Spa Olympics

Working at a spa is one of the most rewarding and challenging environments for a massage therapist – the pressures of running on time, keeping within guidelines and getting along with a bunch of other therapists – and their egos – all while trying to learn protocols and make a living.

I’ve always found spas a great learning laboratory when I worked in one and when I owned spas. What I found most interesting is how individual therapists perceive the spa environment as a challenge or an obstacle course. A case in point -

While operating a hotel day spa, one of the employees, a male therapist, showed great determination in developing a clientele. He worked mostly “slower” shifts and kept at it, despite the preference clients have for gender. After working a typically “slow” shift – Friday nights - for a good year, he had developed enough of a following that his Friday book was consistently full.

I, of course, was quite happy with this - it worked for him and for me to keep the books chubby and money rolling in. One of the other therapists saw the book and decided that the Friday night shift was rightfully hers. She called me to let me know that our male therapist didn’t want to work Fridays anymore and she would be happy to take that shift.

I thanked her for volunteering to take up the shift and told her I would think about it. Needless to mention, the moment I checked with the male therapist, I found out it was a ruse. After investing time and effort to build up that evening with steady clients, he was not interested in moving off it at all.

I was marveling about the chutzpah when I talked a confidant, the manager at the hotel’s restaurant.

Can you imagine someone just trying to shove somebody aside like that? I said.

“It happens in the restaurant all the time,” he said.

Really?

“Yes, I’ll have a new hire learning the restaurant and I’ll know if they will work out after the first full shift.”

OK I’ll bite. How?

“If they come up to me and complain that another server has all the best tables and they get the dregs, I know it’s not going to work. They’re just telling me that they don’t see how experience and focus pays off in tips. They assume there’s some magical reason why they are not doing as well as the server who has worked here for years.

“Now if they tell me they are going to work hard and try to emulate the good servers, until they get it, I know they’ll be fine.”

I must say that was a good lesson learned. Oh, and our “grabby” therapist didn’t work out.