I began working for Orange Theory Fitness in January 2022. I actually thoroughly loved the job and the program. I was so excited to be there because I saw how I could help a lot of people with the OTF program and my own abilities as a coach.
On my first day out of training on the actual job, I saw a client grab two people's asses. The Head Coach was with with me to make sure all went well, and she didn't seem to care when it happened. This isn't something I took lightly and I fully intended to have her spoken to or kicked out. We can't condone a culture of ass slapping. Unfortunately, at the end of the class we had to take a group picture and the client then grabbed MY ass while standing behind me.
I've been sexually assaulted by 9 different people in my life starting as young as 3 years old. I'll spare you the details. This happened by people I thought I should be able to trust more than any in the world, by friends, and by complete strangers. People are sick and crossing personal boundaries, especially in a sexual manner, is never called for and is severely distressing. I was in absolute shock that something like this happened to me again.
After class ended, I mentioned to my co-workers what had happened. The head coach who was with me walked away without saying anything and another co-worker said, “Oh, that client? That's just how she is.” So, they were very aware of her behavior prior to this incident.
I mentioned the incident two more times to my superiors. Once via text, the only response was to “dislike” the text. Then the next day, the main supervisor spoke with me and told me there would be no action or investigation taken.
I couldn't really function there anymore after that conversation, knowing a sexual predator was allowed to roam and nothing would happen. I have a family to feed and so I had to keep working there. I felt so uncomfortable around my co-workers knowing they didn't care. It came up a few times and no one cared at all. It was always dismissed as, “that's just how she is. Yeah she's very touchy-feely.” I got back into therapy in March to start to deal with this.
Given my history of sexual abuse as child, I tend to frequent the bathroom more often than most. Sorry for the overshare, but it's relevant. In early March, a co-worker stated, “Oh and look, there goes Our Next Arc off to his special bathroom time again” IN FRONT OF ALL THE CLIENTS at the end of a class.
I was mortified and humiliated and said, “Sorry, I have an injury I'm dealing with in my stomach and digestive area.” She told me I was wrong and it must be a gluten allergy because her friend's digestive problems went away after going gluten free. She went on for quite a while about her friend's journey with gluten. Absolute insanity and disrespect.
I began to have almost nightly nightmares about my past after the talk with the main supervisor and being told they would not investigate. I never had nightmares, even after my assaults happened. It got to the point in late April that I ended up having a full flashback and went into fight-mode out of a dream and ended up getting a concussion because I fainted and hit my head on the bathtub, woke up and fainted again to hit my face again on the floor, ending up with a trip to the hospital in an ambulance and stitches in my face.
I had to take a week off work to recover and decided to file a formal complaint to HR about the sexual assault and my superiors refusal to act.
The next day, they wrote me up for missing a meeting a month prior in March because I was busy at another job. The document was forged to make it look like they'd given it to me back in March, which I still have with me as evidence. I called them out on this and mentioned that I was going to need to work with a lawyer before signing anything they were handing me. They told me to go home as soon as I mentioned a lawyer, and they put me on administrative leave with pay.
In my formal complaint, I also mentioned substantial evidence of wage theft. For example, they require all coaches to train 2 hours per week without pay. We also had to arrive 30 minutes early without pay and clean or work with new/introduction clients in that time, as well as cleaning up after hours without pay.
About 10 days later, they completed their investigation. They admitted that the client had sexually assaulted me and others, but that the client would be keeping her membership and would be spoken to, the staff would get sexual harassment training, they had no comment on the wage theft, and I was no longer employed due to my “hostility”.
Fuck Orange Theory Fitness and any company that treats people like this. They don't deserve any of their clients or employees.
My understanding is that I was fired illegally and many OTF coaches have had wages stolen. If any lawyer is willing to take this on pro bono, please reach out to me.
To all my fellow workers and employees – we do NOT have to accept this kind of abuse, but we are absolute fools if we continue to work for them and beg them to change when they repeatedly abuse us.
Like a person caught in abusive relationship, we have to be willing to go through the pain of walking away and forming our own way. We have to be ready for the brutal violence our oppressors will deliver upon us as they realize they've lost their power over us, that we will not work under their rules and conditions anymore, and that we will work together to leave them behind.
We must make the rules. We must exemplify these rules in our own businesses. We must pay ourselves as business leaders and employees fairly and ensure that we provide for one another all the basic necessities required to survive and thrive. And then we must keep doing it until we have designed a system that becomes a force that can sustain more of us and fight back. Our oppressors be damned and left with their broken values and systems.
It will take personal change and for selfless business leaders to emerge and for workers/employees to walk away from their jobs and support these new businesses. No change is coming from above to make work better, or to end it. It's all on you. Us.
We have to build the system and way of life we want and stop expecting it to be handed to us by the very people who designed our current situation.