‘I’m expected to show up even if I have no clients, just to hang around and work for free’: Boss demands part-time personal trainer to work unpaid hours, pushing their limit to brink of quitting

Some jobs promise flexibility and balance, but then turn around and demand you perform the professional equivalent of burpees on repeat. Take a personal trainer who thought they were signing up for a laid-back, part-time gig, only to find out they were expected to hang around the gym floor like an unpaid kettlebell. Lots of unpaid pain with no real gain.

Workplace exploitation often feels like being stuck on a treadmill set to max incline, no matter how hard you push, you're still going nowhere. Managers have a habit of treating labor like a high-intensity interval training session, constantly upping the pace while offering no time to rest or regroup. These tough-guy trainers of the corporate who are stacking tasks you never agreed to and throwing them into your routine, like surprise lunges that leave you with nothing but soreness and regret.

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Unpaid labor, long hours, and passive-aggressive attitudes? That’s not professional growth; that’s a relentless circuit with no water breaks.
For this trainer, the final straw was being expected to show up to the gym floor unpaid, just to loiter as an informal floor decoration. After being pushed too far, they realized the only exercise worth doing is the one where you flex your boundaries and strength-train your self-respect. Sometimes, the best workout is walking away.
via Stel Antic

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‘I’m expected to show up even if I have no clients, just to hang around and work for free’: Boss demands part-time personal trainer to work unpaid hours, pushing their limit to brink of quitting

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‘I can’t help but feel like it was personal, not professional’: Manager turns sick days into performance issues to justify firing employee during probation period

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