Individual achievement with no Leadership nor team dynamics
Pros
Lifetime offers the ability to have a membership, as well offers some ability to choose your own schedule and hours. Working at a health club has the benefits of being at the gym all the time and access to the sauna, spa, and other facilities. The members are often friendly and the environment is one that offers a great opportunity to make connections and truly help people get in better health. The full time staff receive benefits of health and dental insurance. The employee discounts on services is an additional bonus but this does not offset the costs of being a trainer.
Cons
There are long haphazard hours that are scheduled by front desk staff who do not acknowledge the hours you have chosen to work. There is little to no support for finding new leads and clients. The website has not been updated for (seemingly) years so there is no online advertisement of the trainers in the club. Trainers are expected to perform the jobs of the operations team at no additional compensation during Fall, Winter, and Spring because the operations team consists typically of young adults in high school or college who do not stay for long and do not have an incentive to do a good job. The facility is constantly understaffed. The training staff is consistently overworked and underpaid. There is no leadership beyond emails and monthly meetings in which trainers are encouraged to make more sales despite receiving no additional support. The result is that a majority of the trainers hired typically leave within the first 6 months, and often sooner than that - some trainers having left during my tenure within as few as 2 weeks. The only way you can make this work is to have another job elsewhere to pay the bills - most people cannot live on the substandard pay.
