Massage Envy

[Bowling for some Soup]

I agree.... DO NOT WORK FOR MASSAGE ENVY

First of all before anyone gets angry with me let me tell you MY story with Massage Envy. I was a clinic administrator for a ME in Minnesota. I took the job hoping that it would help me get into a position as a clinic administrator for a hospital or clinic. Boy was I ever wrong! I should have never taken the job mostly because I was used by the owner to start the clinic, hire the therapists, and run it while she was out spending the clinic's money. This woman was the boss from HELL!

When we first started out we were understaffed. Secondly, the other ME in the area had already hired most of the people that would have worked for us. We were already getting a bad reputation as it was because my boss was so pushy and even rude to applicants! When we had a hard time hiring people I went out and pounding the pavement literally!!! I went to various schools and clinics looking for MT's. I was VERY honest with people about transitioning slowly into ME so that they weren't blinded by all the hype! I was also told to lie by my owner to get people in there ( I ignored her when she told me this and I told the truth, which in the end got me fired!) We DID not offer benefits that were paid for by the Company. Let me explain: We have a private company that offered BCBS insurances at a discounted price and the only thing that we offered was $250 PER YEAR for a medical savings account. Even though we advertised a 401K benefit, you have to pay for that yourself as well. When I wanted to add and try to get AFLAC for my employees I was told to forget about it, if they were "injured etc. they would be out too long and we would just replace them because MT's are expendible". I was horrified first of all because of this attitude and secondly because we are talking about professionals here who are trying to make a living like you or I! ( Keep in mind that the owner is NOT an MT and her background is in BUSINESS NOT the health care field- which you will see later on in this post!)

So let me tell you why I WOULD never suggest that someone work at ME and I am making it my "soapbox":

1. The MT's are overworked and underpaid. Many continue because they get caught up in the vicious cycle of being promised things that never pan out.

2. If there are few clients for the day it is possible that you will sit around and get no one or get sent home. You are paid per massage NOT per hour! Many times the woman that I worked for lied to the therapists and told them that they could make lots of money and with little time in clinic. Nothing in life is free! We had HUGE turnover and then I was blamed when I told them the truth or had to call them to tell them not to come in.

3. Many of the individuals that run these clinics are not interested in clients as people, they are just interested in their bottom line and how much money they are making. Case in point, our therapists and reception staff were yelled out when they didn't make "sales". You are required to sell memberships after the initial $39 massage. MT's "performance" is tracked not by QUALITY but by QUANTITY!!!!

4. The owner where I worked, not only was verbally abusive to staff but talked badly about the MT's behind their backs to other MT's. She basically tried to "buy them off" by paying for fancy dinners etc. Then she would try to get dirt on MT's and then demand that I do something about it. First of all I had some therapist's that should have been fired but weren't and I had other's that were VERY GOOD and she fired them because "they just weren't selling memberships".


This is just a portion of what happened when I was there not to mention that I had to go into the hospital and I was canned afterwards becuase the "clinic did not run smoothly when I was gone." The woman had the nerve to fax me time cards when I was in the hospital and demand that I do them the night before I was scheduled for surgery. Plus she didn't call therapists and tell them that their schedules had changed as I was blamed for it!!!!

Massage Envy as a whole is NOT a bad company but I would venture to say that their advertising and wages etc are based on what is good for business and NOT what is good for clients. Coming from a health care background I constantly tried to mention that if we listened to our clients and provided an awesome massage as well as making them feel special AND mentioning the health care benefits.... the memberships would come. In other words, if people want to buy something they will, if they don't then be gracious to them an allow them to feel comfortable coming back WITHOUT feeling the pressure to buy. People come to relax NOT to be bombarded with a sales pitch!

As for the quality of massages we had numerous complaints, but please keep in mind that most of our MT's were rushing to get the massage done on time because the owner was very rude to them when they ran late. She yelled at several in front of clients more times than I can remember. I will say that not all owners are greedy and it helps if you have one that has either worked in health care or is an MT... however I would suggest that you ask them BEFORE you work for them. I had a tendency to get along with my therapists and my reception staff because I had more of a health care mindset instead of "how much money can I make". In regards to my pay, they paid me pennies to run a sales staff, a clinic, MT's scheduling, their personal bills etc ( yes they did this), and then had the nerve to yell at me when things were not done in a day. ( She fired both of my assistants without hiring a new one) On average I would receive 10-15 phone calls as well as numerous sometimes downright nasty e-mails regarding our sales. So much for motivation! And when sales were good, the MT's were not credited for it, nor were the sales staff- the owner took all the credit and the glory!

Sooooo.... that is why I think that ME may be good for people just getting out of school for experience but I will warn you that you should probably try to make it on your own or work with a PT or a chiropractor instead!

 

[NHK]

One last thought!

Contrary to popular belief... Massage ENvy therapists DO NOT get paid $15 per hour... they get paid $15 per massage!!! So if you have two massages all day and you sat there for 6 hours.. all you get is $30 and whatever tip the clients decided to leave you. I know that people have heard differently but I used to do the payroll!

 

[Amanda & Jess S]

Thank you for that information. I hope you can't get in trouble for posting it, because the inside perspective is appreciated.

 

[Pompal 09.]

ME WAGES

Guys I forgot something.... the therapists got paid per massage OR minimum wage WHATEVER was greater.... I was wrong sorry... I just looked at some old paper work and realized that I posted the wrong thing... sorry for the misinformation!

Ami