I feel like my boss is taking advantage of me??

@farmerdex My boss took advantage of the pandemic to start an equipment sales company! He buys from Alibaba and sells double the price. Our gym was fully equipped in new competition plates for basically free... Maybe, as you said, they have trouble financially. But my guess would be that they want to make more money
 
@actor4life20 It sounds to me like the owner has made their decision and isn’t going to change their mind. That means you’re left with how you’ll react. It seems to me you have three primary options. First, suck it up and do the 4 hours. Second, refuse the 4 hours for membership and get a membership somewhere else. Lastly, quit.

Personally, I would go with second one and I would be prepared for the 3rd. Driving the next town over might suck, but does it suck more than working for 4 hours for free?
 
@actor4life20 Definitely a questionable approach by your boss, but if you work 28.33 hours per month this is the same deal as you had before the raise. If you work more than that you are making more than before, if you work less I would ask for an increase to make it even and then bounce in 5 months.
 
@actor4life20 Memberships were $115 and have risen to $155. Members are free to decide if that's too steep for them, and if enough of them feel that way, the gym won't last long. But if they are willing to pay, so be it, especially since it's the only box in town. I don't see a problem there. No one likes price increases, but members are free to vote with their feet. I manage a small box, and there's a lot of truth to being happier with fewer members, each of of whom pays more (at least when compared to having more members, each of whom pays less).

Not sure why you'd be mad that your boss is making money off his gym ownership and members (and employees). I assume it's not being run as a charity. Why shouldn't the gym make money for the owner?

For you though, if you were a new hire and the owner offered you a free membership in exchange for the first 5 hours of classes taught (with pay after that), would you think that's outrageous? That's about $30/hour compensation for the first five hours. Doesn't seem crazy to me. Sucks that the terms of your employment have changed, but unless you have an employment contract or agreement, you and the owner are each free to negotiate other terms. Of course, you may not value the membership (if for example, you don't use the gym except to coach), in which case the compensation of a free membership is worthless to you. But if you do use the membership, then you're getting a pretty decent deal in exchange for five hours of coaching. I guess I don't see it as working for free, but I understand why you might view it that way given your prior arrangements.

But the bottom line is you're free to leave, you're free to stay and take what's offered and you're free to negotiate something better for you. Bluntly, if your boss knows you're leaving in a few months, there's no incentive to work out a special arrangement with you. My two cents - enjoy the workouts, and just leave in a few months without giving it a second thought. Good luck.
 
@actor4life20 Tell him you'll do it, but you want to be paid and then pay for the membership like a 'normal customer' and get a receipt for it for tax purposes.

That way, he has to pay taxes on it as income, too. He might change his tune if all his staff do this. (I'd prob send it as a group email.)
 
@actor4life20 Ha a place that worked that way trying to get me to work there. I’d get a free membership in exchange for 4 classes a month, payment after the 4th class. I only wanted to coach one a week.

Quickly noped outta there.
 
@dawn16 So you wanted to coach one class a week, which is four a month, and you would have gotten a free monthly membership in return - a free membership for just one hour of your time each week - and you "quickly noped outta there"?? I feel like I'm missing what offended you so much....
 
@oxo This wasnt a gym that I would be working out at on a regular basis, so I was looking for more disposable income as my regular gym had a full slate of other coaches. They also werent looking for anyone to coach more than 1-2x a week.

Besides, why should anyone work for free? They get your labor, and you should be paid for it, regardless of how little you're there. Unless you're interning/assisting, there's zero excuse for not paying employees for their labor.
 
@dawn16 To repeat, that gym's arrangement is not "working for free." You would get paid for your work, and then charged for your membership. It's not reasonable to still be misrepresenting or misunderstanding this.

You wouldn't be "working out on a regular basis" there? Did you want some kind of a la carte partial, work-out-if-I-want-to-when-I-want-to arrangement? Or no membership at all? The owner probably figured, "why would I hire a non-member and have one more body to put on my books for all of 4 hours of work a month that I have to do the accounting for differently than I do anyone else?" when it was probably easier to find a current member qualified to give them just 4 hours of work a month with no special treatment.

It really sounds like you expected the owner to treat your (minimal) offered labor like some sort of honor.
 
@oxo I mean if you're charging people who work at your gym for a membership, you're essentially working for a membership. Personally I think if you work at an establishment, you shouldnt also have to pay to be a member. I've worked in multiple boxes and gyms over the years and I've only encountered this situation once. It seems to be a more conventional arrangement at CF gyms where you give up a little in terms of the business side as it's more of a community.

If they could have found a current member to do it, they wouldnt have advertised on CL. You dont know what you're talking about.

I expect to be paid for the time I'm there. They were looking for a PT coach. I fit the requirements they were looking for. You seem to just be inserting your own opinion on what you think happened without knowing whats up and dont seem to value peoples time.
 
@dawn16 "I mean if you're charging people who work at your gym for a membership, you're essentially working for a membership." - correct, so when you said before you were "working for free," you were wrong. Glad we're finally on the same page here.

"You seem to just be inserting your own opinion" - I know, crazy, right? Inserting my opinion on social media.....what's next? Cats chasing dogs?!?!

The fact that I didn't know the job was advertised on CL is irrelevant. I wasn't claiming knowledge, I was hypothesizing. Fine, they didn't have an in-house member. Whatever. It doesn't change my point. The owner wasn't willing to give you the deal you wanted. If I asked my current employer for a $50,000 raise, and they said know, I'm not going to post online that I "quickly noped outta there" like they were assholes that owed it to me.

I "don't seem to value peoples time" and don't know what's up? What a childish, condescending thing to say. I have been doing CF for upwards of 8 years now, and coached for 5-ish of those. I am aware of different coach-paying structures, but can also simply infer my own opinion of what is reasonable and sensible financially, because I'm an adult who knows the real world. It's not rocket science:

The owner/gym provides a service to people who work out there, and the coach provides a service to the owner/gym. Each of those has value. You want the owner to pay you for the service you give them, but want the owner to give you the service they provide to you for free. Guess what? That owner disagreed. The last place I coached would have disagreed, too.

I paid a membership, and got $20/class. Logistically, my coaching payment for the month was reduced by my membership fees due. At $140/month membership, if I coached at least 7 classes a month, I received money instead of owing it, but that's just accounting. I paid the owner for the service he provided to me, and he paid me for the service I provided him. I deemed it fair, so I did the job.
 
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