When I was in massage school, I heard some pretty bad things about Massage Envy. Mostly, the talk involved a lot of insinuation about slave labor, low wages, and cookie-cutter massages. And yet, that's the first place I went when I graduated and applied for a job. Why? Because Seattle is knee-deep in massage therapists, and I figured if I really wanted to learn to help people and become competitive, then I needed practice. And lots of it. Which is exactly what I got at Seattle's Northgate Massage Envy, and I have never regretted it. At the end of my first year when I was ready to go out and try massage in other venues, I had around an 80% fill-rate and around a 70% request rate. I had wonderful clients, and a strong team of peers who specialized in many, many forms of massage. I had an average tip rate of $15 an hour, bringing my wage up to $30-31 per hour, and I also had full medical insurance and some awesome discounted continuing education hours in hot stone and pregnancy massage. All in all, not a bad deal for a first massage job.But, I still needed to know what massage was like in other environments. And so after that first job, I worked for two chiropractors, a small massage studio, and a large day spa as an employee. Furthermore, I worked for two small studios as an independent contractor. Recently, my husband and I moved to Lake Stevens and so I changed jobs again. I still work as an independent contractor for a close friend of mine, but for my "steady paycheck" job, I went back to . . . . Massage Envy, this time in Everett. When I mentioned to some of my students in a cupping class that I was going back to Envy, one said "Massage Envy?" in disbelief, and the other said, "Isn't that where all the bad therapists end up?"
Okay, people, enough is enough. Would that all the "bad therapists" ended up at an Envy, because then we'd know where they all were and could quarantine the building or something. Unfortunately, they're scattered around everywhere, just as in every other profession on earth, and I have known them in every massage job I've had. Actually, because my Envy teams were so large and diverse, I've met some of my strongest therapist peers there. Many therapists work for Envy for good reasons:
1. It's flexible. You choose, or help choose, your schedule, and you can change it fairly easily without stress and pain from the employer.
2. It's good extra money. A busy Envy is money you can count on, especially in hard economic times. Many Envy therapists have their own businesses (outside of the non-compete) and use their Envy income to supplement that.
3. It's good practice for new therapists, because you see many, many clients in the full range of ages, body types, etc.
4. It's neat and clean and welcoming and pleasant (unlike the hole one chiropractor stuck me in next to their records room with the 25 year old rickety table and the employees yelling up and down the hall).
5. It has a trained professional staff (unlike the nutty stylist I once worked for who wouldn't let me look at the appointment book because there was "private information in there." Yes, I DO need to know my client's name . . . don't think that's asking too much of privacy.)
6. It offers health insurance benefits. No one else I worked for EVER did that, and health benefits are like gold, especially now.
7. It focuses on massage, and its mission is massage (unlike the chiropractor I worked for who constantly schemed about additional ways to increase income that had nothing to do with either healing or chiropractic or massage.)
8. It's dry. Okay, that sounds weird, but a big day spa with pools and multiple heat rooms never gets quite dry. Mix up all those damp bodies with lubricant and . . . . it's just gross in my opinion.
9. You can form relationships with clients and share their joys as they make positive progress (unlike a big day spa, where clients only come in rarely for "treats.")
10. You can learn from other therapists. I'm a deep touch therapist who specializes in trigger point, Mana Lomi, and cupping (though sadly I can't cup at Envy). And I was thrilled to work with therapists who specialized in everything from Watsu to Table Thai.
Of course, Envy has its drawbacks. It can be difficult to flip a room in 5 minutes, and a 50 massage is on the short end. Also, it is franchise-based, of course, and the nature of the particular owner goes a long way in how happy and healthy the environment is, but that's true of all jobs. So it irritates me that there are people out there who believe in ignorance that Massage Envy is simply the bottom-rung employer where all the "bad therapists go." Same thing with Southerners, right? We're all uneducated, barefoot, and pregnant. And yet, here I am--born and bred in Arkansas--childless and wearing Danskos. And oops, I almost forgot: twelve years ago today, LSU gave me that PhD . . . .
6 comments:
Thanks for the interesting assessment of Massage Envy. I applied to work for them when I first graduated from massage school, but ended up working at a massage clinic closer to my home instead.
Awesome and point 8 had me rolling. I work at a chiropractic office and can attest to the loud noise on the other side of the door issue. It has been slow and I have been thinking of working ME. I think more people complain than praise from what I have seen on yelp and that is probably where they get the bad rap from. Anyway thanks for the blog
From Sue Peterson: Lynna I can't agree with you more. Everyone starts somewhere, and everyone at some point needs a steady job with bens where they hand you the client. If you make about $30 with tips at ME, compare that to $30 per massage hour as a contractor -- you have to pay your own payroll taxes, buy your own health insurance, etc. your take-home is really about $15. Is ME the be all end all of all time? No. But there's nothing wrong with working for a living!
I always enjoy your writings. If I had to start over, I would like to have done it the way you just describe. Right out of my first training I went to work for myself. What a struggle. I wanted it my way and didn't need any help and was not willing to leave any money on the table. Work for Chiros? No way they take too much of my money. Bad thinking. Finally working with them, and not so much for them, I gained so much knowedge and have even studied with a couple of them. So, finally, I have my own office at a hospital and have no overhead. My schedule is sent to me each week. I have landed on both feet and am running forward.
I worked at an M E for about two weeks some 5 years after I received my license. what a poor experience. M E to me is a very poor place to learn good client appreciation and modality/hands on technique skills. They promote themselves as therapeutic clinics but a true therapeutic treatment takes longer than the time allowed.
A "good" therapist cannot properly assess in five minutes then treat in fifty minutes. I provide cranial-sacral therapy in every massage I give and that alone takes an hour. Many therapists can assess the preliminary problem during the intake but a "good" therapist does the standing postural analysis, discusses the findings with the client, then gives directions before beginning the treatment. When on the table a true clinical massage uses every therapist known modality to help the clients' healing process. This can not be done properly or appropriately in fifty minutes. So M E IS taking advantage of therapists and clients. MHO.
I have worked M E, Chiros, day retreats and in private homes as CMT/LMT. The thing with M E is that a therapist must work long hours to make a living. I love the fact that M E markets themselves to everyday folk who appreciate massage but its at the expense of the therapist. I found working at privately owned businesses who offer massage, with comparable treatments, pay twice as much with the same level of tips. Corporate culture in the health field is the reason why the average American experience so much dis-ease.
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