Massage Envy reviews

- HORRIBLE upper management. Just about every manager we've had (I've seen at least 4 changes and I've been here less than a year) has been a near cardboard cutout copy of one another. Way too eager to please the franchise owner and full to burst of energy for sucking up with no care for how the employees under them are. We're stepping stones, if not regarded as even less. - The owner's expectations for us are unrealistic. At our best, we were a team of about 10 and were answering phone calls for 10 clinics, 3 of which are consistently some of the busiest in the country. And he expects us to answer over 90% of the total volume. It took over 4 hours of repeating to him that it was mathematically impossible for us to hold that level of call volume and showing him the math that we would all have to take a call every 2 minutes with 30 seconds between for notes to be able to reach that. And that's assuming the calls come in steadily instead of all at once like they tend to. - CONSTANT changes. Policies go in and change as soon as we begin implementing them. - Everything is cliques and just like high school. It's worse than a playground social game. Managers versus the workers who bust their butts for them. One location manager has caused so much drama that she even tried to have her FDAs spy on therapists and employees voicing concerns about changes. People don't feel safe talking to one another anymore. - The turnaround is ridiculous. On our team alone, we've probably had over 30 employees over the time I've been here, but there are now only 5 people who have been here for more than 3 months, and only 2 who have been here longer than 6. Really shows you how great it is, hm? - The owner and operations directors for the clinics are all overbearing and worse than helicopter parents. Our small office has 4 cameras and most are pointed at us, and the owner will call to comment on things (including hair cuts, why we aren't answering calls when there are none coming in, that someone should clear up a desk that looks to disorganized for his tastes, why someone is staying five minutes after clocking out when they're clearly packing their things up, the list goes on and on). They all expect unquestioning and absolute devotion and following for their ideas and motivations. I've seen other reviews here mention the love of "kool-aid" when talking about working as a team, too. I'm glad they share my same terrified sentiments to it. - To their credit though, they're all amazing at sales. Sold us all for suckers. During my interview I was promised raises and benefits, PTO and chances to earn vacation time, room for growth and progress with the company. Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. The two who have been here over a year have vouched to me that neither of them have gotten a raise or any reward, or even a simple 'thank you,' for being here longer than even most of our managers. - Anything that we offer or suggest is disregarded and we even get yelled at for mentioning it. For example, the chairs we sit in are cheap, ugly, and uncomfortable. To the point that a bunch of us have a physical need to get massages to relieve the pain and undo the damage being done to our spines. When we offered maybe using some spare chairs at the front of the office in storage, we were told no. When we politely asked if we could have new chairs because most of them are broken in some fashion, we were screamed at that we wouldn't get new chairs until we started earning the owner money. We aren't a department designed to make money, we're here to answer calls and take some weight off of the FDAs' shoulders. - On that note, faulty equipment. Phones and connection to clinics go down constantly. There isn't a day that at least one connection doesn't completely go up in smoke. I believe there's been 5 days where everything just stopped working entirely since I was hired. - WE were punished for the systems crashing. We were told to just go home and weren't even paid for the entire time we were there. And not given any compensation for the following day the systems were down either, when it wasn't even our fault!

Based on industry standards, the pay is awful. Massage Envy chooses to charge the same amount for deep tissue massage and Swedish massage, based on the idea that each client should receive a customized service. This results in many clients seeking and expecting deep tissue at massage envy, because it is both desired and cheap, without having any understanding of how much work goes into a deep tissue session. Many of these clients are also not great tippers, and half of a massage therapist’s income at any given spa is generally from tips. So, the expected work output is often not appropriately compensated. Clients are told that they have a 60 minute service, of which 5 minutes is for consultation and 5 minutes is for dressing and undressing, for a total of 50 minutes hands on. This is fine. However, massage Envy does not build turn-over time into this, and the process of turning over a room (changing sheets, changing the head rest cover, and sanitizing everything), and washing one’s hands and arms takes at least 2-3 minutes. Massage Envy books clients back-to-back without considering this turn-around time, so the only way to give the one client what they’re paying for (an actual 60 minute service) results in being late for the next client, because the entire process takes at least 63 minutes. If a massage therapist doesn’t want to cut a client’s time, whether that cuts into consultation time or hands-on time, the massage therapist ends up running late — which often irritates further clients (unless they are regulars) as well as front desk staff. I’ve worked at three separate massage Envy franchises, all owned by different people. Not a single one has offered real health insurance at an affordable rate, which is ironic given the company’s focus on wellness. One would hope that a company branding itself as a company that cares about health and wellness would invest in that of its employees. Massage Envy doesn’t live up to this hope. Of these three separate franchises, none have offered paid vacation time off, and none have offered sick days. Again — for a company that brands itself as caring about health and wellness, it’s treatment of its employees is ironic in the worst way. Most franchises have offered Aflac, but that isn’t at all equivalent to the benefits that would accompany a salaried job. There is minimal upward mobility. Some franchises offer pay raises after a certain period of time. Others don’t. If performance is good, raises should simply happen — regardless of individual franchise ownership. This should be a company-wide policy. Or...massage therapists should be paid well from the start. I get that Massage Envy’s business model requires that it offer a low cost massage to clients. But this model is inherently exploitive of the people providing a therapeutic service. So, I believe that my underlying issue with Massage Envy as a whole is its main purpose of offering massage at a low rate to clients.