I Was Fired from a Fitness Studio for Not Being Active Enough

[nyli3]

@ctian25 These are the WORST kinds of people in fitness. Health and fitness should always be about inclusiveness, never slamming the door in people's faces because they don't meet an image.

Legally, there is a possible challenge here, if they did not make it clear to you in speech or writing that those were the expectations of you as an employee.

But I'm guessing you don't want to even go down that route and would rather avoid them entirely.

They are in the wrong here. You met all the requirements of an employee that you were aware of. The correct response on their behalf would have been to tell you that you needed to suit the image of the gym more and visibly be using its facilities, etc., and to encourage you towards the activities they advocate and provide. Sneakily prying into your life for reasons to fire you is just a shady thing to do. I kind of understand what they are doing, but the way in which they did it is inexcusable.

Don't let this weigh on your mind. They're the crappy human beings here, not you. If I were you, I'd be unable to be so calm and probably would have trashed them on social media to all members I could find at this point. That's not a mature response, but I definitely would have been angry.

Go and join the November Project and enjoy yourself. Sod the rest of the them. If you do see anyone there, forget about it. Go for yourself and have a good time!

 

[inmoments]

@ctian25 I work for a beer wholesaler. If I didn’t drink beer or fit in to the bar crowd, it would not fit their image. Why would a company make a customer-facing hire who didn’t represent their brand?

The owner or director of operations asking you for a chat? An opportunity to sell yourself to company leadership and you used it to “open up”.

This should be a good lesson for the future.

 

[dawn16]

@inmoments I agree. However, OP says in another comment then when they first opened up and were looking for a receptionist, that they were desperate and wanted someone who was friendly and could sell merch.

They shouldn't have hired her to begin with and the questions they asked at the dinner with her should've been asked in an interview (which OP also says never happened lol). It's not very smart to just hire anybody who seems nice and not even interview them.

 

[musalala]

@dawn16 Agreed. My first thought was “did they even bring this up in the interview?” It seems to be quite a crucial aspect of the role it’s a bit unfair for them to have done it this way. There wasn’t even a chance for him/her to try the fitness life to fit the brand.

 

[dextermorse2f]

@ctian25 pretty unfortunate but if you want to start your own fitness journey, just get in there and lift the weights. who cares about them.

 

[sweetbeat]

@ctian25 Hey, if you got invited to the November Project, then go to it! Even if this job didn't work out, it's something you were excited about. Either you enjoy it and people see you, or you don't enjoy it and now have the freedom to join fitness groups you'd like.

I don't know how big/franchised this fitness studio is, but while the Director of Operations listed those qualities as not creating a culture they're trying to grow, if they REALLY were worth their salt, they'd work with you and try to pull you in further using your interests. This, of course, is a lot easier for a DoO to do in a smaller org than a larger one. Nurse your wounds, pick up, and get involved in the things you're passionate about!

 

[sodimanalu]

@ctian25 I think this is really shitty. I work in health and fitness and I think it’s important to encourage people to be active and healthy and they did the opposite.

Despite your lack of experience with fitness it sounds like you’re interested and motivated to do something and I think that’s brilliant. I totally understand not wanting to bump into them and I think it’s ok to feel like that. Either figure out a way to deal with it (figure out a few things to say to them if you see them or work out how to not give a **** ...although I realize both are easier said than done). Or find an alternative -there are so many types of exercise and places to go. Figure out what you want. If those classes suit you best, try not to let idiots like that stop you doing what you want in life, they’re not worth it.

 

[bbricketts]

@ctian25 I work for a massive gym chain in Canada and it is always made clear to us that we have to be fit (or take part in fitness) and have a clear fitness oriented mindset. That being said, we get free memberships with access to all the premium stuff, so it makes it a lot easier for us to be more engrained in the gym culture. I work at the front desk, so it also makes it easy to interact with the members about services we offer. If it’s a small boutique gym, I almost understand them not offering employees free memberships and discounted services, however. how many employees do they staff? I can’t imagine they would take much of a hit if they offered a staff at maybe 15 free memberships. I do agree with another comment though, that maybe you just weren’t a great fit for them and they wanted to find a decent reason to give you while letting you go.

 

[ee7759]

@ctian25 You should be eligible for Unemployment Insurance if you're in the US.

 

[giggi]

@ctian25 Wow thats extremely disrespectful.

I'm not sure how far you want to take this but depending on the labour laws where you live its possible you could take legal action against them.

If there was no mention or discussion of your own personal fitness prior to them hiring you or even at the time of hiring you then its outright wrong for them to let you go for that reason.

Please don't let it affect you. You're worth as a person is not defined by some random part-time job with shitty bosses.

 

[ramcam2]

@giggi This isn't true, in an at will state they can fire someone because the sky is blue

 

[giggi]

@ramcam2 good god. TIL.

 

[meganhutchison]

@ctian25 I'm so sorry this happened to you. Don't let your former boss get in the way of pursuing your fitness goals. I also wanted to say that even if there was a discount for employees, it sounds like the classes would be too expensive. Best of luck to you!

 

[auna]

@ctian25 I don't have any advice or anything, just wanted to say that I'm from the UK and this is the first time I've heard of this "at-will" employment law that means they can fire you for dumb reasons/no reason at all.

Here in the UK it's really hard to fire people. There's only 5 reasons you can fire someone for and you have to give the employee a fair procedure - time to improve, retrain, restructure time commitments, whatever.

I work in a hospital lab and one of our assistants is thick as 2 short planks. Lovely guy, but an imbecile. He's repeatedly caused incidents, reporting errors, lost samples, service delays etc. He's been here years because it's so hard to fire people. I don't know how many times we've tried to re-train him.

The differences in law meaning that we can't get rid of someone that causes actual harm whereas your bosses can ditch you for not going to the gym is just... really really weird and sad.

 

[musalala]

@auna Weren’t there any actions taken to sort this out? It’s just as much a problem of management then to not handle this properly. Unless their standards for being a bad employee at a vulnerable space such as hospital is absurdly high haha

 

[auna]

@musalala He has been pulled off the shift rota and retrained and he never works without direct supervision or at least another member of staff being around unless we’re too thinly spread to watch him.

To be perfectly honest I do think management need to grit their teeth and actually fire him on grounds of incompetence.

It’s just that much more difficult on a personal level when an employee is genuinely a nice person who tries hard but just... isn’t the sharpest tool in the box and genuinely struggles to remember procedures.

 

[musalala]

@auna If he’s at least, at this point, not causing any more trouble, that’s kind of better than none. As long as he’s not a broken tool I guess. Hah

 

[stmheath7]

@auna Exactly, I’m from UK too, and normally unless it’s gross negligence like doing drugs at your desk or stealing money, you’d have to have a verbal, then written then final warning. If you were just a bit shit at your job and asked for more training and some help and they didn’t help you, then they fired you...you’d defo be able to get an employment lawyer. Also...a lot of corporate places pay people off to leave...that way everyone just moves on with their lives. I’m guessing these payouts aren’t small either.

 

[cwater32]

@ctian25 It’s a missed opportunity on their part! Imagine if they had encouraged you to be more active and made you feel welcomed and empowered to be more involved...how great would it be to have a representative working the front desk who could testify to how they made ALL people (those just starting their fitness journey and those who were more advanced) feel welcome. Being new to fitness is intimidating and you could have a great asset to them in bringing in newer interested but hesitant customers. BUT the biggest lesson of this whole thing that I hope you take is that your boss is NEVER your friend. Don’t trust them.

 

[dawn16]

@ctian25 I'll let better people than me give you the healthy perspective, but I do understand that feeling of not wanting to run into the people who did you wrong. I've been there. I know I should hold my head up and be proud of who I am because I didn't do anything wrong, but the idea of facing the people who basically did something unethical and "won" in some weird way, it's anxiety provoking.

I just want you to know that you're not alone. I think the instinct to be cautious of them is probably natural.