24 Hour Fitness Reviews

Pros

Flexible schedules
Interaction with clientele

Cons

Micro-managed
Incompetence from senior management
Cold calling
They focus on selling more than training
Even if the client is good enough to work out on his/her own, you must convince them otherwise
Need to convince clients to take unnecessary supplements
Workers talk bad of clients
More of a selling job than personal training
They only give you clients if you are friends with the sales team, or apart of the "click"
Most importantly, pay is HORRIBLE

Advice to Senior Management

Stop micro managing the workers
Pay the trainers more
Fix the point of sale system, distribute clients evenly
Stop deceiving clients that they need more sessions
END COLD CALLS!

Pros

The abilility to grow your own business. You get to learn about the fitness industry. It can be a great team environment in which you can learn from other trainers.

Cons

Selling can be extremely challeging & stressful. They should have people do it for you, so you can focus on training. The pay system is aweful. I was really surprised. If you're a good trainer, why would want to work for 24? It's not a good opportunity if your hoping to make money. I get the sense, you need to be more of a salesman rather than trainer.

Advice to Senior Management

Examine the pay scale relative to other gyms in the industry. There are no alot of incentives to work for this company.

Pros

free gym membership
easy going,

Cons

low pay
commission: no residuals
always work weekends
front desk shift can start as early as 6 am and as late as 11 pm
sales: SUPER cut throat

Advice to Senior Management

haha try promoting qualified people!

Pros

free membership worldwide
operation hours
many locations in the area and all convenient
great co workers...always were fun
pay is better here, compared to la fitness, which i was also employed as well.
guests were able to start their membership without a down payment...la fitness requires a $60 minimum down payment for memberships.
alot of incentives and staff was rewarded for good jobs done, unlike la fitness
many professionals were able to make a supplemental income with 24 hour fitness as a 2nd job full or part time.
good music played and the variety of satellite radio categories to choose from.
catering more towards younger generation
diversity of management (men and women) unlike la fitness.
compensation and bonus structure as a general manager
paid holidays and vacation
weekends off
fun atmosphere to work in
i loved my staff and still miss working with them to this day!
we had good bonds and relationships with staff and also had fun outside of work as well.
learn alot and grew fast in this industry that i did not pick up so quick in the more corporate world.

Cons

pay for sales counselors and sales managers need to be increased for the hard work involved..(the path that i came from).
pay structure doesn't need to constant change
people can buy memberships online without walking in a club and it takes away commissions from the sales staff.
commissions are split in half if you sell a web-match which is basically a online special for memberships and training.
commissions are also split in half through pay periods if you dont get the total deposit of the membership that day its sold. you have to wait the next pay period to recieve the other half of what you earned as a sales staff.
you have to work closeout days whether you are scheduled off or not.
you are not paid for prospecting outside the workplace
job was less stressful as a general manager compared to la fitness. selling was not required as a gm with 24 hour fitness. i would easily pass walk ins to sales staff for them to make money versus la fitness where the gm has to sell and only they get walk ins..no sales staff at la fitness is allowed to take walk ins.
we had an up system in place for sales counselors, which was a 50% successful rate.
dirty gyms
old and worn out equipped still in use from golds and worlds gyms here back in the 80s and early 90s..
alot of things changed for the worst after founder mark mastrov retire and carl liebert took over as president of the corporaation which led to higher turnover rate.
members have to pay more money to upgrade to a location that has more to offer.
too cheap to have janitors work all day and night to keep gyms clean
no hand sanitizing stations available in gyms
have your gms properly train your front desk staff. when i was promoted gm i went to another club from where i started and had to retrain my staff based on the lack of training they received from the last gm and had to deal with alot of unnecessary concerns from members in regards to former gm overlooking and ignoring issues.
alot of gms take their position for granted and lack responsibilites for the job such as returning phone calls working on member accounts, being present and prompted for interviews and inspecting their clubs.
alot of hours play in my role as a gm and were too demanding when it came to me pursuing my college education..a hard decision to make but i chose to leave because i wanted to finish my bachelors degree in a career i had more interest in. during that time we went through new district managers and i was no longer able to set my schedule around college so i was forced to work a shift that interfered with college and as a result i dropped classes and delayed my graduation. to make a long story short i had to sacrifice the good paying job and follow my heart to finish college. i made more money there than ever in my life during the time but there were times i felt unhappy with work and the chance to advance into a dstr mgr overseeing multi locations because slim to none. it was a breakthrough in my work history where i made more than 70k a yr not included incentives and bonuses, but alot of sacrifices were made for that.
i am done with college now but the only way i would decide to go back would be into area/regional management. in most cases, general managers did most of their work and were paid almost 50% less.
cancellation and billing issues of members still being charged or double charged, which is corporate's fault, but the gms' and front desk staff take the hit for it.
this type of work is not for everyone but its fun and can be rewarding and challenging.
turnover rate needs to be decreased alot...much of that is do to compensation.

Advice to Senior Management

stop changing pay structure so much and pay your selling staff better since they are the bread and butter of the company. treat your managers will respect, instead of using profane language on conference calls because of a bad weekend. we all have good and bad times, but profanity doesnt help the situation, and its very unprofessional coming from a person in upper management such as a district manager or regional vice president. members should be able to use any location regardless of how much money they pay every month. should not be so money hungry and greedy.
take care of your gyms and dont wait 10-20 yrs to do gym makeovers. have janitors on clock all day and night. instead 2 rotating in the day or night..too much traffic comes in the gyms for it to only be cleaned once a day!!! make closeouts more fun and give people a reason to look forward to it

hire managers who are in the industry to make a difference instead of running off the good ones and glorifying the ones in it for the money and careless about their staff or members.

Pros

i love working with the customers, and the training it self

Cons

the company only cares about money, and doesnt give a crap about the people that pay their bills, and im talking both trainers and our clients.

Pros

Free membership, free kids club, really good group health insurance

Cons

CONSTANT management turn-over, no pay increase in over ten years, dirty gyms, poorly maintained equipment, heating & air conditioning are constant battles, constantly trying to include the "latest and greatest" except that EVERYONE ELSE is doing the same things (zumba, boot camp, Les Mills). Really insulting when management tells us "we really want this to be the best place to work."

Advice to Senior Management

Where to start? In over ten years of employment I've had 12 supervisors. Corporate in California has NO CLUE what is appropriate for the rest of the country. Management is a JOKE, only ever reading memos from corporate. PAY your Group X instructors FAIRLY. Stop cutting classes, especially of your long-term instructors. When you cut our classes, you cut our health insurance, and it's ALL we have! Get off your high horses and listen to your employees!

Pros

Compensation to a point
Benefits
Work Environment

Cons

Working at 24 Hour Fitness initial starts off great, after several years the daunting task of dealing with member concerns, staff issues, Compensation Changes and lack of consistent in employment behaviors begin to wear you down.

Pros

Free Membership
Flexible schedule for going to school
Convenient locations
Free body fat measuring and other services from trainers

Cons

They would bring pizza to employee meetings... For the employees to eat in front of the exercising customers.
Low pay. Worked there for 1 1/2 years with no increase
Because of the low pay, managers expected less from employees. Employees got away with too much, showing up late, not showing up at all with no consequences
You are expected to memorize and on any given day, recite the company values whenever the executives came in
CPR training is required and you have to pay the company for the training.

Advice to Senior Management

Instead of punishing employees for not memorizing and reciting company values verbatim, reward employees who exhibit those values
Pay employees for CPR training since it's required, don't make them pay for that on minimum wage
Increase your pay and be more discriminatory about who you hire

Pros

Free gym membership
Easy job
Flexible hours
Most of the members are pretty nice and sociable.
Discounts on certification training and tests
It's a decent job if you just want to make some money on the side and would like to eventually get into the fitness industry, but not great for people who are working there to live.

Cons

24 Hour Fitness is extremely cheap... they pay employees bare minimums and are frequently taking away perks (like allowing you, as an employee, to give one free membership to a workout buddy who is not related or married to you).
It's not very challenging or stimulating work.
Management can be disrespectful.
Very little autonomy.

Advice to Senior Management

The Service Reps should be trained to do more tasks in the gym. Management should also allow the Service Reps more autonomy to do their jobs, and treat them like adults.

Pros

The contacts and clients I had. I created some really close relationships with clients over the years and when I needed anything all I had to do was ask; which I didn't, but I could have.

Cons

The pay for vacations SUCKS, and the same goes for sick pay. The company hounds the employees about sales instead of how clients are doing, which builds rapport and will increase business.

Advice to Senior Management

LIsten to your employee's and take action more immediatly when legit suggestions are made. Upgrdes to clubs that have the potential to draw more interest, don't because lack of investment toward infrastructure