This one is for the “staff” at a certain co-ed gym in CP:
I understand it’s Saturday night, I understand you might have a life… but I have paid good, hard-earned money to be a member of your over-priced (towel-less) gym, and I expect to be able to use the facilities during the posted hours.
I am not paying to be harassed, have the TV’s shut off in my face, and be shooed out like a small child at 20 minutes to closing time.Get off your high horses, stay out of my way, and do your job.
PS: I know you work at a gym… maybe you should use it once and a while to earn that attitude you shove in all our faces.—Disgusted member
This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2010.
Does the building close at the same time as the gym? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to close when there are still people in the building?
I think access to any public building should be cut off well before the building itself is locked up, but unfortunately a lot of places stay open until the very last second, which isn’t practical at all. I don’t know if this is the case for your gym but if it is go easy on the staff. It’s not their fault.
And don’t do anything to give them a reason to shoo you out early either, like never work-out until the last second and then mosey on over for a ten minute shower. I’ve worked at a gym and people do this all the time, it drives the staff nuts. Here you are waiting for someone to finish showering before you can close the building.
In general, if you are using a room in a building close to closing time, you are supposed to be out of the building when access to that area is cut off. Whether it’s a gym or you’ve rented the room for something. Unfortunately a lot of people think they can use the area for whatever activity they are doing until access is cut off and then stand around chatting for half an hour and slowly packing their things or showering while the staff is waiting for you. This is usually fine, but when it’s close to closing time it’s just rude and inconsiderate.
If the gym closes at 8:30pm you should be all showered, dressed, and walking out the door of the building at 8:30 pm.
if you only go to watch t.v., then you should stay home, and use your own home to make an exercise area. too man people are so fucked on these gyms and shit, do a little menial work for fuck’s sake. and why even bother to do it at all, you are still going to die sometime, whether your corse looks good or not, the undertaker don’t care. neither do the worms.
Some people don’t shower at the gym after they work out and I think I’d be pissed off if they attempted to kick me out 20 minutes before closing. When I to go the gym, I usually shower when I get home (lugging shower crap and fresh clothes, etc… is just a pain in the ass), so it doesn’t even take me 5 minutes to get my stuff and leave after my work out because I just grab my bag out of my locker and leave. So there would be no need to shoo me out 20 minutes before closing. And as for the tvs — they have them available for members to watch while they’re working out and should be kept on until closing. It takes maybe 30 seconds to turn them off — but I know they do it to encourage you to gtfo.
If they want people out at a certain time, post your closing time as 15 minutes earlier than when you really want to close.
PK I wasn’t saying all people shower and hold up the staff at the gym but a lot of them do. And the staff have no control over the times. That comes from much higher up.
This really seems to be a problem at this particular establishment. I often wonder how it stays in business, but I guess it draws off the uppity skanks that live nearby that have nothing to do all day except go to class and go to the gym.
We have policies set in place.
It is listed in the RULES you’ve read that we ask ALL members to remove themselves from the workout floor and proceed to the change room 15mins prior to closing.
(I understand, you don’t use the showers so you wanna workout later – but the guy next to you DOESN’T know that you’re NOT going to be the one holding everyone up.)
In order to speed along the process and to remind members to proceed to the changerooms 15mins prior to closing, we turn off the tvs and radio 15mins prior to closing. We find this much friendlier than physically telling each individual to “move along”.
PS> My club used to order HUNDREDS of towels MONTHLY because literally that many were stolen or thrown into the garbage.
PPS> If you feel these policies were violated by a particular employee who just wanted out earlier. I would strongly advise you to comment to the club manager who can inform the employee of the proper procedures.
I used to go to a gym where they had posted that televisions, sauna and tanning etc were turned off 15 minutes before closing. No one seemed to mind. Really, is it a big deal to miss the last 15 or 20 minutes of a show? If they’re being rude I would have no problem telling them where to go, but it’s like anywhere else: there are lots of things that have to get done before closing time, and staff probably aren’t paid to stick around after.
A patron should take it upon themselves to make sure they’re prepared to leave by the posted closing time. I don’t think turning off the entertainment is a bad way to convey to people it’s time to pack it up.
What I DO disagree with is staff being too involved in something else other than their job to make sure they THOROUGHLY check the facilities. I once found myself in the shower at PL, suddenly in pitch black, because the staff didn’t know I was in there. Admitedly, I should’ve been better prepared, but I don’t take my time in there. I wanna get out ASAP. When the lights came back on (after my yelling, in a slight panic, that I was still there), it was about 9 minutes til close.
And yes, the club manager heard about that one.
BlueGreenRed: It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again. We repeatedly catch people hiding out avoiding staff trying to stay longer (although i’m not saying that was you, it happens).
However, it sounds like in your case the staff member wasn’t doing their job very well. Back when I used to work reception I would physically call out into each locker room.
Kudos to you however for informing the manager so that the employee could be shown proper procedure 🙂