobs just in case my efforts to save or lessen the damage the owner would face from financial and legal retribution blew up in my face.
LO AND BEHOLD! My job has been posted on indeed, this time with an extra dollar added the hourly rate. It's tagged as urgently hiring. I still hadn't received any text or email from either the regional or the owner about the email I sent. I tried to clock in on Saturday, I wasn't allowed to clock in at first, so I made sure to document the time I arrived. I texted the regional if she could correct my punch for that day and she texted back “No Problem.” The regional manager says she will be in on Tuesday, I will continue clocking in to work as normal unless I can't.
Do you guys think this is retaliation brewing or panic from management thinking i'll quit?
Should I apply for my job position and see if i'll get an extra dollar?