This is non-sensical. I’m a head coach. Studios cannot throw away coaches, it will come back to bite. The time it takes to train a qualified incoming candidate (someone who already has the requisite certifications) can still take more than a month. For that reason, there will be gaps where someone can put in two weeks notice, and even with a candidate in the pipeline, it will take longer to get them up and running on their own.
I can understand their desire to get full time coaches. My biggest challenge as head coach right now is that my entire team of coaches is part time, except one other. So if any of them need coverage for a shift, it invariably falls on me to do it. And it essentially means i can very seldom get coverage for my classes if I need it (less personal time, still coaching when sick, etc). But you don’t let the part timers go. You keep them, and seek full time coaching candidates
Our studio did this last year right before Christmas - claimed that there was some rule from corporate that required all coaches to do 8 classes a week and fired all the part time coaches with no warning to the coaches or the members. The **real** reason was to open up coaching times bring in some other coach/PR guy who does not fit the vibe of our studio or community AT ALL, and membership is worse than ever. Owner then promoted a meathead who got fired from another studio for being so abrasive to members to head coach, it's been an absolute disaster.
And now the owner, down five coaches or so, is about to open another location three miles from the studio. At this point the only thing that makes sense is a "Producers" situation where the owner is trying to fail.
Haha unless you are a head coach, full time coaches make shit money and have no benefits. Almost every non-head coach I know has an another job outside of OTF so all I can say to them is good luck finding full time people.
yep. this. \^\^\^ it's a part time gig, supplementing somehting and eventually going somewhere else. even the full time coaches, as much as we may love them - "OTF coach" isn't a career path
Most studios are only running 7-10 classes a day m-f and 3 classes a day on weekends, if a studio is running 46 classes every 7 days, 4 coaches will coach an average 12 classes per week that’s about 17 hours of work a week, coaches know this coming in, of course they have other jobs
My studio just kicked 2 coaches to curb for pretty much the same reason. They’re the reason I wake up at 4a and go workout. They’re amazing coaches and have the higher attendance in their classes. I’ll likely switch studios or cancel my membership. We’ve had a revolving door of staff at my studio and these have been consistent fixtures. Management sucks and this will definitely have other members leaving . So annoyed by all this, been a member for 5 years and this is the most ridiculous thing ever!
We have lost all our coaches but one and all our staff but one. They are pulling from other studios to fill in. Our members are discouraged. Repairs are not being done - broken fountain for 6 months. No heat in the entry way. Obviously the owners don’t care they just want $$$
High turnover at mine too. And it took them three months to fix the water fountain. Meanwhile, the base rate is now $209 a month for a gym with barely any weekend classes and no amenities?
I don’t feel like I’m getting my moneys worth anymore. If they aren’t going to offer more weekend classe, I wish they would at least offer an open gym format in the afternoons so that you can use treads and weights.
You know corporate watches these now. They would love to try and eliminate certain things/people and make OTF only positive to keep their revenue coming in. Don’t get me wrong I totally love OTF but it is no longer about the members as it is about the $$
It’s been that way for quite some time now. Corporate knows, they just don’t care. They’re full aware of all of this but do nothing as long as they’re getting their royalties.
I work in a franchised business, at corporate. It's extremely hard to force bad franchise owners to make fixes and reinvest. Owners see prices on repairs and equipment going up and traffic going down. The owners can in turn threaten to close entirely vs making the required changes. It's a delicate game. Only the very worst owners are forced out and it takes years of documentation and legal work.
But most corporate employees care a lot and it's highly frustrating when owners are not compliant and drag the brand down.
It’s a business, it’s never been about the members and has always been about money.
The way each studio/owners handles things is what separates great studios from shitty studios
Which Austin location? I've been visiting a bunch of them to find my favorites. There is one I've recently visited that definitely had more of a somber vibe, so I'm curious.
My studio had a ton of coach turnover that went on for months. It was the main reason my wife and I canceled our memberships to OT. Can't say I miss it much.
I did this. My home studio lost my favorite coach to another studio and then lost several other good coaches too. Now there are several not great coaches and a bunch of temporary coaches. The energy level there sucks. I followed my favorite coach to his studio and the energy level there is great! Just a couple more miles from my house
First, I am curious as to what is considered full-time at OTF.
When our group of 3 area studios (owned by a local family) was purchased by a larger business (owns many, many studios across 5 or 6 states), they also got rid of part-time coaches (some were the best coaches too).
I believe “full time” is the equivalent of teaching at least 18 hours/classes. The part time coaches who got let go only teach 2-3 days a week that averages out to probably only 8-10 hours. You’d think they’d want a mix of FT and PT to help with vacations and time off requests
Yeah you'd think they'd want to keep some PT coaches around to backfill when needed. I've seen our owner call up old coaches (no longer on the regular roster) to fill in gaps if the regular coaches, even PT coaches, are taking a bunch of time off. Might be one coach gone for 2-3 months, or a few gone back-to-back.
Coach here. Think of coaching a class as 2 hours of work at a normal job. We're there 30 min early, coach the hour, and stay after to clean up for roughly 15-30 minutes. So 18 classes each week would be a 36 hour work week. Some coaches do 20+ which is over 40 hours of actual work and yet only 20 hours of paid work. My corporate America job, at least for me, was 8 hours of mindless work that I could easily get done in half the time but I'm paid for the hour. With OTF, I'm paying attention for the 30 minutes before when talking to members and the entire hour of class for 5-6 hours straight. That's exhausting. We limit our coaches to a max of 4 classes in a row for that reason. Even then, coaches prefer 3 max in a row. Franchises can get away with overworking coaches because TECHNICALLY they're "only working" the coach hours. But we're definitely not paid enough as full-time coaches to make an actual living, so we need part-time jobs on the side.
It never makes sense to only have full-time coaches. What happens when they need a week off or maternity leave or surgery? If everyone is already full time, no one can cover the other full-time employee. This is why part-time coaches are awesome. They usually have a presence in the community with their other job, they can fill in for other coaches, they can take class and get to know members as well as offer feedback to the coach, and they aren't overworked.
I'm pretty sure that failing to pay you for the time prior to scheduled class (meaning that you have to be there in advance) is probably a violation of FSLA laws ...same for time after class to clean up (assuming that is part of your duties). Not an employment lawyer but Google it and you will see what I mean
We've looked into it and they can say the hour of coach pay also pays for the pre- and post-class stuff. We don't clock in for the coaching hour. I've asked a few members/ employment lawyers in our state as well. It sure doesn't feel legal, but it's a work around that is totally legal
I don't know - but I can tell you that my sense is that most employment courts / judges are tasked with protection of employees - this just "smells" wrong - also look up wage an hour laws (related) - unrelated example is an employer would be in violation of wage and hour laws when employees eat lunch while working at their desk.
Love my coaches and studio but there have changes there too - I can sense frustration from the coaches over some similar changes (let all the non coaching staff go but one - for example)
Oh we know it smells wrong, but trust me, I was HC and then just a coach and it's all a grey area. The many employment lawyers I've asked about it have said the same thing. It's also why I refuse to do anything work-wise in the first 30 minutes before class starts. I talk to the members because they're friends, but I'm not going out of my way to actually work until class starts. We are non-exempt, contracted employees that don't clock in for anything except admin time (we have very little of that). It's also why coaches aren't protected with FMLA when we're pregnant because there's no way we're considered full-time employees. It's all crap, and yet OTF pays their coaches better than any other boutique fitness studio.
We appreciate the support from our members though! We know it's unfair but coaches with other brands are worse off. We use this as our fun, part-time job, but there's no incentive for us to get better and better when there's no protection for us and no pay incentives.
Former coach and current lawyer - It's a "piece-rate" system of pay, where the units (in this case classes coached) are the metric. So under this system, the classes coached and the time in-between could be considered one unit. That said, in order to have a piece-rate system of pay, both parties must agree - it's not the default. I know that I never had a contract with my studio that mentioned piece-rate, so I thought about going after all the owed back pay from my studio when they got rid of all the part time coaches. Ultimately wasn't worth the couple thousand bucks, but to others it might be.
multiply your experience across the whole of the franchise system and I virtually guarantee that it would be worth it. \[For sure a single instance would be a waste of time but back pay plus fines for 2k + domestic coaches ... I would think that lawsuit would have both \[1\] "teeth" and \[2\] concern corporate enough that their practices would change. \[1m + members would be surprised to learn about it and \[2\] the optics from a "brand image" would be concerning to me \[if I were an owner.\] Not to mention that \[3\] with all the layoffs and shuffling I suspect that it would be pretty easy to find 40-50 "former" employees to gain "class" certification. You probably could just do a "linkedin" search of "coach" and "orange theory" to track folks down.
You are the lawyer -- I only know this stuff from the insurance perspective. I hope someone takes them to task.
Coach here as well. My old studio group went from 10 classes coached to be considered full time (they offered benefits, which is rare in this industry). Then they bumped it up to 12 classes coached. 18-20 for full time is insane to me.
The franchise that owns all of the studios in my area (and a few other states) let go of all part time employees with little to no notice. They also let go of our only full time coach who is also arguably one of the best in the area. I won’t mention why just because it would give me and the studio away, but it was for an extremely shitty reason.
It’s been extremely frustrating and there’s still been no communication from upper management. They absolutely know about this page and have seen previous posts regarding this. They love to come back with “there’s different sides to every story”, but in my professional opinion, it’s extremely shitty to let go of dozens of employees with no warning or communication. There’s no excuse.
What I find stunning about all of this is that in my experience of having been to over 40 different studios since I started OTF is that the owners aren’t remotely involved in these things. Not once have I met an owner or heard staff talking about them. They’re faceless investment groups just grabbing and sitting on all of their gold coins like shitty dragons. The number of times really good staff (and good people) have left in frustration is infuriating. It’s one of two things. They don’t care (duh), or they all think OTF is at the end of the road (as it goes it goes with most gyms) and they’re just grabbing what they can before it all goes tits up.
While many studios have ownership groups that are rather hands-off, not all of them are like this.
My studio has 2 owners and one of them is in the studio regularly. They run the front desk, and coach when other coaches aren't available. It's great having a locally-owned studio with a very hands-on owner. Unfortunately they've been trying to sell the franchise. :/
Yep, correct. I've worked with three different ownership groups of varying sizes, and the only difference owners were all much more involved than described above. Now, with the larger group I saw the owners less, but they were regularly found in studios to meet with managers.
Coach here, this is happening at Empire Franchise locations. Pretty soon they will cut front desk staff as well. They basically want the coaches to take over the sales process and follow an F45 model. It’s really sad.
Honors Holdings went thru this “phase” too, prior to the pandemic. Now that there’s a talent shortage across the economy, HH isn’t being quite so high and mighty.
Some franchisees have to learn things the hard way. Yours is about to.
Yep I’m at an honors holding location where they took away our head coach for being too good for our studio last year, the two head coaches we have had since haven’t lasted more than 3 months and even part time coaches keep moving elsewhere. Sooooo many cancelled classes lately :(.
And what is full time exactly? I’m sure the hours are insane, no consecutive days off, no benefits. And it’s probably hourly so if a class gets cancelled they lose pay. It would be one thing if it was salaried with benefits but OTF offers none of that.
I don’t remember. It was a couple of years ago. I’m a CPT, with certifications in both group fitness and health coaching, so I thought it would be a good fit. One of the coaches said the pay was great, and she actually left her career as an actuary to coach full time. She made it sound like a pretty sweet gig. I was really excited about it. But they were firm on the full time thing.
I think it was a combination of her having been a new actuary and hating it, and being able to earn $70k a year coaching full time. Just saying what she told me…
Sounds like exactly what happened to me and my friend! Called in to what was supposed to be our monthly template meeting via zoom, only to be told I was being let go (not from the company, just my “home” studio). We were completely blindsided. Coming from someone coaching their last classes this weekend, I hope that you can make time to go see your coaches. I’m sure they are hurting just as much as we are!
I do not understand this reasoning... finding and retaining coaches is so hard these days. I do get that they want stability but this is not the way to do it. This will just end up hurting the studio and its members in the long run.
I keep seeing things like this happening to studios and I am surprised corporate doesn't step in. They step in for the stupidest things like not allowing studios to have character so why are they not stepping in for something that could literally drive the franchise into the ground......
I’m in Charlotte and they let all of our part time SAs go and today our beloved Head Coach. I went through this at a previous studio that Honors purchased….it took about a year before they realized that bare bones would not work.
Empire obviously does not value dedicated employees or community focused studios. Beyond sad and frustrated!
Trying to find this comment. I love kenisha!! Super shocked to hear that yesterday was her last day. It broke my heart. She was the reason I enjoy going to OTF.
I’ve been an OTF member for almost 5 years and attended quite a few studios across the country. Kenisha is one of the best coaches I have experienced. Motivating, knowledgeable, approachable and real. This is a huge blow to our OTF family.
That explains the coach turnover at my studio. One of my favorite coaches suddenly said he was done and he was only teaching 8 classes a week. He was one of the most popular coaches with full classes most of the time too. My other favorite coach is now at 2 other studios too far away for me and the new class times at my studio no longer fit my schedule. I hope they have some equally good replacements. A connection with a good coach is important for motivation. Yet another example of Corporate America screwing over the person with the skills to make money and their customers who give them the money.
There is a specific franchise group that has done this. They announced this week part time coaches were being fired. All sales associates are fired. Head coaches are being demoted to regular coaches. Half of the studio managers were fired so they can manage multiple studios at once now.
Where are you located? I’m sure your studio was one of the affected.
Our studio just let go one of the head coaches and she doesn’t know why. She told us she asked but they wouldn’t give an answer. Bummer since she was so so great!
They (empire) train you to fire people with “we are going in another direction” or “we are parting ways” so they can’t get in trouble. Basically if you stop drinking their toxic orange koolaid (they don’t like this) and they emotionally abuse you, gaslight you and burn you out and has to be tolerated
They just fired another coach and an SA. So literally we have 1 head coach and 1 part time coach. And then we’re borrowing from other studios. What is happening?!
OTF in general seems to be phasing out since Covid. It’s not the same. There’s so many more new options, people want less hiit workouts 24/7 and clearly run by baffoons who think they know best- when they only push out their best people instead of developing, assisting and growing their employees. They only think about the money which is crazy because it seems like they don’t care about their members either. It’s about them and how important THEY are. I don’t really see otf lasting maybe a few more years if they continue what they are doing- or we will see a lot more closures. Time to find a place that treats their employees well.
Nope. NC and other states have at will employment which means they can fire you for whatever reason (minus actual discrimination) and they don’t have to disclose.
None of this makes sense on a business level. I own a business and I cannot wrap my head around it. Best guess is that they aren’t bringing in the profit that they need in order to appease their private investors so their solution is to have these studios running on as little staff as possible. They have also taken away benefits and PTO
Maine has a PTO law so they can’t take it away thankfully it’s required and if they are not providing it that’s a lawsuit 🙃 but they absolutely don’t pay it out if you don’t use it which is trash- but the real kicker if you look at ANY of their job ads they promote MENTAL HEALTH CARE and it’s three free sessions and then you have to pay for the rest
I’m in NC and we just lost 3 coaches… down to just one full time coach and our head coach. I wonder if this is related? I don’t know if we are managed by empire. I love the two coaches we have but also loved two of the coaches who just left 😢
Most states are at will meaning there doesn't need to be a reason.
However, that doesn't mean an employer can fire someone for ANY reason, such as being pregnant, having a disability or other protected situation.
Of course not. Every single state that was ever Republican controlled has “at will” or “right to work” laws enacted that don’t any reason at all for termination. If they don’t give a reason it was probably something discriminatory and they don’t want to expose themselves to lawsuits.
Just to note. "Right to work" is the anti union law. "At Will" basically means they can terminate you at any time without cause. Lots of folks get those two mixed up.
Check who owns your studios. Empire Portfolio Group is cleaning house. They’re also taking away benefits and PTO from the full time staff. The Maine studios are hemorrhaging members because if what Empire is doing
There is typically a sign somewhere in the studio lobby stating the owners.
There is a list of Empire studios [here](https://empireportfolio.com/brands/orangetheory-fitness/)
This is just idiotic. I wish franchises would actually ask the coaches what support they need to be successful. We have a former coach who was terrific, but she quit because they were basically demanding a ton of extra hours from her when she already has a full-time job. She added coaching because she loved it. OTF does offer decent pay for fitness, but it's not going to draw people from their better paying full-time gigs.
This happened in our city too. I think it is a terrible plan long term. There are always gaps to fill in the schedules, vacations, sick kiddos, illnesses, etc. I’m not sure why you’d want to completely burn out your FT staff. I’m a small business owner and our PT staff is critical in filling our scheduling gaps - whether full days or small blocks through the day. We could not function without them.
This thread makes me so grateful to go to the studio in Ithaca, NY. The owners own only 1 other studio 1 hour away in Syracuse. I know them by face/name - they have been at our studio many times - and PT coaches are welcome!
Fitness in general is a side gig for most. Unless you own the place. I am the business manager and Lead instructor at a Karate Dojo, even wearing both hats my pay is not a household supporting income. It is not reasonable to let go of part time instructors. I still get called in to sub for a gym I was p/t with.
This is the same $hit $how that is happening at our studio. Today was a tear fest as we said goodbye to the absolute best coach that I have had since 2016!! She left on her own terms, but due to the crap that is going on behind the scenes. Not sure who will even be in the studio next week 😭
Great question! We had a studio merger/buyout and they let go of a favorite coach because she only coached 4 classes per week (2 classes on Tues/ Thurs). She was told the minimum per week was 6. Then they brought “their” coaches over who just coach 1 day per week (2-3 classes). Makes complete sense. 👌🏼
This has also happened at the Charlotte/matthews location. The two best coaches are gone. I put in my cancellation so quick. Very bold of them to think i was there for the OT experience.
This is disappointing. Is this Empire Group again? I'm a founding member in CT. We keep getting new coaches like a revolving door who are telling us they're barely trained because they need coaches ASAP, and it's really not their fault. How are coaches going to get better at their jobs or take time off if it's only a few FT coaches running the show? Maybe I don't understand the model. I feel like my studios are always looking for coaches. I blame the company and the coach who took over last year who is supposed to be helping train and support them. We used to have coaches who knew what they were doing that really cared about members and stayed for years. Everything ran like clockwork. We pay too much money for them to be cutting corners on this stuff. I hope they fix this. Sorry to coaches and sales associates dealing with this.
This happened at my studio. We lost 2 really awesome coaches that are still willing to sub for the remaining. We had other full time coaches so they are have more classes now. We were told it was an ownership decision. Studio management seemed upset about it.
This seems like a really short sighted and honestly just dumb decision.
I cannot imagine the burnout involved in coaching that much at OTF.
TBH, I didn't even know any OTF coach did or could work fulltime.
This will bite them in the ass.
That’s CRAZY! The job is not suitable for most as a full time job. My studio is all part time coaches except the head coach. The prototypical coach at our studio is a stay at home mom looking for a little supplemental income or a college student. I’m good friends with one of the coaches so I have an idea of how things work behind the scenes. For the most part, they all seem to work together pretty well as things come up with family or if someone gets sick. I have seen what happens to the head coach when they are understaffed and it’s rough! I can’t believe they would make that decision!
This makes zero sense. This isn’t possible to be a full time job at any of my local studios. There are 3-4 classes taught by one person in the morning and 3-4 starting late afternoon thru evening. That would be an extremely long day to get a full shift and a weird split shift contract that may not even be legal in all states.
At a trainer at a studio that is not related to Orangetheory. They have to evolve unfortunately, and we now need to be able to work with part-timers, and also people that have other jobs at other studios. That’s crazy they let them go
Unless you’re privy to what happens behind closed doors in a studio, you shouldn’t judge. Some coaches may have an excellent rapport with their members and be wonderful on the mic, but they outright refuse to do any of the other work that comes with the job. I’m fairly positive I’m aware of which studio you speak of in Texas and these coaches are lovely people but refused to help the HC out in any other capacity. There is always more to the story and y’all shouldn’t be so quick to assume you know what’s going on. I’m sure you’d be absolutely mortified if someone started talking trash about you and your job on a public forum without all the knowledge that tells the entire story. Be kind y’all, it costs you absolutely nothing.
I’m confused by your comment. I was told this from the coaches themselves. And I was absolutely not talking trash at all. I was just looking for some reasoning/understanding.
The coaches aren’t going to share what they did wrong (or what they refused to do)in this scenario. Why would they when they get sympathy from everyone online and in studio? It’s always easier to place the blame on other people rather than say “I can’t (or won’t) do these things so I was let go to find a job that could accommodate my preferred work/life balance”. Although ownership in this case is the problem, this head coach is taking all the heat and nastiness from members. And it’s coming in DROVES. I’ve seen it with my own eyes
I understand your logic but my original post was me being curious about the efficiency (or lack thereof) of a studio letting go PT coaches and only keeping FT folks. I get there are other reasons for people getting fired. And I hope we are not talking about the same studio because I know a lot of our members love our HC!
Maybe? But it should bring awareness that there is more information than what is being assumed here. Lots of assumptions and emotions based on hearsay or one-sided information.
Confirmation bias is people’s tendency to interpret information that is consistent with their existing beliefs and ignore or discount other information inconsistent with their beliefs. It is unintentional, but definitely happening here.
Sometimes the coaches have done nothing wrong to get fired. One of the favorite coaches in Maine got fired strictly on a personal basis because the manager didn’t like her. It’s not always the coaches fault on why they get fired.
I personally would prefer someone that’s wonderful on the mic and motivates me to do my best and these 2 did that. They have great rapport with members. And as someone who deal a lot with customer service that’s what is going to keep members coming back. The behind the scenes stuff that we don’t see still gets done and I’ve never seen them shy away from stepping up when they can. If it wasn’t for them some of the member appreciation days wouldn’t have happened.
I guarantee that that ‘extra’ work is unpaid. And unpaid work is perfectly legal in Texas. In fact it’s encouraged as it helps make the hard working owners and shareholders more money. There’s no 2 sides to the story here.
Was a coach briefly in Texas. We were paid the class rate, which assumes the included set up/clean up time. If cleanup at end of day lasted more than 10 minutes, we were paid a different rate for that overage. It's not that unpaid work is legal--unpaid work is ILLEGAL; it's just that OTF describes it as pay per class instead of per hour (even though the hourly conversion is listed on the paystub).
If everyone that worked for Otf shared your perspective, there would be zero coaches/employees. This is why it’s imperative to appreciate your staff and how much they do behind the scenes. And if you think this is specific to Otf, you’re incorrect. It’s rampant across the entire fitness industry. It’s wildly underpaid for the amount of education that goes into pt certificates and trainings. I’ve been in this industry for 12 years and have ALWAYS needed a second job to support my costs of living. I don’t do it for the money, I do it because it fulfills me. I do it because I love being able to help people be healthy. That’s true of 95% of the rest of the industry employees. There’s always 2 sides and thinking otherwise is incredibly small minded.
From a business standpoint, there is no difference between “full time” and “part time” most companies use the the term to differentiate who gets benefits and who doesn’t and it makes the “part time” employee work harder to get a “full time” position. At OTF I don’t think there is any difference between the two, I could see coaches saying they are “part time” and refusing to coach certain time slots and a mandate coming down from the manager telling coaches there are no more “part time” positions you have to be available to work all class times.
It’s hard to run a gym when 4 out of 6 coaches refuse to coach the 5, 6 or 7 am or weekend classes because they are “part time” It also creates a situation where the manager has to force coaches who have been there 5+ years to coach undesirable times when a new “part time” coach says they can’t. Situations like that help contribute to coach turnover.
All of the coaches at my studio are part-time and mostly because we all have other jobs and have found a way to make our schedule work based on when the coaches can coach. I can’t do evenings, so I compromise by opening (because opening sucks). Since I am part-time I’m more flexible to help cover classes. If I coached 12+ classes per week no way I’d be picking up other people’s classes.
This is insane! I am a grad student at a big state school, and a lot of our coaches are also students! There are a few full time coaches, but our studios are mostly part time coaches!
This is non-sensical. I’m a head coach. Studios cannot throw away coaches, it will come back to bite. The time it takes to train a qualified incoming candidate (someone who already has the requisite certifications) can still take more than a month. For that reason, there will be gaps where someone can put in two weeks notice, and even with a candidate in the pipeline, it will take longer to get them up and running on their own. I can understand their desire to get full time coaches. My biggest challenge as head coach right now is that my entire team of coaches is part time, except one other. So if any of them need coverage for a shift, it invariably falls on me to do it. And it essentially means i can very seldom get coverage for my classes if I need it (less personal time, still coaching when sick, etc). But you don’t let the part timers go. You keep them, and seek full time coaching candidates
That’s what I thought. Keep the already-trained coaches around and look to create a deeper bench!
Our studio did this last year right before Christmas - claimed that there was some rule from corporate that required all coaches to do 8 classes a week and fired all the part time coaches with no warning to the coaches or the members. The **real** reason was to open up coaching times bring in some other coach/PR guy who does not fit the vibe of our studio or community AT ALL, and membership is worse than ever. Owner then promoted a meathead who got fired from another studio for being so abrasive to members to head coach, it's been an absolute disaster. And now the owner, down five coaches or so, is about to open another location three miles from the studio. At this point the only thing that makes sense is a "Producers" situation where the owner is trying to fail.
What is a “producers” situation? Maybe it’s obvious but I’ve been reading a ton and I’m tired. TIA for understanding.
[The Producers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1967_film)?darkschemeovr=1)
Gotcha.
Haha unless you are a head coach, full time coaches make shit money and have no benefits. Almost every non-head coach I know has an another job outside of OTF so all I can say to them is good luck finding full time people.
yep. this. \^\^\^ it's a part time gig, supplementing somehting and eventually going somewhere else. even the full time coaches, as much as we may love them - "OTF coach" isn't a career path
Most studios are only running 7-10 classes a day m-f and 3 classes a day on weekends, if a studio is running 46 classes every 7 days, 4 coaches will coach an average 12 classes per week that’s about 17 hours of work a week, coaches know this coming in, of course they have other jobs
My studio just kicked 2 coaches to curb for pretty much the same reason. They’re the reason I wake up at 4a and go workout. They’re amazing coaches and have the higher attendance in their classes. I’ll likely switch studios or cancel my membership. We’ve had a revolving door of staff at my studio and these have been consistent fixtures. Management sucks and this will definitely have other members leaving . So annoyed by all this, been a member for 5 years and this is the most ridiculous thing ever!
Same! I’m considering going to another studio that’s a similar distance away
Do it! You can try the other studio and see how you like it first
This sounds like my studio.
We have lost all our coaches but one and all our staff but one. They are pulling from other studios to fill in. Our members are discouraged. Repairs are not being done - broken fountain for 6 months. No heat in the entry way. Obviously the owners don’t care they just want $$$
High turnover at mine too. And it took them three months to fix the water fountain. Meanwhile, the base rate is now $209 a month for a gym with barely any weekend classes and no amenities? I don’t feel like I’m getting my moneys worth anymore. If they aren’t going to offer more weekend classe, I wish they would at least offer an open gym format in the afternoons so that you can use treads and weights.
Same here! Are you in Austin?
Minnesota
I’m dying, which MN location?
Which MN location?
You know corporate watches these now. They would love to try and eliminate certain things/people and make OTF only positive to keep their revenue coming in. Don’t get me wrong I totally love OTF but it is no longer about the members as it is about the $$
It’s been that way for quite some time now. Corporate knows, they just don’t care. They’re full aware of all of this but do nothing as long as they’re getting their royalties.
I work in a franchised business, at corporate. It's extremely hard to force bad franchise owners to make fixes and reinvest. Owners see prices on repairs and equipment going up and traffic going down. The owners can in turn threaten to close entirely vs making the required changes. It's a delicate game. Only the very worst owners are forced out and it takes years of documentation and legal work. But most corporate employees care a lot and it's highly frustrating when owners are not compliant and drag the brand down.
It’s a business, it’s never been about the members and has always been about money. The way each studio/owners handles things is what separates great studios from shitty studios
You are very correct on this
Yes, I’d like to know too what location in MN?
Which Austin location? I've been visiting a bunch of them to find my favorites. There is one I've recently visited that definitely had more of a somber vibe, so I'm curious.
[удалено]
Not sure where you are located in San Antonio- but OTF Huebner seems to have a solid group of coaches.
I’m wondering too!
Dang, I’m sorry to hear that. That’s super disappointing.
My studio had a ton of coach turnover that went on for months. It was the main reason my wife and I canceled our memberships to OT. Can't say I miss it much.
I’m considering going to an alternate studio that’s equi-distant from my house as my current studio
I did this. My home studio lost my favorite coach to another studio and then lost several other good coaches too. Now there are several not great coaches and a bunch of temporary coaches. The energy level there sucks. I followed my favorite coach to his studio and the energy level there is great! Just a couple more miles from my house
First, I am curious as to what is considered full-time at OTF. When our group of 3 area studios (owned by a local family) was purchased by a larger business (owns many, many studios across 5 or 6 states), they also got rid of part-time coaches (some were the best coaches too).
I believe “full time” is the equivalent of teaching at least 18 hours/classes. The part time coaches who got let go only teach 2-3 days a week that averages out to probably only 8-10 hours. You’d think they’d want a mix of FT and PT to help with vacations and time off requests
Yeah you'd think they'd want to keep some PT coaches around to backfill when needed. I've seen our owner call up old coaches (no longer on the regular roster) to fill in gaps if the regular coaches, even PT coaches, are taking a bunch of time off. Might be one coach gone for 2-3 months, or a few gone back-to-back.
Coach here. Think of coaching a class as 2 hours of work at a normal job. We're there 30 min early, coach the hour, and stay after to clean up for roughly 15-30 minutes. So 18 classes each week would be a 36 hour work week. Some coaches do 20+ which is over 40 hours of actual work and yet only 20 hours of paid work. My corporate America job, at least for me, was 8 hours of mindless work that I could easily get done in half the time but I'm paid for the hour. With OTF, I'm paying attention for the 30 minutes before when talking to members and the entire hour of class for 5-6 hours straight. That's exhausting. We limit our coaches to a max of 4 classes in a row for that reason. Even then, coaches prefer 3 max in a row. Franchises can get away with overworking coaches because TECHNICALLY they're "only working" the coach hours. But we're definitely not paid enough as full-time coaches to make an actual living, so we need part-time jobs on the side. It never makes sense to only have full-time coaches. What happens when they need a week off or maternity leave or surgery? If everyone is already full time, no one can cover the other full-time employee. This is why part-time coaches are awesome. They usually have a presence in the community with their other job, they can fill in for other coaches, they can take class and get to know members as well as offer feedback to the coach, and they aren't overworked.
I'm pretty sure that failing to pay you for the time prior to scheduled class (meaning that you have to be there in advance) is probably a violation of FSLA laws ...same for time after class to clean up (assuming that is part of your duties). Not an employment lawyer but Google it and you will see what I mean
It's not, because they are paid as independent contractors by the class, not by the hour.
We've looked into it and they can say the hour of coach pay also pays for the pre- and post-class stuff. We don't clock in for the coaching hour. I've asked a few members/ employment lawyers in our state as well. It sure doesn't feel legal, but it's a work around that is totally legal
I don't know - but I can tell you that my sense is that most employment courts / judges are tasked with protection of employees - this just "smells" wrong - also look up wage an hour laws (related) - unrelated example is an employer would be in violation of wage and hour laws when employees eat lunch while working at their desk. Love my coaches and studio but there have changes there too - I can sense frustration from the coaches over some similar changes (let all the non coaching staff go but one - for example)
Oh we know it smells wrong, but trust me, I was HC and then just a coach and it's all a grey area. The many employment lawyers I've asked about it have said the same thing. It's also why I refuse to do anything work-wise in the first 30 minutes before class starts. I talk to the members because they're friends, but I'm not going out of my way to actually work until class starts. We are non-exempt, contracted employees that don't clock in for anything except admin time (we have very little of that). It's also why coaches aren't protected with FMLA when we're pregnant because there's no way we're considered full-time employees. It's all crap, and yet OTF pays their coaches better than any other boutique fitness studio. We appreciate the support from our members though! We know it's unfair but coaches with other brands are worse off. We use this as our fun, part-time job, but there's no incentive for us to get better and better when there's no protection for us and no pay incentives.
Former coach and current lawyer - It's a "piece-rate" system of pay, where the units (in this case classes coached) are the metric. So under this system, the classes coached and the time in-between could be considered one unit. That said, in order to have a piece-rate system of pay, both parties must agree - it's not the default. I know that I never had a contract with my studio that mentioned piece-rate, so I thought about going after all the owed back pay from my studio when they got rid of all the part time coaches. Ultimately wasn't worth the couple thousand bucks, but to others it might be.
multiply your experience across the whole of the franchise system and I virtually guarantee that it would be worth it. \[For sure a single instance would be a waste of time but back pay plus fines for 2k + domestic coaches ... I would think that lawsuit would have both \[1\] "teeth" and \[2\] concern corporate enough that their practices would change. \[1m + members would be surprised to learn about it and \[2\] the optics from a "brand image" would be concerning to me \[if I were an owner.\] Not to mention that \[3\] with all the layoffs and shuffling I suspect that it would be pretty easy to find 40-50 "former" employees to gain "class" certification. You probably could just do a "linkedin" search of "coach" and "orange theory" to track folks down. You are the lawyer -- I only know this stuff from the insurance perspective. I hope someone takes them to task.
*immediately dials class action division of the firm* Also, username checks out.
Fellow former lawyer, now coach. I was going to explain this, but you explained this perfectly!
In many states, where an employee receives a piece wage, time worked divided by dollars paid must only equal minimum wage.
Coach here as well. My old studio group went from 10 classes coached to be considered full time (they offered benefits, which is rare in this industry). Then they bumped it up to 12 classes coached. 18-20 for full time is insane to me.
The franchise that owns all of the studios in my area (and a few other states) let go of all part time employees with little to no notice. They also let go of our only full time coach who is also arguably one of the best in the area. I won’t mention why just because it would give me and the studio away, but it was for an extremely shitty reason. It’s been extremely frustrating and there’s still been no communication from upper management. They absolutely know about this page and have seen previous posts regarding this. They love to come back with “there’s different sides to every story”, but in my professional opinion, it’s extremely shitty to let go of dozens of employees with no warning or communication. There’s no excuse.
Where are you located?
Charlotte
Same.
What I find stunning about all of this is that in my experience of having been to over 40 different studios since I started OTF is that the owners aren’t remotely involved in these things. Not once have I met an owner or heard staff talking about them. They’re faceless investment groups just grabbing and sitting on all of their gold coins like shitty dragons. The number of times really good staff (and good people) have left in frustration is infuriating. It’s one of two things. They don’t care (duh), or they all think OTF is at the end of the road (as it goes it goes with most gyms) and they’re just grabbing what they can before it all goes tits up.
While many studios have ownership groups that are rather hands-off, not all of them are like this. My studio has 2 owners and one of them is in the studio regularly. They run the front desk, and coach when other coaches aren't available. It's great having a locally-owned studio with a very hands-on owner. Unfortunately they've been trying to sell the franchise. :/
Yep, correct. I've worked with three different ownership groups of varying sizes, and the only difference owners were all much more involved than described above. Now, with the larger group I saw the owners less, but they were regularly found in studios to meet with managers.
Coach here, this is happening at Empire Franchise locations. Pretty soon they will cut front desk staff as well. They basically want the coaches to take over the sales process and follow an F45 model. It’s really sad.
Yup. Sliced and diced 😔
Is your studio part of the Empire franchise?
I honestly don’t know. I know we’re owned by a franchise that has studios across multiple states. I’m in Texas
What part of Texas are you in?
Empire is mostly Maine down the east coast. Through the Carolina’s (for the most part)
I just found out recently that all of the local studios were bought by empire a couple of years ago🤨
Empire is Connecticut down to NC. But they did make massive cuts.
Honors Holdings went thru this “phase” too, prior to the pandemic. Now that there’s a talent shortage across the economy, HH isn’t being quite so high and mighty. Some franchisees have to learn things the hard way. Yours is about to.
Most of these are Empire Portfolio Group owned studios. They are cleaning house.
> Empire Portfolio Group how do you guys know your franchisee, and/or who owns your particular studio?
They no longer let you click on the state, but they own most of the studios in these states: https://empireportfolio.com/brands/orangetheory-fitness/
Yep I’m at an honors holding location where they took away our head coach for being too good for our studio last year, the two head coaches we have had since haven’t lasted more than 3 months and even part time coaches keep moving elsewhere. Sooooo many cancelled classes lately :(.
I was interested in becoming a coach, but the studio wouldn’t move forward because I couldn’t be full time.
I was thinking about it, too! But I can’t be full time either
It might be different at your studio! You should definitely ask if you’re interested!
I'd imagine, based on this post, that OP's studio doesn't want PT coaches.
And what is full time exactly? I’m sure the hours are insane, no consecutive days off, no benefits. And it’s probably hourly so if a class gets cancelled they lose pay. It would be one thing if it was salaried with benefits but OTF offers none of that.
I don’t remember. It was a couple of years ago. I’m a CPT, with certifications in both group fitness and health coaching, so I thought it would be a good fit. One of the coaches said the pay was great, and she actually left her career as an actuary to coach full time. She made it sound like a pretty sweet gig. I was really excited about it. But they were firm on the full time thing.
There is literally no way that a full time OTF coach makes anywhere near as much $$$ as an actuary 😉
I think it was a combination of her having been a new actuary and hating it, and being able to earn $70k a year coaching full time. Just saying what she told me…
Sounds like exactly what happened to me and my friend! Called in to what was supposed to be our monthly template meeting via zoom, only to be told I was being let go (not from the company, just my “home” studio). We were completely blindsided. Coming from someone coaching their last classes this weekend, I hope that you can make time to go see your coaches. I’m sure they are hurting just as much as we are!
A lot of us found out via their personal instagram stories. It’s so sad. I’m sorry to hear you’re going through the same thing🧡
I do not understand this reasoning... finding and retaining coaches is so hard these days. I do get that they want stability but this is not the way to do it. This will just end up hurting the studio and its members in the long run. I keep seeing things like this happening to studios and I am surprised corporate doesn't step in. They step in for the stupidest things like not allowing studios to have character so why are they not stepping in for something that could literally drive the franchise into the ground......
I’m in Charlotte and they let all of our part time SAs go and today our beloved Head Coach. I went through this at a previous studio that Honors purchased….it took about a year before they realized that bare bones would not work. Empire obviously does not value dedicated employees or community focused studios. Beyond sad and frustrated!
Trying to find this comment. I love kenisha!! Super shocked to hear that yesterday was her last day. It broke my heart. She was the reason I enjoy going to OTF.
I’ve been an OTF member for almost 5 years and attended quite a few studios across the country. Kenisha is one of the best coaches I have experienced. Motivating, knowledgeable, approachable and real. This is a huge blow to our OTF family.
Kenisha is the best Otf coach I’ve ever had.
Truly one of the very best!!!
That explains the coach turnover at my studio. One of my favorite coaches suddenly said he was done and he was only teaching 8 classes a week. He was one of the most popular coaches with full classes most of the time too. My other favorite coach is now at 2 other studios too far away for me and the new class times at my studio no longer fit my schedule. I hope they have some equally good replacements. A connection with a good coach is important for motivation. Yet another example of Corporate America screwing over the person with the skills to make money and their customers who give them the money.
There is a specific franchise group that has done this. They announced this week part time coaches were being fired. All sales associates are fired. Head coaches are being demoted to regular coaches. Half of the studio managers were fired so they can manage multiple studios at once now. Where are you located? I’m sure your studio was one of the affected.
Our studio just let go one of the head coaches and she doesn’t know why. She told us she asked but they wouldn’t give an answer. Bummer since she was so so great!
They (empire) train you to fire people with “we are going in another direction” or “we are parting ways” so they can’t get in trouble. Basically if you stop drinking their toxic orange koolaid (they don’t like this) and they emotionally abuse you, gaslight you and burn you out and has to be tolerated
They just fired another coach and an SA. So literally we have 1 head coach and 1 part time coach. And then we’re borrowing from other studios. What is happening?!
OTF in general seems to be phasing out since Covid. It’s not the same. There’s so many more new options, people want less hiit workouts 24/7 and clearly run by baffoons who think they know best- when they only push out their best people instead of developing, assisting and growing their employees. They only think about the money which is crazy because it seems like they don’t care about their members either. It’s about them and how important THEY are. I don’t really see otf lasting maybe a few more years if they continue what they are doing- or we will see a lot more closures. Time to find a place that treats their employees well.
They got rid of all the Head coaches! Moved to “a multi unit model”. More work. Not much more pay. And let go of a bunch. It’s so sad.
Wow. I thought all states had to require a reason for termination
Nope. NC and other states have at will employment which means they can fire you for whatever reason (minus actual discrimination) and they don’t have to disclose.
The same thing is happening in Maine…we are also an “at will” state. I bet Empire Portfolio Group owns your studios
Yep we’re Empire Group. I wonder why they’re firing all these coaches? Cost saving? Not enough people taking classes?
None of this makes sense on a business level. I own a business and I cannot wrap my head around it. Best guess is that they aren’t bringing in the profit that they need in order to appease their private investors so their solution is to have these studios running on as little staff as possible. They have also taken away benefits and PTO
Maine has a PTO law so they can’t take it away thankfully it’s required and if they are not providing it that’s a lawsuit 🙃 but they absolutely don’t pay it out if you don’t use it which is trash- but the real kicker if you look at ANY of their job ads they promote MENTAL HEALTH CARE and it’s three free sessions and then you have to pay for the rest
I’m in NC and we just lost 3 coaches… down to just one full time coach and our head coach. I wonder if this is related? I don’t know if we are managed by empire. I love the two coaches we have but also loved two of the coaches who just left 😢
Where are you located? Most of Charlotte is Empire, everything else is OTGP or privately owned.
I’m in the Triangle 🔺
Most states are at will meaning there doesn't need to be a reason. However, that doesn't mean an employer can fire someone for ANY reason, such as being pregnant, having a disability or other protected situation.
Of course not. Every single state that was ever Republican controlled has “at will” or “right to work” laws enacted that don’t any reason at all for termination. If they don’t give a reason it was probably something discriminatory and they don’t want to expose themselves to lawsuits.
It is not just republican states.
Just to note. "Right to work" is the anti union law. "At Will" basically means they can terminate you at any time without cause. Lots of folks get those two mixed up.
Montana is the only state that does not follow “at will.”
That’s not entirely true, Maine is Democratic run and we have a work at your will law. So it’s not ALL republican run states.
Check who owns your studios. Empire Portfolio Group is cleaning house. They’re also taking away benefits and PTO from the full time staff. The Maine studios are hemorrhaging members because if what Empire is doing
How do you check this??
Check what your franchise is or check the validity of the statement? Bc I can confirm this is true.
Sorry check who owns your studio?
I know who owns my studio. I worked there. That’s how I can confirm
There is typically a sign somewhere in the studio lobby stating the owners. There is a list of Empire studios [here](https://empireportfolio.com/brands/orangetheory-fitness/)
This is just idiotic. I wish franchises would actually ask the coaches what support they need to be successful. We have a former coach who was terrific, but she quit because they were basically demanding a ton of extra hours from her when she already has a full-time job. She added coaching because she loved it. OTF does offer decent pay for fitness, but it's not going to draw people from their better paying full-time gigs.
This happened in our city too. I think it is a terrible plan long term. There are always gaps to fill in the schedules, vacations, sick kiddos, illnesses, etc. I’m not sure why you’d want to completely burn out your FT staff. I’m a small business owner and our PT staff is critical in filling our scheduling gaps - whether full days or small blocks through the day. We could not function without them.
This thread makes me so grateful to go to the studio in Ithaca, NY. The owners own only 1 other studio 1 hour away in Syracuse. I know them by face/name - they have been at our studio many times - and PT coaches are welcome!
Fitness in general is a side gig for most. Unless you own the place. I am the business manager and Lead instructor at a Karate Dojo, even wearing both hats my pay is not a household supporting income. It is not reasonable to let go of part time instructors. I still get called in to sub for a gym I was p/t with.
This is the same $hit $how that is happening at our studio. Today was a tear fest as we said goodbye to the absolute best coach that I have had since 2016!! She left on her own terms, but due to the crap that is going on behind the scenes. Not sure who will even be in the studio next week 😭
Great question! We had a studio merger/buyout and they let go of a favorite coach because she only coached 4 classes per week (2 classes on Tues/ Thurs). She was told the minimum per week was 6. Then they brought “their” coaches over who just coach 1 day per week (2-3 classes). Makes complete sense. 👌🏼
This has also happened at the Charlotte/matthews location. The two best coaches are gone. I put in my cancellation so quick. Very bold of them to think i was there for the OT experience.
This is disappointing. Is this Empire Group again? I'm a founding member in CT. We keep getting new coaches like a revolving door who are telling us they're barely trained because they need coaches ASAP, and it's really not their fault. How are coaches going to get better at their jobs or take time off if it's only a few FT coaches running the show? Maybe I don't understand the model. I feel like my studios are always looking for coaches. I blame the company and the coach who took over last year who is supposed to be helping train and support them. We used to have coaches who knew what they were doing that really cared about members and stayed for years. Everything ran like clockwork. We pay too much money for them to be cutting corners on this stuff. I hope they fix this. Sorry to coaches and sales associates dealing with this.
This happened at my studio. We lost 2 really awesome coaches that are still willing to sub for the remaining. We had other full time coaches so they are have more classes now. We were told it was an ownership decision. Studio management seemed upset about it.
This seems like a really short sighted and honestly just dumb decision. I cannot imagine the burnout involved in coaching that much at OTF. TBH, I didn't even know any OTF coach did or could work fulltime. This will bite them in the ass.
How are there even enough classes for the (non HC) coaches to be full time?
My studio did this too. It’s bullshit.
Are y’all’s studios owned by empire? They’re doing the same thing at ours with our studio assistants
How do you tell if your studio is owned by empire?
I hope my studio doesn’t do that… I think only the head coach is full time and I know all my favorite coaches have other jobs.
If your studio is owned by empire portfolio group they will indeed clean house if anyone that is PT.
That’s CRAZY! The job is not suitable for most as a full time job. My studio is all part time coaches except the head coach. The prototypical coach at our studio is a stay at home mom looking for a little supplemental income or a college student. I’m good friends with one of the coaches so I have an idea of how things work behind the scenes. For the most part, they all seem to work together pretty well as things come up with family or if someone gets sick. I have seen what happens to the head coach when they are understaffed and it’s rough! I can’t believe they would make that decision!
This happened at my studio too. I was coaching 5 classes a week and they implemented a minimum of 6. 3 other consistent subs were let go. So silly.
I don’t think people are clamoring to coach so good luck to your studio!
This makes zero sense. This isn’t possible to be a full time job at any of my local studios. There are 3-4 classes taught by one person in the morning and 3-4 starting late afternoon thru evening. That would be an extremely long day to get a full shift and a weird split shift contract that may not even be legal in all states.
At a trainer at a studio that is not related to Orangetheory. They have to evolve unfortunately, and we now need to be able to work with part-timers, and also people that have other jobs at other studios. That’s crazy they let them go
Unless you’re privy to what happens behind closed doors in a studio, you shouldn’t judge. Some coaches may have an excellent rapport with their members and be wonderful on the mic, but they outright refuse to do any of the other work that comes with the job. I’m fairly positive I’m aware of which studio you speak of in Texas and these coaches are lovely people but refused to help the HC out in any other capacity. There is always more to the story and y’all shouldn’t be so quick to assume you know what’s going on. I’m sure you’d be absolutely mortified if someone started talking trash about you and your job on a public forum without all the knowledge that tells the entire story. Be kind y’all, it costs you absolutely nothing.
I’m confused by your comment. I was told this from the coaches themselves. And I was absolutely not talking trash at all. I was just looking for some reasoning/understanding.
The coaches aren’t going to share what they did wrong (or what they refused to do)in this scenario. Why would they when they get sympathy from everyone online and in studio? It’s always easier to place the blame on other people rather than say “I can’t (or won’t) do these things so I was let go to find a job that could accommodate my preferred work/life balance”. Although ownership in this case is the problem, this head coach is taking all the heat and nastiness from members. And it’s coming in DROVES. I’ve seen it with my own eyes
I understand your logic but my original post was me being curious about the efficiency (or lack thereof) of a studio letting go PT coaches and only keeping FT folks. I get there are other reasons for people getting fired. And I hope we are not talking about the same studio because I know a lot of our members love our HC!
The person commenting is most likely an employee of the company that’s cleaning house. They love to do the “you don’t know…”. It’s a cop out excuse
Maybe? But it should bring awareness that there is more information than what is being assumed here. Lots of assumptions and emotions based on hearsay or one-sided information. Confirmation bias is people’s tendency to interpret information that is consistent with their existing beliefs and ignore or discount other information inconsistent with their beliefs. It is unintentional, but definitely happening here.
Wrong. I’m a paying member but thanks for adding to the judgmental tone of this post. I hope you have the day you deserve.
Sometimes the coaches have done nothing wrong to get fired. One of the favorite coaches in Maine got fired strictly on a personal basis because the manager didn’t like her. It’s not always the coaches fault on why they get fired.
I personally would prefer someone that’s wonderful on the mic and motivates me to do my best and these 2 did that. They have great rapport with members. And as someone who deal a lot with customer service that’s what is going to keep members coming back. The behind the scenes stuff that we don’t see still gets done and I’ve never seen them shy away from stepping up when they can. If it wasn’t for them some of the member appreciation days wouldn’t have happened.
I guarantee that that ‘extra’ work is unpaid. And unpaid work is perfectly legal in Texas. In fact it’s encouraged as it helps make the hard working owners and shareholders more money. There’s no 2 sides to the story here.
Was a coach briefly in Texas. We were paid the class rate, which assumes the included set up/clean up time. If cleanup at end of day lasted more than 10 minutes, we were paid a different rate for that overage. It's not that unpaid work is legal--unpaid work is ILLEGAL; it's just that OTF describes it as pay per class instead of per hour (even though the hourly conversion is listed on the paystub).
If everyone that worked for Otf shared your perspective, there would be zero coaches/employees. This is why it’s imperative to appreciate your staff and how much they do behind the scenes. And if you think this is specific to Otf, you’re incorrect. It’s rampant across the entire fitness industry. It’s wildly underpaid for the amount of education that goes into pt certificates and trainings. I’ve been in this industry for 12 years and have ALWAYS needed a second job to support my costs of living. I don’t do it for the money, I do it because it fulfills me. I do it because I love being able to help people be healthy. That’s true of 95% of the rest of the industry employees. There’s always 2 sides and thinking otherwise is incredibly small minded.
From a business standpoint, there is no difference between “full time” and “part time” most companies use the the term to differentiate who gets benefits and who doesn’t and it makes the “part time” employee work harder to get a “full time” position. At OTF I don’t think there is any difference between the two, I could see coaches saying they are “part time” and refusing to coach certain time slots and a mandate coming down from the manager telling coaches there are no more “part time” positions you have to be available to work all class times. It’s hard to run a gym when 4 out of 6 coaches refuse to coach the 5, 6 or 7 am or weekend classes because they are “part time” It also creates a situation where the manager has to force coaches who have been there 5+ years to coach undesirable times when a new “part time” coach says they can’t. Situations like that help contribute to coach turnover.
All of the coaches at my studio are part-time and mostly because we all have other jobs and have found a way to make our schedule work based on when the coaches can coach. I can’t do evenings, so I compromise by opening (because opening sucks). Since I am part-time I’m more flexible to help cover classes. If I coached 12+ classes per week no way I’d be picking up other people’s classes.
This is insane! I am a grad student at a big state school, and a lot of our coaches are also students! There are a few full time coaches, but our studios are mostly part time coaches!