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

[bluetoast]

@chaorabite Actually it sounds like fitness is important to her, but that she's not a lifelong athlete and is still developing her own habits and workout style.

 

[tinkywinky]

@chaorabite If living a certain lifestyle is so important to them, I'm wondering why they didn't ask her these things during her job interview. If they care so much about how her personal life fits into their business culture, they should've screened for that before they hired her.

 

[ilikemango]

@tinkywinky This exactly. If there are expectations like this for an employee, those should be disclosed. A person can't meet expectations if they don't know what they are. Springing this on her in an ambush-style dinner conversation, and then allowing no chance to rectify the issue is really shitty.

Yes, companies are allowed to want certain qualities or behavior in an employee, but this was a shit way to go about it and imo a sign of bad management. Sorry, OP! But don't let it get you down. There definitely is a whole cult of culture around fitness (I say this as a cult member), but if that's not you right now or ever that's ok!! Do you as far as your fitness goes. Get back to that gym!! You don't need that person's approval.

 

[ctian25]

@tinkywinky They should’ve! But there wasn’t an interview or any training. They were brand new to town and were desperate for someone to work the front desk - the barrier to entry back then was just having a friendly, personable front desk staff to chat with clients and sell merchandise.

 

[allen]

@ctian25 Sounds like now that they can afford to be pickier, then, if they're more established, but they could have / should have explained that to you and given you a chance to increase your participation (in whatever they deemed necessary - their studio or fitness in general or whatever) (or decline to do that and understand it means being asked to leave)! Not necessarily a fitness issue, but poor management to not explain to you what they found concerning about your performance (I don't think it's inherently bad that they want a front desk person to be involved in a certain type of activity to promote their own studio or their niche more generally), and then fire you for basically not reading their minds!

 

[musalala]

@allen Exactly what I was thinking! And they did it in a kind of underhanded way too

 

[cdjk]

@ctian25 I have no idea about the legal implications of this but I am so sorry this has happened to you.

Your self worth and progress is yours and yours to judge alone. Look at the changes to your lifestyle you have made re fitness and how you are making it part of your life. That is what you should be proud of

 

[dawn16]

@cdjk If she lives in a state with at-will employment they can fire her for any reason at any time without warning, given it's not based on religion/race/etc.

 

[stmheath7]

@dawn16 Terrible

 

[dawn16]

@stmheath7 Terribleness aside, is your username a Bring It On reference? Because if it is, I love it.

 

[stmheath7]

@dawn16 Yes

 

[dawn16]

@stmheath7 Haha yessssss.

 

[ee7759]

@dawn16 In my state she'd still be eligible for Unemployment Insurance, though.

 

[dawn16]

@ee7759 Even though she already has a full-time job and was only working part-time at this place?

 

[ee7759]

@dawn16 Ah, missed the full time job piece. Nevermind!

 

[cdjk]

@dawn16 Yeah also I'm in the UK so employment law is completely different here

 

[ars]

@cdjk Ya in my province this would be a slam dunk wrongful dismissal suit

 

[dawn16]

@ctian25 I'm incredibly sorry that happened to you but also don't understand why they don't let their staff work out for free after hours if that's so important to them?

In my old retail shop I got a whopping 50% employee discount which made the jewellery they sold there VERY affordable.

 

[iamnothing]

@dawn16 Agreed, if they want to create a "fitness community" vibe with the staff they should cultivate it. Not paying your staff enough to afford your classes that you charge them to take is not the way to do it

 

[randibb4]

@dawn16

I'm incredibly sorry that happened to you but also don't understand why they don't let their staff work out for free after hours if that's so important to them?

It sounds like this is the kind of boutique that only offers classes, so there is no "after hours" as their activities are all instructor-led. Most of the gyms like that around me don't even really have much equipment at all so there would be no point in working out there after close.