personal trainer

line cook

camp counselor

swim instructor

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Merritt Clubs

Okay so listen. Merritt has good company values... for the members. Once you become an employee they could care less. They gave me minimal hours when I was promised 30 plus when hired and at minimum wage they cannot expect you to survive. They really expected me to drop everything in my life to help them when they offered me nothing. Like working every weekend....and at first I helped out. But after awhile I started saying no and that is when you start to see them dislike you. They expect you to do whatever they want. (beware of canton)
Oh, they also have favorites. Be a stickler for the rules and have a minimal but bright personality and they will love you. Be unique at all and they will certainly make sure they find problems with you.
The Club upper level management is sub par. They really only care about looks. They are super fake be forewarned. So you will most likely, like me, will hate working there. Upper level, above the clubs is better but still super judgmental. 
The lower level mangers at the club are super nice though. But the Club manager is a no. 
They expect you to stand there like a robot all 8 hours on your shift. It really should be more relaxed in culture. Because I find it unpersonable when front desk staff has no uniqueness to them.
Be prepared to be guilted in to something you DON'T want to do.  
Other gyms will pay you more and treat you better. 
The free membership is nice but they expect you to work for it, literally. 
Also everyone will run their mouths. Front desk, managers, life guards. So do not tell anyone anything. Even if you trust them. It will get back to you (sometimes) or they will just talk about it behind your back.  
I learned here that good management can really make or break the job because other than that I really liked the job. It nice interacting with the members! But some of them can be horrible and they expect you to let them treat you like bad. Trust me the members will complain when you tell them they cannot do something and it comes down on you. Overall they just pay nothing (experience doesn't matter btw, you will still get minimum wage. I had two years and that did nothing in their opinion) and expect you to be a robot.

Merritt has the potential to be so much greater than what it actually is. Many of the employees start off eager to become a part of such a well-renowned company but the culture and lack of support will quickly drain your passion. The turn-over rate is ridiculously high which does not help to establish the most cohesive teams. Management is horrible and very rarely held accountable for anything -even when it would be something that a regular employee would be immediately fired for. The workload does not match the payout for a large majority of the roles. Also, inclusiveness is a big issue. I’ve seen first hand many employees from the bottom up who do not treat everyone fairly from employees to members to potential members/prospects. Also, they do not do much continued education/training. The basis of most of the training is mostly regurgitated Merritt culture info (that most management doesn’t even follow) or motivational speeches versus actual career training that could be useful to individuals willing to grow within the field. Most onboarding processes are rushed and/or non-existent. People are thrown to the wolves on their first shifts and expected to just figure it out. Which also leads to the higher turn-over rates and lack of development and growth within the company.

Merritt is a wonderful athletic club. There are plenty of wonderful people here. They truly care about their members and the facilities are top notch. However, current management at Canton is not good. The manager is extremely passive aggressive towards employees when they do something he does not like. If he asks you to work an extra hour or two and you do not do it, don’t expect to get any shifts for a while. Also, he is not fair about how he chooses to promote people. It felt to me as if he preferred employees that were his own race and super bubbly/phony. He takes care of his own and if you don’t kiss his behind, you get no shifts and eventually he’ll find a way to get rid of you. That’s all. But like I said Merritt is great, just be wary of which location and which manager you choose to work under. As a side note, I did not see enough representation of minorities in company materials such as training videos. I did not like that either. HR also was always rude when I had problems with payroll. This is just my personal experience, apply go interview and see for yourself. 

This company is quite possibly one of the most disconnected from reality companies that I’ve experienced. They try to portray themselves as a high end company, however they utilize skeleton crews for everything. As a manager, you are expected to make it work. Even though, it literally can’t work due to the systems and procedures put in place by the upper management. This is the type of company that asks what your favorite color is and then “analyzes” your answer to determine your “mental motivations”… I’m not making this up, this is part of the process. 

As a manager, you’ll be expected to fill in for any employee that doesn’t show up. So as a manager, of course you’d want to get rid of said employee.  The problem is, the hiring process takes a minimum of 30 days… so you have to find coverage for those shifts for a minimum of 30 days while you are having applicants go through several group interviews. 

Tl:dr this is an extremely poorly run company that doesn’t care about work life balance, paying a living wage or practical business systems. This company is a joke

Great company to start at but don’t overstay your welcome. Management sucks and makes you not even want to come in or be there. The company culture is a joke as every club is run different and every GM does there own thing. Everyone like to make extra money but do not pick up extra shifts especially at other clubs you weren’t hired yet. Upper management does not care about you if they didn’t hire you, even though it’s all the same company you aren’t looked at as “their employee” you’ll always belong to the club you were hired at to them. Management also blatantly shows seniority over scheduling. Upper Management is the reason this company is no longer what it used to be. You’re expected to do so many other tasks for such little pay, it’s a joke. And then they spew that “universal soldier” tagline at you as if that should mean something. One more thing the turnover rate is abnormally high, I’m always meeting new employees so that right there says something. 

A typical day at the Merritt consists of intense focus and productions from both patrons and employees. I have learned that each location has its own special niche. It is very spectacular. Management does very well at attending to the patrons as well as the employees suggestions. They are very integral and dedicated to client satisfaction. The culture where I work and many other locations around the city are very high impact facilities. The ratio of client consistency and employee attendance is superb. The hardest job would be keeping the facility clean. However the facility makes sure you have enough cleaning supplies if needed. The comradely of the patrons as well as the free membership you get becoming a employee.

Working at Merritt has taught me a lot about a work culture of blaming the lowest person on the totem pole for the issues. There are countless issues that are occurring at this facility, but instead of taking ownership of the problems and trying to fix them, the problems are always blamed on someone else. 
Merritt will never run without issues until the entire company takes ownership of its problems. A lowly employee such as myself will never be able to fix the problems that funnel down to my level, because the issues arise at the top, with the managers. 
There is also way too much gossip that occurs with employees, not just low level staff, but managers as well. The people here will stab you in the back in a heartbeat, no questions asked.

The Aquatics Director at the White Marsh pool is a joke. She has no idea what she is doing, will ask for your availability to work and then schedule you for the days you specifically asked off. 
None of the Merritt pools follow MD law when it comes to closing the pools due to fecal matter. 
The guards and deck managers end up working an average of 8+ hours a day with zero breaks.
If anything goes wrong at Merritt the employees lowest on the totem pole get blamed. No one asks what happened, the managers only believe the patrons, and will always yell at and punish their employees.
Merritt is a terrible place to work! I do not recommend it to anyone!

What is the best part of working at the company?
Free membership to all Merritt locations.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being misinformed and misguided by upper management.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Favoritism is a major issue.  Create special positions for close friends and family but regular employees have no growth potential.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Continously being told to be the best part of the members day with limited tools to achieve this goal. Stuff is always broken or cheaply repaired.

As a manager, you have to pick up the slack for your employees. If they don’t show or call out, forget all of your other plans. You are also expected to work 45+ hours a week (without extra compensation). HR doesn’t do a thing about complaints towards management. There is very little help or support from upper management. It’s almost impossible to run your department while also working at the front desk and taking manager on duty shifts. The best part about the job was the other people that worked there (peers) and they had great health benefits for management.  

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Personal trainer 18 salaries reported	$40.00 per hour
Line cook 2 salaries reported	$17.25 per hour
Camp counselor 3 salaries reported	$16.50 per hour
Swim instructor 2 salaries reported	$23.50 per hour
Food runner 1 salary reported	$15.00 per hour

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