Personal Trainers and Unionizing against harmful “Industry Standards”:
I'll be making a video soon putting Life Time Fitness, Orangetheory Fitness, and Burn Boot Camp on the spot for various criminal activities that were directed at me – from sexual assault to wage theft to illegal firing. I'm not alone in this. A lot of these chumps pass off their behavior as “industry standard” which just means that it's normal for them to get away with screwing over defenseless people. How dare I not be okay with that, right?
I have documentations and recordings of everything, and it's all going in the upcoming video. Other trainers who have the same documentation and stories, please come forward with it as I'd love to put it in the video.
The personal trainers and fitness coaches who make this industry what it is are mistreated and that is going to change. We have to start the difficult battle to unionize, calling out the abuse we are suffering, and going on strike until the change we deserve becomes reality. The unionization process is beyond the scope of this post, though. I'll be looking into it and will share what I find while reaching out to other trainers in other posts. Anyone already well versed here, your help would be much appreciated!
All that said, let's get on to my experience with Burn Boot Camp.
Burn Boot Camp Illegal Mandatory Training and Wage Theft:
The initial phone call with Burn began with the manager, Timmy, telling me that the last trainee didn't work out, so he decided to no longer pay trainees. His problem was that the last trainee refused to get on the floor and lead classes and would only assist. Not sure why the natural conclusion to that is to never pay any trainee ever again, but it certainly says a lot about Timmy that this was his thought process, and he seemed proud to take credit for the decision.
So, day 1, I get on the floor and lead when given the chance. They wanted me to do just the Warm Up but I ended up leading the entire 45 minute class. The clients were happy, co-workers and Timmy are happy. The same happens every time I go on the floor and they have no critical feedback beyond learning their specific “way” of doing things – like “say Camp instead of Class” level feedback. No one is really assisting me or correcting me any time that I'm leading. I'm working for all intents and purposes and it goes smoothly. I'm not trying to be arrogant, but I'm damn good at my job and my clients love me, which is why everyone was so happy with my performance. I don't suffer shitty bosses though – thus, it's time to really focus on my own business.
Remember, I'm not being paid for any of this time or effort. I get a call from a client from my own business, and the time they need me interferes with what Burn had planned. The same happened again with a new client signing up. So, who do I listen to? The clients handing me money, or the multi-million dollar company refusing to pay a trainee? I have a family to feed, so obviously I pick my paying clients and push off Burn. Anyone, any business, would do the exact same. I was honest with them about each instance that my calling out was due to my other job needing me suddenly.
Their response? “We totally get bringing in new clients and that not being paid for your time here isn't fun, but you not coming in unpaid messes with all of our schedules. We'd love to have you, you did amazing last week on the floor, but you need to see this training as mandatory if you want the training to end and the job to start”. Well, this whole “mandatory” and “unpaid” and “you're doing amazing and we want you on board” thing really feels wrong, and is honestly insulting given that I'm clearly exceeding their expectations. Turns out it's illegal to not be paying me for this “mandatory training”.
Going into week 3 starting today, they wanted 12 hours all week, all unpaid, with further no guarantee that I'll be actually working by week 4. Yesterday I pushed back via text, told them I'd only commit to 6 hours for the week, that I need an answer by end of the week, especially since not paying me so far has been illegal.
Timmy called me this morning and I' m no longer needed, suddenly I'm not a good fit. He made sure to state that one of the owners is a lawyer, and that they don't pay trainees at ANY locations, so he knows that not paying trainees is totally legal. Funny how he was so adamant about it being HIS decision when we first met.
Intentionally Harming Clients:
After the first day of training, I was in a meeting with Timmy and the head trainer. We were having a discussion about how important it is to empathize with our clients, to get to know them and think ahead about their needs, how to keep them safe and progressing towards their goals.
BUT that all goes out the window if someone comes in thinking that the program won't be too hard, according to Timmy. His suggestion for dealing with someone coming in saying, “I have previous training” and maybe a bit of a chip on their shoulder is to “bury them! You stay on them, you give them every challenge possible! YOU! BURY! THEM!” The head trainer looked very over his shit. Fucking psycho, I'm glad I don't work for you.
Start Calling Out Businesses By Name, Stop Protecting Companies That Will Never Protect You:
Copies of your text messages between you and your boss are easy to connect with, and that feels good, but it doesn't do anything to fix the problem. We need to know the names of the businesses so we can take action. Call the business out by name, but never call out an individual person by name.
All of us are having struggles with abusive and exploitative employers right now. It'll only stop when we quit doing business with them, and we need to be able to identify them. So, again, call your work place out by name. This allows the rest of us to be done with them too and to be able to hit them where it hurts most – giving their employees and clients the ability and motivation to move to another business.