Working here was awful most of the time. I was consistently drained because the pay was not worth the time and efforts put into the job. Pay increased from $13 to $14 because the minimum wage went up and not because the job description expanded. MSs are expected to take on the onboarding position of the coach which is discouraging because the pay did not increase and there is no certification gained from instructing new members on how to use the fitness equipment.
There is a commission bracket that you get paid by, which is nice to see where you are in comparison to your colleagues. Some locations have better times with making sales when there are a lot of people wanting to purchase from that location. Even then, it does not reflect much into your check. You may see an extra $100 per check if you sell about 7 memberships in two weeks.
There needs to be better training in the workplace also. It is not fair that membership specialists have to train one another because the management leaves early or arrives later. There is not pay compensation for this, even though it's not in the job description. This is an issue because the average amount of time someone stays is 2-3 months. So if you're there for 3-4 months, odds are you have trained at least 2 other employees. The coaches should be trained to know what the Membership Specialists have to do as well. It can be extremely demanding to have to prepare station numbers, do announcements, sell bottles of water, start a clas
Very Honest View: Coworkers and Environment Itself? Awesome.. Leadership and Pay? TERRIBLE
I can honestly say that as a general company and concept, they're pretty amazing. This is the first job I've mostly enjoyed and the first company that I've worked for that I would ever back and advertise outside of work. The workouts are fun, most of the members are pretty cool and I enjoyed most of my coworkers. Relatively easy job and a fun one on both the coaching and fitness specialist sides of the glass. Room for great connections through the member base if you work it right. HOWEVER!!!! *dundundunnn* Niche- Fitness. in Alabama is a terrible franchise to work for and I don't recommend it, regardless of the city. Leadership is awful. They are a blatantly greedy and money hungry franchise that doesn't care 1% about their employees and often lie to and mislead members. If you don't drink the Kool-Aid and align with their groupthink vision, then you're all of a sudden "not a good fit" and you will get the boot if you dare speak against them or disagree. They work extremely hard to strip you of any compensation by commission. Base pay isn't enough to buy ice cream, they make the sales goals impossible to reach. Even if you work your butt off they're extremely unorganized, at least Montgomery branch is, so no one keeps track of the raises you're promised and you ultimately sell memberships for them for little to nothing with no chance of a raise. It went down hill completely after they fired our old manager who actually cared about and stuck up for us, despite the franchise's
ProsSchedule, Atmosphere, Workouts, Connections, Employees and Overall Concept
ConsPay, Employer Greed, Very Corporatized, Leadership, Advancement, Extra Uncompensated and Unappreciated Work
I've worked in many different coaching capacities in the fitness industry, from personal training to small group classes to the large class size of OTF. There were several studios I worked at in my time there, even as I moved from one part of the country to the other. A large part of the OTF experience is based on the management of the franchise(s) where you are employed. That's where most of the culture and pay structure stem from. That being said, I can offer a few general insights into coaching at OTF.
Objectively speaking, can be a great fitness instructor and a horrible OTF coach. Likewise, you can be a great coach for OTF and not the most knowledgeable about fitness and movement. So much of the job is about being able to deliver the sizzle, with not as much focus on the steak.
Be prepared for a bit of a learning curve for running classes. It's very much like being on a stage or under a microscope. Even if you have lots of experience as a coach or a performer, it takes some time.
This job is primarily about executing a specific set of instructions in specific time intervals. It's not very demanding intellectually, but you do have lots of balls in the air at once to juggle.
It can be very corporate. So much of the attention is towards towing the company line. There's not much room for real growth as a fitness professional. It's a bit easier to handle if you want to drink the Kool-aid and go all in. It's not always the best fit if you are an independent thi
Flexible place to work if you're a student, but definitely a headache.
A typical day at work consists of making phone calls, emails, etc. trying to sell memberships. The best part about working there was getting able to interact with the members. As far as the work place goes, it's not a hard job. It's literally a laid back job but at times, it's often boring. They won't allow you to do homework in between classes (usually there's like a three hour window between the noon class and the three o clock class). During that time, you're supposed to be marketing to get people inside the studio to try a class. Which is great, that's the job of a sales associate. However the studio that I worked at was terrible at this. There would usually only be one of us working during this time so I couldn't leave the studio therefore it left us no time to market which equals no leads. So when that happens, you're either hoping for a TI or calling previous leads or members that have told the previous employee a million times to leave them alone and that they're not interested. Then your manager expects you to sell 30-40 memberships a week. How do we do that when you're not giving us time to market? It's almost like they expect you to market during your free time which is ridiculous considering you typically are paid $10 an hour plus commission. The commission isn't great either. It's based on a point system per month and it increases once you pass a certain amount of points. Very confusing and not worth it. The most expensive membership (The Premiere - Unlimited) $1
ProsFree Membership
ConsNo Marketing Time, High Expectations with little tools given to achieve them expectations, Poor Commission System considering the value of what you're selling.
I have been working at Orangetheory since right before they opened our studio, at the tail end of presale. I was corporately trained and began working as an SA (membership advisor) from the very beginning. That was in October 2017. I have to say corporate training was BRUTIAL. For one week straight you would workout every single morning at 6am, followed by a 14 hour training session every day. I have to say I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it, but after roughing it out I’m still here a year and a half later still working for the company. I cannot say enough positive things about my work enviornment. It’s fun, everchanging, and productive. We get tons of members for this gym by doing events, personal advertising, referrals, and following up with warm leads. The amount of money we bring in for the company is incredible. Now I must add, we do make commission for sales, but that leaves us short when we have super slow months. Now for the salary! My starting pay was $10 an hour and then add whatever commission you make. You make anywhere between $5-12 depending on the type of membership you sell, and with the price of the memberships being slightly high it’s not something easy to sell. By all means the membership is worth what it costs, however people who haven’t really worked out at a good quality gym before aren’t expecting that number. Here I am, a year and a half later and I am STILL making $10 an hour. If you love fitness and can afford a job like this it’s absolu
ProsGood employees and managers, fun enviornment, free workouts
ConsPay, long hours, no room to grow or be promoted
I was just fired at Orange Theory after teaching 6 classes and it was a total surprise! I am a trainer with many years experience and I have NEVER been fired from any gym! The head trainer was a terrible micromanager and a control freak. I work with plenty of people over the years and get along well with most. The job requires for you to do a training for about a week and several weeks shadowing other coaches classes. I would shadow the head coach most times. Eventually you get to do a small section of the class until you end up teaching a whole class. They don't give you time to learn. It appeared to me she nit picked everything I did. Which is tough for a trainer who has been in the business for along time. Whenever I've learned a new discipline there is time given to get better at it. I feel I was fired because I could not attend a meeting where i had to role play with the front desk..meanwhile I have attended everything else. I have other jobs at other gyms because thats how I make a living. This role play thing could of been done at any other time, but because she is a control freak and I said "I can't do it today" she fired me. Not to mention you have to come in 30 minutes before class in case there are new people joining the class...which she never really went over with me and you will be staying 20-30 min after class if you taught the last class of the morning or evening because you have to empty trash of wipes water bottles and coffee cups YUCK and vacu
Prosgreat stereo, nice selection of clothes
Consmicromanagement is the way here, cleaning up trash and vacuuming
Every OTF has multiple cameras facing the desk which is intended for security purposes, but every manager I’ve had uses it to spy on their employees. If you so much as look in the wrong direction, they message you and act like you’re the worst employee in the world. Will reject time off or completely ignore; tell you to reschedule a doctor’s appointment and “figure it out or they’ll figure it out for you”; ridiculous policies that you have to support and fight with 700 clients every day about; absolutely zero fun allowed; and terrible pay. Been there for a year, and they still pay me what they did when I was first hired, always saying “Oh I keep forgetting about your performance reviews”. It’s the same with all my coworkers, despite growing by 200 clients in the past 6 months. Management is AWFUL!!!!!!! Clients and employees are leaving left and right!!!!
They offer you a free membership, but with how much you hate your job and since you don’t get paid to workout, you don’t use it.
There’s so much work to do that taking a break doesn’t even seem doable, but if you don’t take a break you get yelled at because “that’s illegal”. If you do, you get yelled at because you “didn’t get everything done” (i.e., pick up a speck of dust or put a pad of sticky notes in the desk) or you went when “there was a client in the studio”. There are always clients in the studio!!!!!
Honestly, I’ve been a server and bartender, and dealing with terrible customers is WAY better than dealing
I worked for orangetheory winter of 2018-19, and it was a generally unsatisfactory experience. The wage was low for the amount of energy I had to put in, and management was odd to navigate. I worked long hours and was never told about break policies - I watched my coworkers and eventually learned that nobody really took breaks. This was exhausting, especially when one week I was scheduled to work 8 7-9 hour shifts in a row. I was also expected to do classes at least twice a week. The implication was I could do it when I was there for a shift, but I could not afford to punch put and loose an hour's pay like many of my coworkers seemed to. Generally speaking it seemed like I was the only person there who was working there because I needed the money. After the first two weeks of training i was given almost no managerial support, and no positive or negative feedback of any kind other than a reiteration of my original training - I had no idea how I was performing until the day I left. Orangetheory also offers bonuses for signing up new members. Despite the fact that I signed up quite a few, I only sometimes saw the bonuses.
To be fair to orangetheory, if you are looking to work there for free classes it's a perfect job. If you're looking to make a living and care more about general wellness than gym culture, it's probably not the right place for you.
ProsFree excellent workout classes, performance based bonuses
ConsCulture is not great, management is not great, no break protocol
First if you work at OTF you basically have to LIVE AND BREATHE OTF. You are expected to go on weekend outings, reach out to people in public, and post it all over social media. If you clock out you never really clock out - coworkers and managers will message you off the clock constantly about work related thingS got a call and texts from my boss on a holiday where everyone was off.
No sick pay, no paid vacation, and pay scheduling is supposed to be 2 set days of the month but is inconsistent and can fall in the middle
Of the week after 17 days of not getting paid since the last paycheck. No health or any other benefits at all.
If your coworkers are slacking you have to pick up the slack. It seems like the social aspect of OTF is more important than the operational factors and employees forget to terminate memberships, dompaperwork and such that causes a huge headache for whoever sadly gets to deal with th angry member.
Management has no experience what so ever, boss has no idea what they are doing, and is never there.
You always forget what you are doing because you are constantly interrupted by members and by the end of the shift there’s 100 things you still have to do.
Members are amazing and appreciate you
Pay is decent but with the cost of living in my are impossible to live off of.
Unrealistic sales goals with the studio already packed.
Fun job if you're single or don't have any other interests outside of work. It's definitely not family friendly. No flexibility on scheduling. Studios are open 7 days a week, holidays, etc. There are no benefits that are worth sharing. No 401k, profit sharing, etc. They provide what they are required by law to provide - health insurance if you qualify. Yes, you get free workouts but you are working so much that you either don't have time to workout or are exhausted. Managers and asst managers can expect to work about 60 hours a week, with one day off per week. However if you're not meeting sales requirements you may be working 7 days a week. Sales and numbers are way more important than customer service and client relationships. Used to be much more boutique like with an emphasis on the personal experience, but because the market is getting more saturated powers that be are much more focused on new member numbers, while retention efforts are few and far between. It's franchisee/owner friendly - sales associate pay is abhorrent at $10/hour and the sales requirements, noting logs, paperwork, notating every call, every interaction, reminders, being on script for everything you say and do, following many different processes depending on the situation, cleaning, etc is a lot to ask for that amount of money. They say you can make much more and you can IF you work many, many hours.
Not the smartest place to work, make you feel like you are doing a good job then stab you in the back. One of the owners is completely disrespectful and doesn't know how to treat employees, this owner doesn't understand that the reason why the turnover rate is so high is because of that owner. Let's go of people for the at most ridiculous reason's, for the sake of just letting them go because they feel they don't need you anymore. The owner talks about reflecting on your self when when the owner doesn't even reflect on themselves and doesn't step back and think about what the owner is doing to drive employees out the door, also creates stories to make it seem like you're the problem.
Makes you feel as if you have no idea on what you're doing and tries to tell lies to your face making you seem as if you're the problem, doesn't look out for the nature or culture of the studio nor does the owner care about you as a person.
Completely numbers driven and doesn't look out for the members and what they want, tells lies about you to other employees and doesn't truly care about getting to know you or the members. Only benefit from working there is a free membership that you can use whenever you want other than that absolutely no good came from it expect the relationships I made with fellow staff members and studio members.
Doesn't realize that in order to keep members you need to have an employee that actually goes above and beyond for the member, I learnt nothing from this j
ProsFree Membership, Meet some genuinely nice people
ConsPoor Management, no advancement or job security
Considero que el ambiente laboral en OrangeTheory Fitnes, es agradable, se trabaja en equipo y con las metas bien claras, brindar un servicio que ayude a los socios a cumplir sus objetivos fitnes en un ambiente divertido y que se sientan como en familia.
Un dia tipico en orangetheory fitness es ver entrar a todos los socios con una sonrisa porque saben que van a ejercitar su cuerpo pero como todas las clases son distintas no saben que entreno es el que esperaran y eso hace que las clases sean mas emocionantes
Tuve la oportunidad de que la Studio Manager fuera una persona super amable, con visiones claras y que siempre estaba dispuesta para ayudar al equipo.
La cultura laboral dentro de Orange segun mi experiencia es que segun la perspectiva de cada persona es como te sentiras, si tu actitud es negativa sentiras un ambiente negativo pero si tu actitud es siempre positiva veras solo las cosas buenas de las cosas.
La parte mas dificil del trabajo fue el entrenamiento porque fui parte del equipo que inicio con el primero Orangetheory en guatemala asi que ninguno teniamos idea de todo lo que el proyecto significaba, hasta que fuimos aprendiendo todos juntos y en lo personal me encanta el tipo de entrenamiento que se utiliza ya que es unico y con resultados increibles.
lo que mas me gusto del trabajo es que hice muchas amistades, no solo con compañeros sino tambien con socios a quienes aun tengo comunicacion y aprecio, tambien me gustaba mucho ver la motivacion de
It was an unfortunate experience as each studio is owned by a different franchisee and this one had no previous ownership, management, or fitness industry experience.
As such, the working conditions were abysmal. Staff members were often spoken to like imbeciles, told they were only allowed to work their given shift and would not be paid for overtime, but pressed into staying late to "help out on their own time".
The work conditions felt more like that of used car lot than a fitness studio. Some staff members found it increasingly difficult to keep working there as they were outright asked to lie to the clients regarding promotions and sign up incentives. Promises were continually withdrawn when it became inconvenient for the owners to follow through on them.
Staff were regularly promised large celebrations, bonuses, and incentives if certain quotas were met, but inconsistently followed through on.
Each time the staff would near a quota, the quota would move up again, making it near impossible for the staff to reach them and therefor the owners didn't have to keep their word.
The most difficult part of the job was the continually changing expectations from the owners and never being able to meet them.
Under new management, I believe the business itself would be successful, but as it stands, I find it difficult to believe they wouldn't keep losing members hand over fist.
ProsFree coffee occasionally, great clientele
ConsHigh pressure, long unpaid hours, condescension, poor leadership, unfulfilled promises
Questions And Answers about Orangetheory Fitness
If you were in charge, what would you do to make Orangetheory Fitness a better place to work?
Asked Feb 10, 2018
Stop making coaches clean and vacuum the floor , instead hire cleaners .
Answered Jun 22, 2021
Get better managers and have better standards for them. Do not reward clique behavior and base opinions on employees off of their work and not off of favorites.
Answered Jul 5, 2020
What tips or advice would you give to someone interviewing at Orangetheory Fitness?
Asked Sep 11, 2016
Don't.
It's a toxic environment fueled by cliques and prejudice
Answered Jul 5, 2020
Just be yourself. Make sure you will fit in with culture. Energetic, young, vibrant
Answered Nov 8, 2019
Does Orangetheory fitness do pre employment drug testing?
Asked Jan 25, 2017
No, but they should! so many employees in and out because they're strung out
Answered Oct 12, 2018
No. Otherwise they probably wouldn't be hire any employees lol.
Answered Mar 10, 2018
On average, how many hours do you work a day at Orangetheory Fitness?
Asked Nov 2, 2016
You average 3-5 hours
Answered Nov 1, 2018
8 hours a day. 32-40 hours a week. it was inconsistent.
Answered Aug 24, 2017
What is the work environment and culture like at Orangetheory Fitness?
Asked Jul 24, 2016
Clique environment and immature. A lot of favoritism and backstabbing
