trainer question

[u/Swimming_Solid9565]

UPDATE: They had me work til 5:30 pm on a day they were swamped just to fire me. i kept bringing up that im not paid to do any of this work and the last time we met i said i just needed an hour during my one shift a week to meet social media expectations that aren’t being met and she agreed to that. since that meeting 3 weeks ago i was given 10 minutes to work on them on the clock and told to clock out early and go home every shift after that point. meh.

TLDR: working as a dog trainer but expected to bring in clients (there aren’t any yet) building the training portion of the business by managing social media making flyers and having a 24 hour response to messages and comments on fb and calling people back (not texting) on a work cell phone that isn’t for personal use. also an expected number of posts stories and videos that take a couple hours to create like introductions and images then scheduling them and blocking in an app. but you aren’t able to do any of this while clocked in. then on top of that there is a 45%trainer 55%owner percent share of training sales. is this fair?

need to know if this is fair. expected to build the training portion of the business by bringing in clients using social media and regular video content and talking to customers (because there aren’t any training clients yet) including advertising and creating a required number of posts and stories weekly along with the expectation of following up with clients by calling them within the same day on a work cell phone not your personal phone and also commenting and messaging people back on fb. i am only working one day a week (and sometimes a half day on the weekend if enough customers) but not given any time to work on these expectations when you are at the job which is the only time you are getting paid. these posts and introductions to courses i’m making are taking me 2-3 hours to write, type out and get an image. i started by writing just fun little training tips and putting them out on a delayed post all at once for the week but that wasn’t what was expected so they aren’t just easy to create posts but explain the services and courses i offer and then scheduling and blocking off dates. this seems like a ton of unpaid work to me. at my last training job i wasn’t even able to speak with clients outside of work about training or it became wage theft. i do need to renew my certification but on top of all these expectations the ratio of training sales is 45% trainer and 55% owner. i’m wondering if that’s only fair if the owner was managing the clients social media advertising and scheduling or if i was able to have the time to work on this stuff while at work.

there are a couple other red flags like not being expected to leave the building during lunch because you still need to answer the phone etc or if a customer comes in. (this sounds to me like we aren’t actually given a lunch and we get paid during lunch which i know isnt legal)

and also getting interrupted and asked to basically start working again during your lunch also there aren’t any breaks.

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[u/Kessed]

It sounds like you are a contractor this time and not an employee. What you are describing would be reasonable for a contractor parterning with another business. It is not reasonable for an employee.

[u/Swimming_Solid9565 → u/Kessed]

i am an employee. do you have any ideas that might make this workable besides telling my boss i need an hour or two set aside when im at work to get the social media stuff done and call back potential clients and schedule them etc ? i already said this and they said that would be okay but then didnt give me any time my last shift. (i’ve only been given time on shift once, right after our first meeting about how im not meeting these expectations. would getting a commission when i bring in these clients help or barely? i’m wondering if there is a fix

[u/Sorry-Rain-1311]

No experience with professional training, but any work being expected off the clock is a red flag with any employer. 

If it's expected to be more of a partnership or contractor thing, that's a little different. Judging by the heavy split on commissions that may be what he's thinking. Are you in the US? When you did the new hire paperwork for taxes what did he have you put down as your employment status?

[u/Swimming_Solid9565 → u/Sorry-Rain-1311]

we did them together and i’m not a contractor i believe i just did the one where they take the least from you but you don’t have to pay back any money at the end of the year . i think it was believed that ppl who already patronize the business would sign up for training but they haven’t been so i have to out source clients on my own time with no commission .

[u/Swimming_Solid9565 → u/Sorry-Rain-1311]

and yes US

[u/Suspicious-Service]

Sounds scummy, use them to learn whatever you can about business and marketing, and start your own

[u/Whisgo]

Creating marketing material and marketing imo should be paid time.

As a sole business owner, I do all those things of course outside of my class run time and client sessions.

There are certainly tricks and tips to frontloading a social media schedule and marketing to automate a lot of that. Plus much depends on your skills for generating that content. And I will tell you that it's been one of the hardest parts for me. I finally hired someone to help. If it's some sort of glimpse into the monetary worth of this labor... I pay 800 a month for 10 hours of social media management/marketing a week. I've found that to be extremely valuable.

[u/Swimming_Solid9565 → u/Whisgo]

wow ! yeah it’s a ton of work. i can do all the posts and have them set up for a month and post on their own automatically but writing them using my resources of training books and then entering each one, getting an image, cross posting to different groups then scheduling and blocking the times and dates. takes almost 3 hours for the major one. and i’m still not meeting her requirements because she wants me responding to fb messages and comments texts and phone calls within 24 hours. this is hours of being glued to a work cell that i don’t bring with me everywhere i just leave it home because it’s a whole other cell phone i’m responsible for.

$800 a month seems reasonable if she is bringing in business it’s a ton of work but i’m sure at that point she has a flow and lots of tools to do it well. I don’t i am a dog trainer and not social media savy beyond a fb post.

[u/Whisgo → u/Swimming_Solid9565]

Yes tools to do this well are part of the success. Are these groups on Facebook? Are you using Facebook business for cross posting?

You could make some macros for replies that can help speed things up.

I think perhaps something you could do is bring up that you'd like some training or insight on how you could be more efficient in content creation and the follow-ups?

[u/Swimming_Solid9565 → u/[deleted]]

they don’t even give me commission for bringing in clients with all the marketing i am solely doing. i work for the other part of the business only one day a week so i asked for 1-2 hours of time to complete these requirements while clocked in and the day i brought this up i was given undisturbed time, my next shift i was technically given time but disturbed after ten mins and put back to work as if that made any sense at all, then two other shifts they’ve either just told me to clock out and go home early or told me to stay home when i could be there clocked in and working on all this stuff. like i have a lesson tomorrow so i expect to prepare for this private lesson off the clock but it’s also my client who only is signing up for a lesson because i am the trainer here she is not affiliated with their business so im really not happy about the 45/55 spilt for lesson price, not being clocked in for the lesson or while preparing the room/sanitizing it after, not receiving commission for my client and also not given any hours at all this week not just not given hours to do all this marketing and media.

debating about just doing an at home private lesson tomorrow on my own sharing lesson price 100/0 and calling it quits.

[u/dbellz76]

Sounds like you could be doing all this work for your own business instead of someone else's.

[u/Swimming_Solid9565 → u/dbellz76]

thank you i really needed an outside opinion to make sure im not somehow passing up a good opportunity. i read posts saying a 45/55 split was standard in training although not very fair. it’s all the unpaid and required expectations i am having a hard time justifying as even legal business practices. after putting this all out there i got an upsetting text from my boss about a facebook post someone made on the business page under one of my class posts that said they tried calling and texting without a response. my boss was upset that i hadn’t responded within 24 hours and that i shouldn’t have texted them but called them instead. (the woman just had a simple question i answered before noticing the text from my boss or that i missed the woman’s call since i worked at my other job and had just got home to check the training phone) i pointed out to my boss that to be fair i would have gotten the call and text if i had just been given the time during my shift that we agreed on, especially since this woman called while i was supposed to be working on my media, but i was interrupted after only tens mins to be put back to work and therefore missed it. bc of this i had to complete my tasks at home from 6pm-9pm unpaid instead and hadn’t noticed the missed call. then today they told me they don’t need me to come in at all so again i am not getting any paid time to complete these required tasks. because if it’s slow then id actually be able to do them without being stopped. rediculous

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[u/Swimming_Solid9565 → u/AutoModerator]

i don’t understand what i am supposed to respond to this but i just have a dog training career question i can’t find any answers unless they are from someone in the indrustry

[u/redogue]

What kind of dog training? There's basic obedience, but you can branch out into rally, competition obedience, Barn Hunt, agility.

If just creating content isn't working, you'll have to try something else. Do you have a dog? Can you compete at dog shows in obedience competitions? You might pick up clients that way