It has been two months since I stopped working in a training center with electrostimulation. I would like this post to serve as a warning/warning to those professionals who, excited like me, wanted to be part of this network of centers (clinics, which they like to call) electrostimulation training.
First of all, I want to make several things clear:
- That in this article, neither judges nor attacks, my experience are simply recounted.
- Which has nothing to do with Fast Fitness, which I worked with for a year with absolutely no problem.
It all started when a great friend and former colleague called me to tell me that the headquarters of this center in question was looking for a coach. First of all, I have to say that my colleague’s center is one of the best there is. Thanks to the work of the master franchise, but to the professionalism and experience of my friend.
Excited, like anyone presented with a job opportunity, I went for the interview at headquarters.
I was attended by a young man who we will call R. with open arms giving me the feeling that my profile was just what they were looking for. I left the 10-minute interview with very good feelings, as I had been summoned to start the training/test to see if I was suitable.
I did this training in the center of the same street, and that’s when I began to suspect. The trainers who trained me in 4 days (it must be told that since I already had experience in electrostimulation, the training lasted less than it should have lasted) behaved very well with me. Although more than teaching me to train with their machines, they taught me to survive in the VodillOn. There was one in particular (I am not going to put an initial for not giving it away) that just before going to the center to which I had “You just do as they tell you and train as they tell you,” the person who had been assigned to me said. Don’t try to know more because you’re going to go crazy ”.
Anyway, I finished the training and the “party” began.
He had supposedly talked about working 30 hours a week. When I finished the training, they told me that it would finally be 35. And just before starting work, that it would be 20. As I adapted to whatever it was, I did not give it importance because they assured me that it was temporary and then my hours would increase.
My first day
Once at my new workplace, I am introduced to S., a charming receptionist (apparently), and my partner V. with whom I would alternate work shifts. The first day we met with the coordinator (M.) of some “El VodillOn” centers to clarify the schedules.
The first thing they tell me is that even though I have a 20-hour contract, I’m going to do it 24 hours a week and that it will be returned to me. “Well, as long as they return to me …” I thought, deluded of myself.
The day I started working at “El VodillOn,” I was the last of the two coaches working at that same center. I spoke little with them, but enough to know that they were leaving because they could not stand the situation of exploitation, nor the girl at the reception S., to which I thought they were two disgruntled workers who had been fired for what reasons (I needed a few days to prove them absolutely right).
Total, since there was not much work yet, I kept talking to S. about the time he worked in that center, etc. Only negative things come out of his mouth, such as that this center is never going to come back, that people do not renew, that we are always at the bottom in the rankings (the ranking was a table that R. sent each week with the billing that each center had) ). Come on. It gave me the feeling that it had burned more than a hippie’s motorcycle in less than a year working there.
Weeks go by, and I keep doing 24 hours instead of 20. But that’s not all. My colleague V. (who is also the center coordinator) meets with me at the shift change to tell me that I should stay longer so that I can cover his training sessions. Yes, you heard right. He is asking me to lengthen my workday to do his training, and HE can charge it. Could he slip it onto someone like that? Well, it seems to be the case because when I refused, he got a little pissed off.
And this is when S. comes into action. Since she sees that the director V. gets along very well with the coordinator M., Miss S. gets close to the fire that heats the most. And from that moment, I had to play a three × one that, instead of sinking, made me stronger.
The uniform
I understand that, by law, if in a job they ask you to wear a uniform, they have to give you three changes (or at least two). Well, they only asked me for one, and it was too small for me. The fact is that S., in addition to receiving the clients and preparing their clothes and cabin keys, also put the towels and suits that the clients took off after finishing their training in the washing machine.
Every two days (because the polo fabric smelled dead after two days), I put it in the washing machine along with the rest of the clothes (since if I washed it at home, I didn’t have time to wear it the next day). If it had had more change poles, it would not be necessary to wash it in the center.
I repeat I put the polo shirt (one and only one) with the rest of the clothes. And one day, S. comes to me telling me that his job is not to wash my polo shirt. I explain the situation to him that I only have one polo shirt and that if I wash it at home, I can’t wear it the next day. To which he repeats that it is not his job. Well, that day I’m wearing the polo shirt and, of course, it’s still wet (this happened during December and January). I’m going to work with a shirt of mine the same color as the polo shirt and, as expected, S. scolds me because I’m not wearing the polo shirt. Yes, gentlemen, the girl at the reception puts on the finery of the super-chief and dares to give me the row that she has started.
I do not go into the cloth and again explain what the situation is when having only one pole.
At that moment, S. changes her boss outfit for the “ rally queen” and tells M.
M. calls me to tell me that I do have to always wear the polo shirt, under the watchful eye of S., whose livers begin to boil when he sees my face of total indifference explaining to M. the situation of the happy polo shirt.
And in principle, there it all stayed. M. told me that they would send me more polo shirts (which never arrived) and that while I had to wash them myself. So I would go every other day with the uniform.
The training
This point is critical for professionals in the sector and clients who decide to try electrostimulation. The workouts they showed me during training and those they forced me to do in my center have neither feet nor head.
I explain. For the electrical stimulus to be effective in training, it must coincide with the moment of muscle contraction. That is when I do force is when the stimulus should appear.
Well, in training I did initially, the workouts they did were like the ones you would do in any gym, only with the suit on. They didn’t take the stimulus into account at all. There were also times when a coach trained three people at the same time. Thus, it is impossible to manage the stimulus of each one for the session to be as effective as it should be (and for what you pay, it should be). After a few weeks, my coordinator V. says that when he trained in another “The VodillOn,” they used a protocol that worked. This protocol was more similar to what I had already worked with before. There was only one difference: that during eight sessions, the training was ALWAYS the same. Fun, huh? NO
Another day, displaying my concerns and longing for knowledge, I decided to ask V. to explain the protocol in question. I wanted a little more in-depth and the reasons why those frequencies were used and not others (I would have used others according to which clients), to which he replied that those were used because they worked. On a second try, I asked him what would happen if we used a deeper frequency for people who have experience in strength work. And, once again, his answer can be found in the Cerros de Úbeda.
At that moment, I realized the knowledge that had to be my mentor. Yes, the one who wanted me to do his workouts but to charge him.
The most alarming piece of information was the case of a woman who had had a stroke, to whom Mr. V. received the same training as the rest of the clients. But candid soul, that woman could hardly move !!! Well, it still told him that he had to try harder to lose weight. Luckily, most of the time, he trained with me. I skipped all the protocols, and we did mobility and bilateral work. I’m guilty. SV, you can already beat me.
The clients
The only thing that makes me sad is not saying goodbye to every one of the clients I trained. I am very sorry that people with illusions, with willpower, wanting to change their lives, had to submit to the work protocol that Mr. V. wanted to introduce in that center. Each month each client was weighed to see if they improved or not. And guess what, people who wanted to lose weight, for example, still lost half a gram with that workout. Of course, excuses were not lacking for V: if you have not taken care of your diet, that if you missed a day, that if it is a training that takes effect later, etc.
Finally, and in the final stretch of my resignation/release, with more confidence with the clients, they already begin to tell me that they are not very happy, that the coaches come and go, that the same coach does not always train them, that they have no results, etc.
And it was not one, not two, but practically most of the people who passed through my hands.
The washing-machine
With this, you are going to laugh. As I told you before, it turns out that S. was in charge of putting the washing machines. One day came when he said to me that I had to put it on to help each other. The truth is that it costs nothing to put a few towels and t-shirts in the washing machine but, do you remember the polo moment?
Well, I told him that since washing my polo shirt was not his job (which it was not, but a favor that he did me and that did not cost him anything), it was not my job to put the washing machine.
Puff and Troy burned. I tell you the situation as it happened.
After several days of tug of war with the washing machine, and after telling the coordinator M., she was left in that if S. could not put it, that we had to put it both my partner V. and I.
The day was ending, and S. went like a lightning bolt telling me that I had to put the washing machine on, that since there was no time for it to finish, to leave the clothes inside until the following day.
Of course, the client looked at me and, when S. As she walked away, she genuinely said to me, “You’re not going to put it on, are you?” With all the humidity and so many hours, it’s not good for clothes. It can even catch mushrooms ”. And that’s what I did. I texted S. saying what the client had told me.
And the beast woke up. When I finished my day, and I was going to the Metro, I received several messages of anger, disrespecting my style of: “you are irresponsible,” “you do not beat the water,” “you are not a professional,” and so on.
Quietly I asked him what he is based on to tell me all that, that I do my training, that the clients are very happy with me, and that if there are days that I work fewer hours, it is because coordinator S. has told me to recover part of the hours that are owed to me.
To all this, she tells me to shut up and leave her alone, that she is at home and not eat her head. I remind her that the one who has started to write to me blaming me for nonsense has been her.
It was like arguing with a little girl.
My hours
In my opinion, it was this issue that unleashed the ire of little S.
The young girl at the reception had been exploited for less than a year working at “The BodyOn.” She was doing many extra hours that they were also going to give back (and that they were hardly doing). After being owed 30 hours in a month, the problem came when I struggled and struggled to get it back.
Then (and with this, you will hallucinate), a restructuring of the schedule was made. Starting in January, I was going to do 22.5 hours instead of 24. BINGO! You have remembered! My contract was still 20 hours.
But the funniest thing is that during the first two weeks of January, I did 2.5 hours more while my partner V. did four less !!! And of course, those four minutes he did charge.
Suppose there was not so much difficulty. The center was open 64 hours a week. My partner V. was 40, and I 20. No one realized that there were 4 hours left to cover ???
Well, after being tiresome (that’s what my coordinator M. told me in a conversation ), I managed to get him only to have to go to work when there were training sessions. Before, if I had to enter at two and the first customer did not arrive until 3, I kept entering at 2.
And why do we want more? The alliance V. and S. became stronger to the point that this happened that I am going to tell you.
One day I entered at 2:30 p.m., and the last training in the morning was from 2:15 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. Well, in the morning, I receive a call from the person in charge V., saying that I have to come in at 2:00 p.m. to do the 2:15 p.m. training. And I logically tell him that he has to do this training because it is on his schedule. He replied that if he did it, he would have to leave 15 minutes later than his time. Ah, friend! Do you complain that you have to go 15 minutes later, but nothing happens if I give you half an hour?
He demands that I go because M. (the coordinator) has told him that I have to do this training, which I refuse until I speak personally with M.
Then I call M. and SURPRISE! He agrees with me and tells me that she has not spoken with V. and that he has to do this training. Point for Álvaro.
I call him and tell him, and he begins with the quest to support each other (but by God, if it is me who owes hours!)
Total, having already settled everything with V., I write a message to the young receptionist S. to ask her what time I have to come in (remember that it depended on the training sessions, and I do not have remote access to the plan). The young Piperita answers me that I have to be at 2:00 p.m. (by God, she is still determined to do the training that corresponds to V. and M. confirms that), but since I am irresponsible, that Do what you want.
I call M. again to see what happens with S. After a few minutes, S. writes me with my schedule for that day. A girl tantrum, I thought.
The mysterious call
One day I am doing a training session with a client, and S. comes to ask me who was at the center in the morning on a Thursday in January that I do not remember (it is not relevant either). Being in the morning, it must have been me because that was my Thursday schedule. Then he tells me that when I’m done, urgently call the owner of the franchise. That’s what I do. During the conversation, the owner told me that a call had been made to a payment number of more than € 20. That, of course, since I was only there at that time.
I spoke with S., and he told me that she was not there because there were no training sessions and tests.
As I was clear that it had not been, Colombo’s spark ignited, and it occurred to me to look at the agenda that specific day. Indeed there were neither tests nor training. So how could that call be made? I call from my number, and it turns out to be a company for defaulters or something like that (I didn’t stay longer either because it was paid and expensive). That day, when young S. leaves, it occurs to me to look at the paper diary that we use to jot down reminders. And what did I see? That Thursday, YES, there had been a test. So the young and innocent S. YES had been in the center that day at that time. So, would he have deleted the quote from the computer? Who knows?
The next day the owner arrives with the phone bill to show us that she is not lying, and that she does not care who it was and that she does not want it to happen again, that they have already been twice. This ………… .twice? Indeed! In November, another call had been made to a toll number. And guess who wasn’t working there in November? All right, ME. Uh. so the only person linking the two calls with the dates they were made was the young, smiling, yet burned-out receptionist S. ? Interesting…
And do you know the best of everything? That when I met with the owner to say goodbye to her (that the poor thing was not to blame for anything), she practically confirmed that she already knew that the call had been S.
And this leads to the last chapter of the post.
The last meeting
After leaving the center, I decided to meet with the owner of the franchise to explain the reasons for my resignation. And what was my surprise when she told me that she knows that it has been a dismissal and not a concession? Supposedly I received a burofax with my release. Uncertain. Even so, I asked the person in charge of my first interview (R.) to send me a copy of the acknowledgment of receipt from the burofax (since I and no one else can have only received it). After three emails, now in May, I am still waiting for your reply.
As I go, the franchisee tells me that before she tells me anything, she wants to hear everything I have to say to her. Well, I will tell you a little more extensively what you just read (if you have come this far), adding the problem that there was with the cockroaches in the showers and the rises of S. towards some client who came to me to complain and subsequently went to the competition.
My conversation with the franchisee was not one of reproach or complaint. My goal was to open her eyes and make her realize the workers she had working at her center. And the problem was that before any incident, it was skipped in the organization chart. If there is a problem, S. calls M. or V. (coordinator and manager) directly. Despite being the one that invests, it is blind to what is happening in its center.
When I finished, she told me what I had told her she had already imagined because the other coaches kept complaining about S., the frustrated receptionist. That this impacted the clients and that he did not know what to do so that the center did not go wrong. I had it very clear let’s go.
In short, whether you are a coach or a user, be careful where you are going to train before you can get scalded.
