Pros
Free gym membership Some members are nice You have a job and a pay check If you are lucky and drink the kool aid you may move up
Cons
I find it amazing as I google this company all I read is how they are a 1 billion dollar company and how they are expanding everywhere, and also the pictures of the CEO Bahram with his narsisistic phony smile. If you have ever had the misfortune to work with this guy you'd know all he does is yell and scream and insult overweight people. You'd love to root for this rags to riches guy, but his arrogance and temper make it impossible. This goes additionally for his coat tail riding "yes men" that execute all of his orders, who's only talents seems to be enjoying hearing themselves give phoney speeches and mindless conference calls. Oh, if only people knew what goes on behind closed doors In this company , people would never join or buy their stock. The main reason for the success of life time fitness is in the way they exploit employees on the front lines. They prey of the weak and desparate then work them at low pay unti burn out. This cycle continues over and over. They operate 60+ mill clubs at bare minimum expenses so they can sell stock. Non-salary salespeople and trainers can also be factored in and salaried employes being stretched out over 60-70 hours per week. Also, this company nickel and dimes every expense from supplies to bonuses (which are incredibly difficult to achieve on purpose). One example is how they avoid parking lot cleaning by making it mandatory that employees pick up garbage while OFF shift. I witnessed an employee get written up for insubordination when demanding to get paid for cleaning the parking lot. It's amazing how this company takes every penny off the sweat of their employees backs and hands it to their #1 customer, the shareholder. This CEO #1 obession is to maximize shareholder wealth at all cost, period. If you think it's to create a "Healthy way of life" for members, work for him for a few months selling memberships or cleaning lockerrooms and you'll see his true intentions. While as a manager with this company I've seen things that I've only heard about in factories in 3rd world countries. Overworked and underpaid and no life balance just for starters (7 days PTO a year?). I could go on and on, they build big beautiful clubs then pay the minimum of wages to operate it. Then break every EEOC and labor law imaginable, and do so with cold, calculating and arrogant intent. I've witnessed good hard working people who were disparate for work, making minimum wage, cleaning toilets, thrown to the curb for the most trivial of reasons, including being overweight and/or not speaking clear English. Yes, I'm ashamed to admit it, but for a short time, I drank the kool aid also. I could recite the mission and vision without hesitation, but eventually I woke up, like the others who have written about this company on Glassdoor. This is because you don't see it at first but after a while, when the smiles turn to anger, the true face of Life Time Fitness slowly emerges. If you don't fit their model you are squeezed to quit or thrown in the laundry room to fold hundreds of towels a day. The laundry room is where they hide the undesirables. This company is the equivalent of the Christler Motor Co. pretending to be Mercedes Benz. In reality, Life Time Fitness is a glorified LA Fitness, it's too bad the unuspected members paying $200+ a month doesnt know it yet. But as the economy continues to struggle and folks start to see through the LTF facade of smoke and mirrors, they'll spend their money somewere else. It's only a matter of time..... "You can only fool some of the people some of the time" How this company has not been slapped with a class action lawsuit as of yet, I have no idea but if they continue to abuse the people who create their paper empire, it will happen soon and their "Healthy way of life" motto will be exposed for the lie that it is.
