I've stood up (when I was like 8, I think) and said "No, don't tear that house down to make a parking lot, just move it somewhere so someone else can live in it!" or something along those lines. I had this heart-pumping, scared in the gut but I gotta say something feeling.
Eh, they tore it down anyway.
I quit my job when they accused my best friend and co-worker of stealing from the business. She didn't deserve that attitude and it felt wrong to be there after that.
Eh, they had replacements for both of us within the hour.
I could bore you with short stories of what I feel is important in this world, but I won't.
Instead I'll start the latest story about massage, art, and Massage Envy. (Which I am also choosing not to link to because I don't care that much and if you want to go visit one, then you're on your own to find it.)
1. I take great pride in my hands and what I can do with them - carving, painting, shadow puppets and massage.
2. I'm continually fascinated by the human body and what it can do.
3. I loathe 'hot-stone' massages as a way for a spa to up-sell a ridiculous 'treatment' for people who are willing to pay for it when all it does is burn my hands so I can't give an effective massage in the end.
4. I believe in damn good customer service. To a point. There are some customers that should be shot & drowned, but since I don't believe in shooting & drowning I just ignore them till they go away. But for everyone else I've ever dealt with I do my damndest to make sure they're taken care of. (See also: People Pleaser)
~
Let me begin by saying they contacted me. Massage Envy promotes the availability of massages at mid-rand prices. The local one opened several months ago and has sent out postcards to area licensed therapists to ask if they want a job. I got a card and ignored it. I heard the rumors in the massage community, that they work a therapist hard for low compensation.
So I recently got a phone call from someone in their office who tried her hardest to sell me on coming to work for them. I said I'd come check it out and we'd see from there.
I wandered in, introduced myself, got the "Look how pretty our offices are and how nice the rooms are!" tour. It's nice. It's very nice. It's a great set-up, if they actually had the therapists to fill the rooms. But they don't and that's why I was one of the therapists they called.
Low pay. Sure, they'll clean the sheets and book the appointments and provide the lotions, but I would have to give a Deep Tissue Massage to anyone who wanted one for $39 bucks.
HaHa.
(I'm not really laughing here, just so you know.)
It's corporate. It's all pressed pants and polo shirts and 'same-same' so every client gets the same treatment in a familiar place no matter which Massage Envy they go to.
I have a hard time with that too. About as much as the silliness of hot stones. But that's another story/rant.
When she told me I'd have to cover my tattoo? That was the deal breaker. I got the scared in my gut but I gotta say something feeling and I said "Thank you, but I like my body art and don't want to cover it. Goodbye."
See? This tattoo is on my wrist. It says "Respiri", which means "Breathe", "Spirit", "Inspiration" - Inspire: to provoke ideas and to draw breath in. (It's a multi-functional tattoo that way.)
Breathing is essential for massage. Something that's said quite often, really. To cover this up in a place that promotes massage and relaxation would be just plain wrong.
That and it looks so much more silly to put a band-aid over a tattoo or like the girl at the front desk, her nose ring. Many therapists enjoy and encourage alternative lifestyles because they feel something different in this human shell than most do. So let them. Let us.
5. I'm not covering up my body art or putting hot rocks on your back. But I'll get those knots out and show you how to breathe easier. And that's all I really want in return.
~
3 comments:
You have made a decision to alter your body. that was your decision. An employer has the right not to offend customers who fing tatoos & piercings offensive or just plain nuts. that too is the customers right to feel that way.
Decisions always have consequences. tatoos & piercing decisions seldom have positive consequences. Your choice-good decisions, good consequences. bad decisions, bad consequences. Your choice.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on body alterations here, Freddy O. Are you a doctor? A specialist in some field I should know about?
Yes, an employer has the right to dictate what they want from their employees in exchange for that paycheck.
And I have the right to say I don't want to work on someone because I'm uncomfortable or they offend me.
But I'm not going to discriminate against someone in pain just because they choose to smoke or choose to be unhealthy or choose an ugly hairstyle or choose to preach their religious beliefs or choose to use bad grammar and poor spelling.
If they choose to continue to be in pain rather than have me work on them because I choose to have body art, then that should be their choice to make, not someone preemptively saying "You might offend someone.
Thus I chose to continue to exercise my right to make my own choices.
I've seen a few people whose tattoos were so overt or menacing that I couldn't help but be distracted by them. But yours seems to be neither.
Sounds like you made the right choice to avoid working for that company. Seems like they're trying to Starbucks-ize something that can't - or maybe just shouldn't - be.
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