Now I’m concerned. There is this company in town that epitomizes the throw away society we’ve created. They throw away massage therapists.
One of the people I interviewed works for a massage franchise that has moved into town. It sounds like a great deal. A customer will pay a monthly fee of (I believe) $39.00. Once the fee has been paid, they can get as many massages as they want during that month for a fee of $30.00 each. Sounds good, right? What’s wrong with it? Well, I’ll tell you...
The company makes money off the ‘membership fee’. Since they only get $30 for each 1-hour massage, the company pays the therapists $15 for the work they do in that hour. Now, I know that therapists that work for someone else don’t make a lot per hour worked. The average rate seems to be about $25 per hour. One of the spas in town here charges their customers about $80 for an hour massage and then pay only $25 of that to the therapist. These therapists do eight 50-minute sessions each day. Because of this, there is no time to do really good work as one is so rushed.
Actually, I thought it pretty bad that I am planning on paying $30 to the therapist I hire for an hour’s work (actually I’m paying 50% of the full price that the company charges). But $15 an hour? That is just way too little. I’d say I couldn’t work for that, but then I haven’t taken a penny home since I opened my doors.
What happens is that they have to employ people right out of school without the experience to do real good work. They pay them too little, burn them out, and then hire someone else to replace them when they can’t take it any more. Unfortunately, that seems to be the way the whole work society is going, work someone until they turn 60, then fire them and hire someone who costs less in their place.
The scary part is that this company is busy. They have people coming in left and right. Their customers think they are getting a good deal, and probably think this is an affordable price. But they are losing as well. The quality of the work they are getting is equivalent to the price they are paying. And they may actually be losing on the deal.
I heard that there is going to be one of these ‘meat shops’ coming to the beach somewhere. I wonder how much business it will take from those of us that do good work at reasonable rates?