This is as bogus as it sounds. I started working at my “dream job” in June. The guy who owns the business is also my Ashiatsu instructor. If you are unfamiliar with Ashiatsu, it is a style of barefoot massage where I use bars on the ceiling to keep my balance. Anyhow, this summer has been excruciatingly humid in the massage rooms. It got over 80 degrees (massage rooms are supposed to be 70-75 for the therapist’s sake) and over 80% humidity, humidity is supposed to be under 60%. Anything over 70% humidity is considered oppressive and unsafe. High humidity levels indoors are breeding grounds for mold and bacteria.
This month has been absolutely miserable. Since June, I have been sweating non-stop at the building. I bought pasties to cover my nipples under my tank top, so I didn't have to wear a bra. I started sweating the moment that I walked into the building most days. There is no airflow to the rooms, which would certainly help the humidity problem. I brought it up to the owner multiple times, but he brushed it off every time because it didn’t bother him. He massaged in the huge room and never massaged in the smaller rooms. I got heat exhaustion multiple times this summer. I got cramps, felt nauseous, and dizzy. I almost fell off the massage table a couple of times.
Whenever somebody lit incense, the smell would linger for hours because that’s how thick the air was in there. The last time that I talked to the owner, he told me that he didn’t believe in air conditioning so he didn’t use it. The lobby is full of plants and he admitted that he doesn’t turn on the air for his plant’s sake. He also implied that I was massaging incorrectly and posted basic techniques (that I do accurately without his shitty teaching) in a group chat. This guy is a complete monster, but appears to be a sweet and innocent guy from the Philippines.
I talked to a friend who is also a HVAC technician and showed him pictures of the building. He told me the solution to the problem. I was super happy to have found the solution, so I texted the owner about it. His response, “Don’t you have anything better to do than think about the humidity here?” That broke my heart. I told him that I wouldn’t be coming in until the problem was fixed.
The next day, I got a call and text from three of his managers. He obviously was too busy to get a hold of me. A manager notified me that they couldn’t guarantee me a safe working environment and that I was taken off the schedule.
I laid in bed all day on Wednesday, extremely depressed, but now I’m just mad at the situation. It is definitely a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, but it’s absolute bullshit. I will be reporting him to the public health department because nobody wants to get a massage in a fucking cesspool.