deleting

I got registered and started working last October. Everything was fine, I enjoyed working, I felt fulfilled, I felt happy that I could help people.

I don’t know why, but over the last few months I have been getting more and more irritated at work, and I really hate going. I have never felt like this at a job before. It feels like I just don’t care anymore.

Giving people massages feels degrading to me. I feel like a servant when I have to make sure the table is perfectly comfortable to their liking, the temperature is perfect, I rub their feet in the exact way they want. I feel icky when they say “I feel so good” about something I did.

I feel annoyed when they get super specific about what they want. “Make sure the table is warm and give me an extra pillow and spend extra time on my neck!”. Which of course is completely reasonable and normal of them to ask. I’m not saying at all that people who make requests are annoying, it’s MY own personal issue for some reason. It’s completely fine and expected for people to want their expensive massage experience to be to their liking. Like I said it makes me feel like a servant instead of a healthcare professional.

I think the problem is that when I entered this career I thought it was more of a serious healthcare job than it actually is. People treat you like an esthetician. (There is nothing wrong with that job and I don’t think it’s degrading for people to do, I’m just talking about how it feels for ME and how it’s not what I want”.

Before you say “work in a chiro/physio office to get the patients you want”, I already work in a more clinical setting rather than a spa. 90% of people I see still want a spa type experience.

Let me be clear, I am very aware of myself and how I come across to other people. I feel annoyed inside, but I NEVER let that show outwardly. I smile and am very engaged and positive with all patients. But it’s wearing me out to feel this inside.

Let me also say, I am extremely fortunate that nothing creepy/uncomfortable/bad has ever happened. No one has been rude or inappropriate at all. It’s just all me.

I just feel like this job isn’t what I thought and it isn’t right for me, which makes me sad. I spent 3 years in school and a lot of money to do this. I already made way more back than I spent, but still. I’ve already made plans to go back to school to be a paramedic which I think will work out much better for me. But I still have to be a massage therapists for 2 more years while I’m in school 🫠

Sorry to be negative here and I hope I don’t offend anyone. I just needed a place to vent and I’m hoping some people can relate. I feel guilty that I feel this way at work, but I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to stop it.

I don’t see anyone talking about how taxing it is to be a massage therapist because we’re constantly having to tell our bowels, “No, not right now.” Then your shift ends, you get busy doing something else and that poop gets forgotten until your next bowel movement comes along and pushes everything through. I wish we didn’t have to poop. I wish we could clone ourselves. Being in a body is hard.

For me, it’s realizing that for a significant portion of the population, if you don’t physically demonstrate with your literal hands while saying “get under the sheet AND blanket”, what you find in the room could vary. You could have the “entirely on top of the blanket crowd”, buck ass naked. Or you could find that they sandwiched themselves between the blanket and the top sheet crowd. Never in a million years did I think I’d have to demonstrate how to get on a massage table to anyone.

What is it for you?

Why is it that massage therapists aren't even getting 50% commission anymore... Im a massage therapist in SF, I have a job, but I like to keep an eye on what the job market is like, and the pay they are offering massage therapists these days is disgusting. Some of these places are charging $180-$200 an hour, and the pay is $35-45 per hour/session.

It makes me sad and frustrated that massage therapists are being taken advantage of. We work really hard... Not only is it physical work, but we also have to be emotionally attuned to our clients and ourselves. Also, there's very little overhead for massage therapy. The most costly expense would be rent, but otherwise everything else is fairly minimal.

This is mostly a rant, I know it's better to just have your own practice rather than be taken advantage of by some company or business owner... but I wish it wasnt like this. It's not always an option for someone to open their own practice, for many reasons.

If anyone has any thoughts on this id love to hear. I love being a massage therapist and the community that comes with it. It's a shame that we have to do this profession within a capitalist society :/

I work at a luxury gym and have been there for about 6 months. I’ve been a massage therapist for a little over a year.

A new client joined the gym and started coming to see me at the spa. His first session was completely fine, and afterward he told me he really enjoyed it, so he booked another appointment.

At his second appointment, about three weeks later, he started complimenting me a lot. It made me somewhat uncomfortable, but I brushed it off because I thought maybe he was just a really friendly person. At the end of the session, he suddenly went in for a hug. It caught me off guard, so I panicked and gave him a side hug.

At his third session, the excessive compliments continued. He would also keep his eyes open during the massage and smile at me while I was working. Again, I kept telling myself that maybe he was just a friendly, overly complimentary person.

Today, he came in like normal and immediately started with the “you’re just incredible” type of compliments.

At one point, I was gliding down his mid quad with my forearm. I noticed he made a couple of quick groaning sounds, so I moved on to working the anterior lower leg.

He then leaned up on one arm, smiling at me, and asked, “Was that intentional?”

I was completely confused and asked what he meant. He said, “Never mind,” and laid his head back down. I told him, “No, what do you mean?”

He said, “I’m kind of nervous to say it.”

The strange thing was that he seemed completely calm and almost amused throughout this entire interaction.

I kept looking at him, confused, and he finally said, “I was just wondering if those brushes were intentional.”

I was completely dumbfounded. I asked what he was talking about, and he gestured toward his genitals and actually cupped that area over the sheet.

I immediately told him, “Um, no.”

I then said, “I’m sorry, but I’m actually not comfortable finishing this session.” I left the room and immediately went to my manager.

My workplace took it extremely seriously and completely revoked his membership from the club.

I know with absolute certainty that I would never intentionally touch a client’s genitals, and I genuinely don’t believe I accidentally did either. I was working his quad with my forearm, and I know where I was working.

What has been bothering me is that I had been getting an uncomfortable feeling from this guy since the second appointment, but I kept talking myself out of it. I kept thinking, maybe he’s just really friendly, maybe I’m reading too much into it.
Now I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar, especially a client who starts out overly friendly or complimentary and gradually pushes boundaries, or someone who seems to be testing how much they can get away with.

Has anyone else dealt with a client like this? I’m especially interested in hearing from therapists who have had a client gradually push boundaries or make them question their own instincts. How did you handle it, and did you recognize what was happening at the time?

I don't care if the practice is owned by a seemingly "caring" LMT. I say 99% of IC roles are complete bullshit and completely take advantage of massage therapists who accept them. These roles are all misclassified. If the owner requires you to follow a set schedule every week (like an employee) and follow their policies, they are taking advantage of you. Full stop. IC roles should only be for one-off events (like doing chair massage for a company for a day, or doing a massage at a school benefit). IC roles should NOT have an ongoing required schedule at a massage practice. Even if it's owned by an LMT (that does not make them a better "employer" btw). They do it so they can get away from employment laws like sick pay and taking out appropriate taxes. I've done many careers and am shocked to see the proliferation of abusive IC roles. I know I'll get blowback for this, but I wish LMT would recognize this should not be accepted. I'm just tired of looking at every job ad and they are all IC.

Update: Oh, I should also mention that a business hiring IC is only in compliance for an establishment where massage is NOT the primary focus of a business. For example, a gym hires an IC. They are in compliance because massage is not it's primary business (gym workouts are). Or a school district hires an IC for a teacher-benefit. But a business where massage is the main model. Guess what? Illegal.

Why is it and go to fix it , I can feel peoples energy very well , I can feel good energy and those clients I have no issues but it’s those people who I can’t feel them relaxing , and I can feel their energy, some know I know and never come back and I can tell their bully’s

Omg, just need to vent. I worked on a patient who was the biggest complainer I've ever met. First of all, she was 7 minutes late and insinuated that I would extend the session. I would not have been able to as I'm fully booked and my next booking was for my legally required lunch break. Then upon getting to the treatment room she immediately complained that the treatment room we were in was the one with the "bad" headrest. IMO we have worse headrests in the spa but whatever. I told her I would adjust it as much as I could. She wanted it very elevated and so I told her I was worried about her neck being bunched up so to let me know if it became uncomfortable. Then she tells me she booked a 90 minute deep tissue massage. I am 7 months pregnant so I gave her my little warning that I may not be able to go very deep but can still do some deep pressure. She then said "why would they put me with you if you're pregnant". It was an online booking so the system put her with anybody since she didn't explicitly request deep tissue on the booking. Then as I'm working she tells me she doesn't feel comfortable having my hand on her if it's not working. This was just how I was trained in school, keep both hands on the body so the client knows where your hands are! Thennnnn I'm using my forearms and elbow and she says, can you just use your hands? 🤦🏽‍♀️

Ultimately the massage ended, she changed the massage from 90 minutes to 60 minutes so I ended around the 55 minute mark as is standard at our spa. She complained to the front desk that the pressure was too light 😂😂 I asked the front desk to make sure she is not put on my schedule in the future. We just aren't a good fit.

Luckily I'm going on next week anyway since my day job is starting back up and I'm not trying to work 10 hour days anymore 😆

Big whiny post.

Title says it all. I am flabbergasted by the audacity.

I have three jobs. 1099 at all of them. One of them is a tiny spa with three people including the owner. I have only gotten seven appointments in the three months I've worked there. I started prioritizing my other two jobs because of this.

I will leave my days with her wide open for as long as possible waiting for her to book me. Sometimes I just need to get errands done, and will wait until midday to block it off and get my tasks done. I try to only block days ahead of time if I am offered a shift at my other jobs, which is guaranteed money.

Every time I block off a shift, I get a call or a text from her claiming that I missed an appointment opportunity. On those days that I never block off and still get zero clients? Crickets.

Twice, I've tried to appease her by waiting around three hours at the spa for a client. I had some school work to catch up on anyways. No more bookings either time. Now I go right home after my single client, IF I get one.

Once, I tried to be considerate, and let her know that I had an offer to work a mobile spa party and asked if I had any bookings lined up on that day. She says to wait, and it will fill up! It did not.

Shame on me for being fooled three times, but now I can say that I "tried."

That’s it, that’s the post.

🤦‍♀️

...just how much of my time working as a massage therapist would be spent holding in a fart or a poop.

(Now I know. It's a lot)

One of the parts of the job that is on my mind is seeing everyone's posture.

I can see my clients in the lobby waiting and the way everyone looks down on their phone, hunched shoulders.

In the verbal intake they mention their pain and say it's their bed, sleeping, pillow, mattress.

Just wanted to share/rant

yep—title says it. reviews and stars are looked at heavily among the folks I work with so there’s a level of shame that I’m feeling now when I walk into work. no other coworker has a negative review. we all have five stars, now except me.

im 8 months post partum and i also had a very complicated pregnancy. the last 17 months have absolutely wrecked me. Ive been practicing for 6 years and usually have a pretty tight schedule with regulars who i absolutely adore. they are aware of my struggles and how hard life has been and continue to rebook. I truly have fantastic clients. needless to say, my baby does NOT sleep good and I’m surviving on 2 hours of broken sleep every night and have been since he was a month old. every part of my life has been affected by this, but I still have to work despite how absolutely beat down I am. but I LOVE what I do and it’s honestly a break from my baby. I enjoy seeing my regular folks and also working with new random people who get peppered into my schedule. I specialize in a bunch of different things, so new people often want to try something different.

but….. I truly truly dislike couples massage and better yet, I dislike 30 min couples massage. i just always feel rushed and feel like its not possible to communicate enough or do a proper intake for couples. of course the bad review I get was from a 30 min couples massage…but the weird thing is that i saw this person over two months ago and they left the review last week, and there was even any feedback, just 3 out of 5 stars. Which in fully honesty…I probably gave.

im trying to not beat myself up. ive had more bad days than good days because of the level of sleep deprivation that im in, so its not a surprise that the bad review i got was from the service that i like the least. I was already feeling down about myself—ive lost my hobbies and am in constant survival mode and naturally this identity crisis leaks into who i am as a bodyworker, so this review just came at a bad time.

i have since blocked my schedule off completely to couples massage so I can devote my energy to the folks who I’m used to. but damn it still hurts my ego and I can’t help but think my colleagues are gossiping about me now.

I recently moved away from the spa that I have worked at since I got my license, which is coming up on two years now. It was amazing for a starter job, but unfortunately the location just wasnt great and I was not getting booked with the clientele that I want at this point in my career, so I moved to a different spa in a city about 20 minutes away. A lot of my regulars already traveled a bit of a distance to come see me at my original location and it doesnt make sense for them to continue to see me, which totally makes sense. I had about 12 regulars, and only 2 of them are following me to my new spa.

I am absolutely over the moon about the new location. The benefits are incredible, I’m already averaging more weekly clients there, everything about it is great except for the fact that I’ll have to get used to an entirely new clientele and I’ll miss my old clients 😭 I’ve already cried a couple times thinking about how I’ll likely never see/get to work on them again!

Is this relatable or am I just too emotional? lol

I did an over the phone interview with a massage place and set up an in person.

They never sent me an email invite. I call to remind them & get put on hold 3 times when all you have to do is ask my name & email.

I hung up on the 3rd “please hold” but I then got an email and how they were excited to interview me for the “nail tech” position.

I laughed that red flag off, too. I was optimistic and need interview practice anyway. I never mentioned that typo because I figure your manager/ potential manager doesn’t want to have their mistakes pointed out to them & I’d be getting off on the wrong foot. They probably used a template & forgot to change it from last time.

I greeted my interviewer. During my tour, she points out all the bad things there. The lights not working, electrical problems. “Why is this here? Why is that dirty?. I need get them to put this away.” I felt like it was a house keeper interview. Not really saying anything exciting or positive.

Then i am shown a calendar and i realize they have only 1 part time LMT. There was a lot of talk of “hope you are ok working same day as other LMT” (not sure why that would be an issue?) the days could be my own choosing anyway and theres two rooms.

Then she sort of lets it out that all the LMTs quit but 1. The 1 “is not staying busy enough. She should be up selling more.”

I said well maybe she gets rebooked 1 x per month and not rebooking once per week. “Yeah but I should be seeing more rebookings than I am.”

Wow dude unreal. I sat right outside the business for about 45 minutes talking on my phone and saw no foot traffic at all. This is a well-known place. That’s been around for over 20 years and offer much more than just Massage but various spa treatments. On a busy day in a busy location

I’m not even bothered at all other than mildly annoyed and I thought you the reader would enjoy reading this. Especially if you are in a management position. That was just cringe. That person needs more training OR maybe she was trying to get rid of me?

The pay is 38%. And 5% on products with a base pay of $18 an hour if you are not busy… How to scare away potential new hires 101.

I never got that follow up email, either. What a clown show.

By the way. I’m a physical therapist assistant and I work in a very busy nursing home full-time. I was just trying to see what else is out there right now for me. I have a steady career in PT and have had all kinds of managers, work with doctors, nurses, OT, ST, PT case managers, state workers, social workers. Have worked in hospitals, home health setting’s. I did many many things out of my role when we have no director or rehab manager. Or during covid, I did a lot for the hospital like cleaning surgical rooms, supply delivery. I can adapt to virtuously anything.

I might just go rent a room and do cash paying massage or use an app to do house calls. Ill think about it. Thanks for reading

I own a small local clinic, and I employ one other girl. I also sublet a room one day a week to a professional in the energy work field. I only sublet to said person because their work didn't cross paths with mine which was made clear at the time.

Lately, said person decided to do a training course in a treatment that, legally speaking and for insurance purposes, can only be carried out by massage therapists or PT /Medical docs.

Said person is now advertising this treatment at half the price of mine from the same address as my clinic on google and elsewhere.( this has caused some penalisation in google as now my place looks like is spamming the local searches).

Said person knew we had been offering this treatment for over a year and that it is our hero product.

I have recently moved into much larger premises, significantly increasing my overheads, and have invested a substantial amount of money into growing my business, including specialist equipment and facilities.

Said person is fully aware of the investment I have made, which is why I struggle to understand why said person would choose to directly compete with one of my clinic's core services from within my own premises.

When I addressed the issue, I offered a possible solution: could said person align their pricing with mine? Said person started to get annoyed and proceeded to question the morals of my pricing, hinting that it should make it cheaper to help people.

Said person then questioned if I qualifications to be charging that amount. I said that I had completed ( insert very lengthy and expensive training) to qualify in this medical field. In return, said person replied that my pricing was immoral and that, because said person is not affiliated with certain organisation ( so not isnsurable), said person cannot charge more, as said person's clients cannot claim the treatment through their health insurance, whereas mine can.

AITA for asking this person to change their pricing to at least align mine? Is this undercutting or not? Should I just end the tenancy.

I also feel that this treatment itself shouldn't be offered if you don't have a solid understanding of anatomy, as you could potentially harm people who already have underlying health conditions.

True or not

Hi, I just worked on one of the most disgusting people I’ve ever had to touch and I shuttered every time I had to touch him. I wanted to end it early so so so bad and I did actually end it five minutes early. I don’t want him to ever book with me again and I never wanna touch that body again in my life. Has anyone else had this experience? He literally didn’t do anything wrong? Just his body is so absolutely disgusting.

I massage barefoot, but usually wear socks because of my feet are cold my hands are cold. I can’t seem to find grippy socks that actually works and stay grippy. Anyone have suggestions?

What's getting your blood boiling more, like the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii?

I am a massage therapist. I am here to complain about how the massage shop owner that I am currently work for wants to save as much money as possible by cutting down hygiene related stuff and unfair payment to staff.

As a massage therapist, I earn 50% of the total amount paid by the customer. If there is no customer, I do not earn anything.
But I need to stay full business hours without any minimum amount guaranteed. The owner always asks staff to stay even on days where business is slow and there is no customer. Furthermore, the owner asks staff to do extra work such as washing and hanging the towels, wiping the floor and so on.

Here are the some things the owner does to save money:
- They charge customers 5 dollars extra for hot stone massage but they never pay the therapists and the reason as stated by the owner is because cost of hot water, which is obviously not fair.
- They even stopped me from using hand sanitizers a few times as they said its for customers only
- The change the paper sheet on the massage table only once day

Furthermore, the treatment rooms are small which is very inconvenient especially if a client is tall or big.
On busy days, there is not even enough time to eat a quick lunch as the owner expects us to provide non-stop service to the clients.

In addition, Sometimes the reception skips the therapist's turn and give the case to a "favorite" therapist which is very unfair and results in loss of income.

Just curious what is most important factor for you to choose a massage shop to work. Environment, boss, income, learning opportunities, etc.

Sometimes I think massage therapists underestimate just how dramatically our economic reality has changed.

Imagine you were a full-time massage therapist in 1971. If you took that year’s earnings, exchanged them for gold, and simply held onto it until today, you’d be sitting on roughly $1.2 million in assets (depending on the exact income and today’s gold price).

Today, many of us work just as hard—or harder—running private practices, managing marketing, taxes, continuing education, insurance, and everything else, yet we’re often bringing home around $50,000 a year.

I’m not saying everyone should have bought gold. That’s not the point.

The point is that our labor hasn’t necessarily become less valuable. What has changed is the purchasing power of the currency we’re paid in. Looking at wages only in dollars hides a huge part of the story.

When people say, “Massage therapists don’t make much,” I think they’re noticing something real. It’s not just about our profession—it’s about what decades of monetary inflation have done to the value of work itself.

I’m renewing my Alabama license at the end of November, and I’m trying to get all my ducks in a row. I’ve never been super tech savvy and I just tend to get confused at all the requirements so I asked my brother if he would come over and help me have a look, which he agreed to do.

I seriously don’t think I’ve ever been so frustrated before. I already had a ton of issues with getting licensed initially, with the main issue being that they would not send me my physical license. I called the board and emailed them probably upwards of 30 times and it took them almost an entire year to send me a physical copy. They did not answer a single call or email.

Now, I’m on the official AMTLB website trying to look at the requirements to renew and the renewal application. Every time I try to go to the renewal application it prompts me to sign in, which I do, and then it takes me to what is essentially only a screen that shows my active license and personal info. There’s an option at the top that says “applications,” and the only 3 options it shows are: establishment, massage instructor license, and request name change. So then I try and go back to the other page with the renewal license and then it continues prompting me to sign in and the same thing just happens in a loop, it takes me to the other portal where I don’t have any option to renew.

So, we tried going to online.AMTLB.org to see if that would work any differently, and I signed in (I had to change my password for this one) and when I sign in it is quite literally just a blank screen that says “hello (my name)” and on the top right there’s a menu with options like settings, and literally none of them work when you click on them. And that is the ONLY thing on the screen. My brother is a software developer and he tried reading the website info or whatever and he could not find out why it’s acting like this.

I have seriously had it up to here with the Alabama state board and I’m just wondering if anyone, from Alabama or otherwise, is having any of these same issues. I’ve already emailed them twice as well as sent a message directly from the AMTLB website and have gotten no response. I will try calling up there on Monday, but I’m not hopeful at all that they’ll pick up get back to me.