Things may be different now. They don't sell a visitor day pass any more, only monthly memberships or longer. As with most big box fitness chains, Goodlife is overrun with new members in January and February to the point where it is difficult to find a free work station during peak hours.
By March the crowd of newbies has dwindled back to its normal state. Many of these absentee members are still paying membership fees well into the next year. That formula keeps the mega fitness complexes ticking.
Some Fitness Trainers will have a lucrative career at a big box fitness chain. Most will not! As is common with many corporate giants, the wealth doesn't always trickle down in abundance to the plebeian ranks of its workers. Fitness professionals may not be compensated in the way that professionals would expect. Recently there have signs of discontent within the ranks at Goodlife:
- The Ontario Ministry of Labor in Ontario found Goodlife and other Fitness Centers in contravention of the Employment Standards Act.
- Issues in contention include wages, fairness, worker insurance and job security.
- There is a pending 60 million dollar class action lawsuit representing Fitness Trainers against Goodlife Fitness.
- Group Fitness Instructors are required to pay a company owned by Goodlife for using their music.
- Employees pay for their uniforms.
- Group Fitness Instructors are not paid for class preparation but just the actual session.
- Fitness Trainers and Group instructors are not compensated for doing mandatory paperwork.
- New Fitness Trainers are paid minimum wage for prospecting for clients among Fitness Center members.
- This pay is then deducted from the earnings once the Trainer begins earning money from clients.
- This also means Fitness Trainers will be hustling members to buy training packages while the members are trying to work out. This is known as 'prospecting'!
- Management insists that Fitness Trainers sign clients to only long term Fitness Training packages.
- Goodlife has their own certification for Fitness Training - Can Fit Pro. Goodlife Trainers must pay for this certificate course.
- Goodlife Fitness Trainers in metropolitan Toronto have recently voted to unionize!
- There tends to be a revolving door of Fitness Trainers at mega fitness centers including Goodlife.
- This high turnover rate may dissuade many better qualified Fitness Trainers from seeking employment in such places.
- Fitness Trainers can pay up to 50% of the client fee back to the club.
I am going to do something that may seem astonishing to those who read my blogs. I am going to play the Devil's Advocate and rationalize the business practice of mega clubs such as Goodlife:
- A Fitness Trainer needs an equipped place in which to train clients. The mega fitness complex provides a state of the art exercise location.
- Fitness Trainers need clients. Goodlife has a multitude of potential converts.
- If the fitness center offers point-of- sale personal training services at the time that a customer buys a club membership, new clients can be assigned to the Fitness Trainer. It is easier to re-sign such an existing client than it is to recruit a new client.
- Some mega clubs like Movati employ a Fitness Consultant whose job is to recruit clients for the Fitness Trainers.
- A rookie Fitness Trainer can hone their sales skills and training expertise in such an environment.
- Maybe the union presence will improve the conditions and compensation.
The bottom line is salesmanship. In such an environment, if you don't make sales you will either give up on your own or be replaced by management. That is the reason for the high turn over rate.
There is constant pressure to sign new clients.Your technical skills as a Fitness Trainer are of lesser importance. My mother was the top Tupperware salesperson in eastern Canada for many years running. She could walk into a mega club with no fitness expertise and sign up scores of clients. Many Fitness Trainers, like me, would not have that kind of success. If a Fitness Trainer is that skilled at selling the product, it might be more lucrative for them to strike out on their own. There will be different responsibilities but potentially more reward! No one ever said it would be easy!
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| A state of the art place to work out! An arguable career choice! |
Keep Fit
Little Bobby Strong
Links:
www.rabbitview.com
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank.net
References
Goodlife Fitness Center faces $60 M. Lawsuit over Wages thestar.com Sara Mojtehedzadeh Nov.17,2016
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/09/toronto-goodlife-trainers-vote-for-union-muscle.html
Toronto Goodlife Trainers Vote for Union Muscle thestar.com Sara Mojtehedzadeh July 9, 2016
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/09/toronto-goodlife-trainers-vote-for-union-muscle.html
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank.net
References
Goodlife Fitness Center faces $60 M. Lawsuit over Wages thestar.com Sara Mojtehedzadeh Nov.17,2016
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/09/toronto-goodlife-trainers-vote-for-union-muscle.html
Toronto Goodlife Trainers Vote for Union Muscle thestar.com Sara Mojtehedzadeh July 9, 2016
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/09/toronto-goodlife-trainers-vote-for-union-muscle.html
